GWA and Delta Air Lines Promote

Georgia Grown Watermelon!

3rd Annual Event!

GWA Promotes Watermelons with the Atlanta Braves

On JUNE 30th & JULY 1st, 2011 GWA will be handing out over 3,000 watermelon samples to park patrons!      

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Hello from Georgia!

Our season has begun, and our Queen Jenna Saxon is working hard to promote Georgia Watermelon and our Georgia Watermelon Association.  We began in March at a Harvey's Grand opening in Hahira.  Harvey's supports local farmers in Georgia, and have been a great supporter of our Georgia watermelons.  We enjoy working closely with Harvey's through in-store promotions.

We attended our Annual Cordele Fish Fry in Atlanta, GA at The Freight Depot.  This is a grand event that The Cordele Chamber of Commerce hosts for our Georgia Legislators at the beginning of session every year to show Cordele's appreciation to our Georgia representatives.  This is an event that is looked forward to year after year.  Fried catfish, grits and a lot of laughter is guaranteed at this event.  Cordele is known as the Watermelon capitol of the world, and The Cordele Chamber does a great job supporting Georgia watermelon.

Our next promotion in the month of March was the Ag-Awareness Kick-Off Celebration in Atlanta at The Freight Depot.  The Georgia Watermelon Association and Queen Jenna handed out watermelon at our booth to locals and 4H students.  Several of Georgia's commodities display their products for the public to sample.  The Taste of the South is also held during this event promoting Georgia Grown.  Miss Jenna enjoyed talking to the 4H students about the healthy benefits of watermelon.  This day held a special importance to Jenna since she has been involved in 4H her entire life.

From Atlanta Queen Jenna headed to Orlando, Florida to the Florida Watermelon Convention.  This was Jenna's first out of state convention, and she couldn't have been welcomed to a warmer watermelon family than the FWA.  Thank you to everyone that treated Jenna so special.

We joined Harvey's again in Grey, Georgia for an in-store promotion helping Harvey's with a charity supporting Grey's local schools.  For every customer that joined Harvey's Rewards program, they each were able to select a local school that received a dollar for every new Rewards Customer.  Jenna enjoyed helping Harvey's support the local school system of Grey.

In April we were off to Miami, Florida to join all the state queens, coordinators and NWPB staff.  Again, NWPB blew us a away with watermelon knowledge.  NWPB hosts an annual education weekend for the new state queens to learn everything about our product needed for their upcoming year.  We discussed everything from TV etiquette, to proper dress code, to handling the public with the proper answers on watermelons.  This education is greatly appreciated by the state queens, and put to use throughout their year of promoting watermelon.

In May Miss Jenna attended the Sutherland's Food Show at The Georgia State Farmers' Market in Forrest Park, Georgia.  The Sutherland family distributes food to local school cafeterias, nursing homes, hospitals, to name a few.  Each year the Sutherland family hosts an appreciation food show and our Georgia Queen is always in the spot light to help with the daily activities.

We want to thank Leger and Son for sponsoring us to the Annual Piggly Wiggly Show in Birmingham, Alabama.  This particular show is filled with excitement from Piggly Wiggly employees and distributors.  We enjoy having Chef Poon join us.  If you know Chef Poon, you know excitement is in the air.  The Leger and Son booth is a favorite at this show because of our watermelon queen and Chef Poon.  Watermelon are at the top of everyone's minds while they are at this show.  We appreciate Joel Inman for his kind hospitality.  Leger and Son are loyal supporters to our queen and we appreciate being invited to the Piggly Wiggly Show annually.

Our first visit in June was with Darren Deal and Siegers Seed at the Field Trial that was held in Tifton, Georgia.  Miss Jenna enjoyed her education in the fields with Siegers.  The knowledge she has learned will be carried with her throughout the year while explaining "how a seedless became a seedless" or "how do you pick a good watermelon"?  We appreciate being included in this field trial and all the support from our board member Darren Deal and Siegers Seed Company.

We are looking forward to many more promotions throughout this season.  If you would like to sponsor Miss Jenna Saxon to an event to promote your watermelons, please let me know.  She is eager to work as hard as she can supporting Georgia watermelon!

Sincerely,

Julie Akins

Georgia Watermelon Association

Promotion Coordinator

770.842.3309

akinsjulie1@windstream.net