Over the space of an eventful week around the nation, local people and organizations have continued to serve the public with a variety of "Peach-worthy" activities. We'd like to recognize some of them now:

Peaches to Katrina Spires, the wife of a Tifton police officer who is organizing a teddy bear drive so that officers will have a way to calm children who are involved in accidents or other stressful events. Beginning Oct. 13, Spires will place collection bins for the stuffed animals at the City Complex, City Hall, The Medicine Shoppe, Affordable Rx Solutions, The Tifton Gazette and the Tifton Police Department. She hopes to have the teddy bears in patrol cars by the first of the year.

Peaches also to Gail Fleming, Sybil Oglesby and other members of the Breast Cancer Awareness Foundation for their work with the group's annual fundraiser: an auction and quilt raffle. The auction will be Thursday, Oct. 9, at the Georgia Agrirama and will offer theater tickets, spa packages, gift baskets, trips and more items to benefit local breast cancer patients who need help paying for special supplies or living expenses.

Members of the foundation are cancer survivors who seek to help others through a difficult experience.

And finally, a big basket of peaches for Gary Hester, a gospel musician and literacy instructor who is donating profits from his first CD to raise money to help men in continuing education classes at the Day Reporting Center pay for GED tests.

Hester says the test's $95 price tag is one reason why people who don't have equivalency degrees do not get them, and he hopes to make a difference in some of his students' lives. The CD is available at Cornerstone Christian Bookstore or by calling Kimberly Hester at 686-9894.