All right.

Good evening, everyone.

Welcome to our Cobb County Board of Commissioners meeting this September twenty third, two thousand and twenty-five.

He will be providing our invocation, which will be followed by the pledge.

Staff in all who participate in this meeting.

Grant them clarity of my unity of spirit and integrity of heart as they make decision that impact the life of Sumani.

Bless the families of those who serve and bless the people of Cal County with peace, safety, and prosperity.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

And to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

Our meeting is now called to order, and I do want to recognize some special guests that we have here from the Georgia Symphony Orchestra.

And I have been told that they would like to play our anthem, yeah, national anthem for us.

So if you don't mind, we will have this diversion.

That was beautiful, and you're welcome back.

Make that a part of our regular meeting.

Thank you so much.

Don't go too far.

I understand you'll be back in our program.

But first, we do have a number of presentations before us.

And the first one is to present a proclamation to Goodwill of North Georgia.

For those of you who are here as a part of that presentation, please join Commissioner Allen up front.

So today we want to honor Goodwill.

Goodwill has fostered hope, opportunity, and community strength for over 100 years.

In Cobb County alone, Goodwill operates nine retail stores and a career center, continuing its strong tradition of service.

Across North Georgia, Goodwill runs 70 stores, 14 career centers, and 40 donation centers employing more than 3600 people.

Thanks to Goodwill, more than 40 million pounds of material are diverted from landfills every year.

The Smyrna Career Center alone has helped 20,000 plus Cobb residents secure meaningful employment, where they offer specialized programs for entrepreneurs, high school students, veterans, and individuals with disabilities.

So we, the Cobb County Board of Commissioners, proclaim September 23rd as goodwill of North Georgia Day in Cobb County.

Thank you.

If you'd like to say a few words, sure, you stole all my thunder, though.

But I always start these presentations by first saying thank you to uh Madam Commissioner and the rest of the county commission board.

Thank you so much for this opportunity for us to come out.

But I always start these presentations by asking how many of you have shopped at or donated to a goodwill?

It's always it's always the case.

But most don't know what we do with the prophets.

We we take the profits from what is now one of the largest retail operations in the state.

We're actually bigger than Target in the state of Georgia.

And we use those profits for workforce development.

We are the most successful workforce development nonprofit, arguably in the entire United States of America.

That we have just about 200 full-time people working every single day to help people, primarily those with barriers, to get to work.

And we've been extremely successful at it.

Over the last eight years, we've helped over 125,000 North Georgians find jobs.

And more importantly, we've helped 80% of those, almost of 80%, are working in working class, uh working class jobs, where they're moving up.

And our approach is we call the ABC approach of a job, a better job, and onto a career.

Our economic impact on the state of Georgia now approaches a billion dollars.

And we are helping people with disabilities, people coming out of the criminal justice system, and just folks who are looking for a way to improve their lives.

So thank you, Cobb County.

Thank you so much for this wonderful honor.

We look forward to another.

We are we our store in Cobb County, our oldest door is 28 years old.

We're looking forward to reaching 30 years with you all and tens of thousands of more people helping put them to work.

So thank you very much.

All right, here we go.

Gotcha, thank you.

And did our youth musicians leave?

They left.

Oh no.

Well, we so appreciated them playing for us tonight.

So it is with great honor that I get to give this proclamation to you, whereas the Georgia Symphony Orchestra serves an integral part of Cobb County's cultural fabric, enriching the lives of residents through exceptional performances, community engagement, and a commitment to ensuring music is accessible to all.

And whereas, since its founding in 1951, the GSO has united professional musicians, volunteers, and supporters to deliver world-class symphonic, jazz, and choral music experiences that inspire, connect, and uplift our community.