Community
Pets and their People
It has been a trying year, to say the least. Unprecedented circumstances have forced us to stay inside and stay apart to stay safe. Many of us have relied on the love of our pets when there hasn’t been much else that feels stable right now.
Through these challenging times, our pets understand us. They can sense when we’re feeling down and they can even mend a broken heart.
Mister Rogers taught us that in times of turmoil, we should look for the helpers.
The helpers at PetSuites
PetSuites offers dog and kitty boarding, training and daycare. General Manager Jo Lynn McGhee, proud pet-mom of a Basset Hound and a Pug-mix, couldn’t help but gush over her loving staff. She maintained that in these trying times, “pets are essential.”
PetSuites is here for the community to take care of “the babies,” as McGhee calls them, when we can’t. The business was named essential by the county and kept open during the quarantine for front line workers and other essential business owners to drop off their pets whenever they needed.
It’s comforting to know that while nurses and doctors are working so hard for us, PetSuites is working hard to see that their babies feel right at home. “The team cares about the love of pets and proper care,” McGhee said. “They have the TV on Animal Planet during the day and will even take shifts going to sit with a baby just to be with them.”
She looked back at confusion earlier in the year and remembered taking in pets for the long term when a resident’s house burnt down, or when people had fallen ill from the pandemic and had to bring their babies in until they got better.
McGhee recalled one family that brought in an older dog when they could no longer care for him; one of her team members ended up adopting the dog and taking him home.
But the most heartwarming story of all occurred when McGhee’s mother fell ill during the time of COVID. Her mother was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells. McGhee was saddled with the unfortunate task of rehoming her mother’s three dogs.
Eventually, the doctors were able to stop the disease from spreading, McGhee said, and “in the end, we were able to get her babies back to her, which was really special to me. She is doing so much better now.”
The positive power of pets
Peachtree Corners resident Susan Highsmith had a similar situation with her mother. For Highsmith, and most people would agree, COVID-19 has been a topsy-turvy experience.
She first realized the power of pets when her mother was living in an assisted living home. Highsmith wanted to do something special for her mother that included the family’s dogs that her mother is so fond of — her two Schnauzers and her daughter’s Whippet.
So she organized the “Pets and Peeps Parade” for residents of a local assisted living home. She brought together residents’ families, as well as the community at large, to give the elder residents a bit of cheer.
Some residents were brought outside and socially distanced while others watched from inside through the windows. The families paraded by with their pets in costumes. There was music, balloons, decorations and signs of love. The Sandy Springs Fire Department also joined in to show their support.
Highsmith chuckled, remembering how one woman didn’t have a pet, so she dressed up a stuffed animal dog and gave the crowd a good laugh!
After the assisted living home went into full lockdown, her mother’s health worsened. She lost more than 30 pounds and was sleeping for 22 hours a day; ultimately, she was diagnosed with orthostatic hypotension, a condition in which a person’s blood pressure drops when they stand up or sit down.
Highsmith made the decision to bring her mother home so she could be with her family, including the two Schnauzers. She got a bed through a hospice service and set up a bedroom in what was once her dining room. She really thought her mother was nearing the end.
But then something miraculous happened — her mother started to get better almost immediately. “She loves my two dogs; they sit by her bed constantly and they give her hope,” Highsmith said. “When we brought her home, we thought she was dying, and now she is coming back to life.”
Her mother is sleeping less, gaining weight and is expected to make a full recovery. The dogs not only helped her mother, but they helped Highsmith and her family through those sad days when they didn’t think her mother was going to pull through.
Pets — and people — have the power to help
McGhee pointed out that pets offer healing in many ways. Besides offering love, they keep us on a routine even when everything is falling apart around us. They get us up and out of the house even when we don’t want to go.
“They don’t have a bad day,” she said. “They play and do something funny that can always get a laugh out of us no matter how bad our day has been.”
During the current pandemic, Highsmith and McGhee have seen that the power of pets can get us through. But more importantly, both of them made decisions to be helpers and reach out to fellow community members in need. They’ve shown us that we can look for the helpers, like Mister Rogers taught us, or we can choose to be the helpers.
Annual multi-genre convention celebrating Japanese anime, American animation, comics and gaming sets new record with 59,222 attendees
— Article updated May 29, 2025
Atlanta welcomed nearly 60,000 fans of cosplay, comics, gaming, anime and music over the four-day Memorial Day weekend — all meeting up at the Georgia World Congress Center to celebrate MomoCon 2025 and its 20th year in the city.
One of the fastest growing, all-ages conventions in the country, this year’s numbers topped the 56,000 guests that attended in 2024, and was estimated by the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau to have a $42.2 million impact on the metro area.
Equally important, the buzzing enthusiasm and pure joy of the weekend, from both attendees and featured guests, was unmatched. Everyone seemed to be having an incredible time. And plans are already in the works for an even more impressive — and expanded — MomoCon experience in 2026.
Organizers say they are expanding into both Hall A and Hall B next year, increasing the total space to a massive 1,045,178 square feet for exhibits and gaming. The team is already hard at work planning amazing new guests and activities for MomoCon’s 21st year.
Registration for next year’s event is already open, with early-bird discounts for fans who want to lock their passes in early.
Giving back to the community
In addition to the money brought into the city and to the convention itself, MomoCon chooses a charity each year in which to support with donations. Funds are raised through sales of specialty merchandise and custom events that have donation elements built in.
The 2025 official charity was the Johnson STEM Activity Center. MomoCon raised more than $5,000 for the center and contributed an additional $7,500 in matching funds, bringing the total donation to $12,500. MomoCon organizers also worked with 11 Atlanta-area, youth-serving nonprofits to give back by bringing more than 900 kids in need to the convention.
Nonprofits receiving tickets this year included Scouting America, Horizons Atlanta, ReImagine ATL, the New Media Education Foundation of Georgia, Purpose Possible, Lekotek, Focus, Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Atlanta, Wellroot Family Services and the YMCA.
Fan-favorite comic book artists
Comic book artists (and original members of the former Atlanta-based Gaijin Studios), Cully Hamner and Brian Stelfreeze made their first appearances at MomoCon this year, invited to attend and show off their work in the Artist Alley.
Fans lined up to meet them, along with fellow award-winning artist and longtime friend, Wade von Grawbadger, to get photos, autographs and artwork and spend a few minutes chatting with the guys.
Hamner talked briefly about an upcoming project, “Ruby Actual” that he’s doing with Greg Rucka. “Not sure when it will come out,” he said, “But we’re hoping first quarter 2026.”
In the meantime, comic fans can continue to enjoy his previous work — the acclaimed, creator-owned RED (which was adapted into two films), the current Blue Beetle (also adapted to film) and all of the other work he’s done for DC, Marvel and other publishers over the last 30 years.
They can also look forward to his return to MomoCon in the future if schedules work out.
“This has been a lot of fun,” Hamner said on Sunday, the last day of the convention. “I’d love to come back if they invite me again.”
Stelfreeze agreed. “I enjoyed [MomoCon],” he said. “I really liked seeing the younger audience.”
That definitely seemed true on Sunday, as the crowds had thinned out some and Stelfreeze had more time to hang out and talk with people who stopped by the Essential Sequential booth. With some fans, he spent ten minutes or more discussing art, comics and other topics, and even came out from behind the table at times to meet people and say hi to old friends.
Featured guests
Other featured guests also drew long lines of fans who were eager to meet their favorite creators.
Darryl McDaniels (from RunDMC and now a comic book and children’s book author), Greg Burnham (Norcross-based comic book writer known for his indie comic hits), Reed Shannon and Mick Wingert (voice actors and stars of Netflix’s “Arcane”), Ryō Horikawa (Japanese voice of Vegeta in “Dragon Ball Z”), veteran voice actor and producer, Chris Sabat, and online personalities such as Damien Haas were just a few of the standouts.
In fact, as the convention was winding down on Sunday afternoon, Haas’ fan line was still so long, the crowd filled multiple rows of the cordoned-off autograph area, both inside and outside of his designated line.
A full list of 2025 celebrity guests can be found here.
New for 2025
While most of the fun features of MomoCon 2025 were returning favorites — Artist Alley, Exhibitor’s Hall, panels, movie screenings and the cosplay showcase —convention organizers kept things fresh with a new theme (‘90s Retro) and a few new highlights, including a skating rink, an expanded online gaming area and the return of the“Bring Your Own Computer” space.
Workshops on everything from miniature painting and D&D to Gunpla modeling, as well as live performances and a massive vendor area and fan car showcase rounded out the exciting weekend.
Though tired from a whirlwind weekend of geek culture camaraderie and large (but super friendly) crowds, we can’t wait to see what MomoCon has in store for 2026.
For more about MomoCon, visit momocon.com.
More moments from 2025; photos courtesy of MomoCon
Although crime isn’t on the rise, and the Gwinnett County Police Department (GCPD) is fulfilling its role in fighting crime, the City of Peachtree Corners is asking residents, business owners and city stakeholders if they believe the city should form its own police department.
With over 100 people in attendance, City Manager Brian Johnson led the discussion about the future of policing in Peachtree Corners. He presented the findings from a survey conducted by the Center for Public Safety Management (CPSM), a nationally-recognized law enforcement consulting and training firm, as well as information about patrol officer staffing, response times, costs to tax payers and a potential timeline.
Ensuring public safety
Johnson kicked off his presentation by explaining that it is the duty of the mayor and city council to ensure public safety, including reviewing law enforcement.
“Maybe it needs to grow, maybe it needs to change its focus. But city council is the one that has the decision-making responsibility,” he said.
He was also adamant that this isn’t a done deal.
“I hit this point already, but I want to hit it again. This is the start of a conversation, a community conversation and feedback to council. There hasn’t been a decision,” he said. “Council has not received this presentation from me. They’re here to watch and learn from your feedback of this.”
Mayor Mike Mason was present at the meeting, along with all of the city council members except Eric Christ who was out of town and watching remotely.
Issues and obstacles
Johnson explained that the grounds for the inquiry were based on issues about communication, access to information and enforcement of city-specific ordinances. He cited an example where a city rule that private residences can’t be rented on a short-term basis like Vrbo or Airbnb wasn’t enforced by GCPD. An owner tried to circumvent the ordinance by only renting the outside of the house. A loud pool party ensued, and frustrated neighbors dialed 911.
“Officers showed up and they said, ‘We can’t enforce the city’s noise ordinance,’” Johnson said.
The first stage to fix this problem was creating the marshal program to bridge the gap between code enforcement and GCPD.
“[We thought] they would be able to enforce both local ordinance and state law, since they are a function of the city, and they could maybe be a force multiplier for Gwinnett since [marshals] don’t have to respond to 911 calls,” said Johnson.
But other issues arose shortly after the department was formed.
“We were still working towards getting that good balance, but we have been faced recently with a couple of things that make it harder for us,” said Johnson.
Seeking shared access
Instead of GCPD giving PTC marshals read-only, quick access to incident reports, dispatch calls and other information, the marshals department was required to file open records requests through the same process as any civilian.
“They were denied, as well as the city of Sugar Hill, [when] asked for the ability to see, not change, but see the computer-aided dispatch information, so that they would know where Gwinnett County police officers were; so that they could avoid stepping on their toes or maybe looking to support their efforts, and they haven’t been granted that,” said Johnson.
He added that the GCPD has video cameras on certain roadways that are used for various reasons, and law enforcement can use them when there’s crime in the area. Peachtree Corners marshals were denied access to those cameras.
“Conversely, we have a couple hundred cameras in the city, and we definitely want them to have access to them,” said Johnson. “So the frustration out of not being able to get that symbiosis between the marshals and police made us start thinking, all right, you know, is there another option?”
Community feedback
CPSM utilized data from GCPD to discern if Peachtree Corners could feasibly stand its own force. It also took into consideration crime trends, costs and many other factors. It recommended a 55-officer department, costing $12.1 million annually, with a $2.2 million upfront cost.
Comparing the two options to “renting vs. owning” the primary law enforcement agency in the city, Johnson presented pros and cons for each. Once the question-and-answer portion began, there was no obvious choice. Men and women, young and more advanced in age, had both similar and differing opinions.
One young man, who identified himself as a local small business owner named Alexander, argued that with artificial intelligence increasing the efficiency of administrative tasks, perhaps the city wouldn’t need a full 68-man department of civilians and sworn officers.
Some accused the city of devising a solution in need of a problem. Others were concerned that paying approximately $100,00 for a study was throwing good money after bad.
But at the end of it all, the city is continuing to seek feedback and is encouraging everyone to make informed decisions. The meeting was taped and is available on the city website along with Johnson’s PowerPoint presentation, a copy of the study done by CPSM and a survey.
As far as a timeline goes, city officials would like folks to take the summer to mull it over and come back in the fall to take another look at the proposal.
From Boardrooms to the Himalayas: Vandana’s Journey to Purpose and Growing with Intention [Podcast]
Guardians of the Jukebox to Play the VoxStage on May 31
Brandon Branham Honored for Transformative Leadership in Peachtree Corners
“Geek Culture” Shines at 2025 MomoCon
Music Matters Productions Expands Peachtree Corners Headquarters
Celebration and Community: ICAGeorgia Wraps Up School Year with Two Festive Events
Vox-Pop-Uli Launches RED Initiative for Veterans’ Support
The PCBA Awards $500 to Light Up The Corners at After-Hours Event
Vox-Pop-Uli Launches RED Initiative for Veterans’ Support
The PCBA Awards $500 to Light Up The Corners at After-Hours Event
“Geek Culture” Shines at 2025 MomoCon
Celebration and Community: ICAGeorgia Wraps Up School Year with Two Festive Events
Guardians of the Jukebox to Play the VoxStage on May 31
Music Matters Productions Expands Peachtree Corners Headquarters
Brandon Branham Honored for Transformative Leadership in Peachtree Corners
From Boardrooms to the Himalayas: Vandana’s Journey to Purpose and Growing with Intention [Podcast]
Light up the Corners [Video]
Capitalist Sage: Business Leadership in Your Community [Podcast]
Cliff Bramble: A Culinary Adventure through Italy
Top 10 Brunch Places in Gwinnett County
A Hunger for Hospitality
THE CORNERS EPISODE 3 – BLAXICAN PART 1
Top 10 Indoor Things To Do This Winter
The ED Hour: What it takes to Remove Barriers from Education
