On Sunday, Nov. 13, the clothing designs of a parishioner of St. Jude the Apostle Church, Sandy Springs, were displayed at a “Pure Fashion” Show.

Local designer Marisa Pereira crafted the look of the outfits. The work is called the Michaela-Noel clothing collection.

Designer Pereira’s vision is to give teenagers and women styles to wear to church and special events. A goal is to grow the availability of stylish and modest clothing.

Approximately 35 girls modeled in the show, representing 19 parishes and 10 non-Catholic church communities. It took place at St. Thomas More Church, Decatur.

“Pure Fashion” is a faith-based program that teaches modesty and purity while helping girls live out lives of virtue.

It took 83 volunteers, 4,032 landscaping stones, 52 cubic yards of garden soil, 72 pizzas from Frankie’s Italian Ristorante and Pizza to feed volunteers to complete the project at the BJ Crafton Women’s Center in Marietta.

And in the end, the work crews completed constructing the raised-beds vegetable garden for the women’s residential recovery center.

Boy Scout Henry Tucker organized the effort as part of a community project for his Eagle Scout award. Tucker is a spirit team leader with the Life Teen ministry at the Church of St. Ann in Marietta. He is also a member of Troop 75 at Transfiguration Church in Marietta.

His fund-raising efforts raised some $16,800 the cash and donations to complete the project.

The BJ Crafton Center is a 20-bed recovery facility for women to break drug addictions.

The groundbreaking took place in April. The dedication and blessing of the garden was held on Sept. 17. More than 50 people celebrated the occasion. Father Tom Reilly of St. Ann Church blessed the garden.

It took more than 1,150 service hours to complete what Tucker called his “Field of Dreams” project.

“The 83 volunteers made it happen. It didn’t matter if they came out for a couple of hours or all day. We couldn’t have built it without them. I am so thankful for their service,” said Tucker.

The garden is made up of nine raised-beds. The ladies of the center have planted and successfully harvested lettuces, radishes, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kale, cabbage, collard greens, and more.

Ashleigh Hally, a fourth-grade teacher at Immaculate Heart of Mary School, became very familiar with three legends of American history.

Biographies of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln or Eleanor Roosevelt for first-grade reading level did not exist until now.

She recently published three first-grade biographies that meet the state education standards for social studies in Georgia and Virginia.

Hally managed to finish the books and teach, while also juggling her duties as a wife and a mom. She wrote in the evenings and on weekends, and took her oldest daughter with her on research trips.

Hally has worked at the school for five years.

“I feel that being a teacher and a writer feed each other. I know what students and teachers need. Whether I’m teaching or writing, I want children to feel proud of themselves when they can read on their own and learn something,” said Hally.

Hally has been pursuing a career as a writer for the last four years. She is working on a series of six biographies about women icons in Georgia history, including Rosalynn Carter and Coretta Scott King. These books will be for second-graders and are scheduled to be released next spring.

Hally plans to keep on writing while teaching.

Knights of Columbus Council 4599, which is at St. Joseph Church, Marietta, was presented with the distinction of Star Council, one of the organization’s top awards, for 2010-2011.

“Receiving the Star Council Award is quite an honor for us. We are extremely proud of this accomplishment,” said Steve Jamell, past leader of the council.

The award recognizes overall excellence in the areas of membership recruitment and retention, promotion of the fraternal insurance program, and sponsorship of service activities.

The award was presented to the membership by Mark McMullen, state council treasurer, at a special ceremony held on Sunday, Nov. 6. Also present were Anthony Rivieri, state council program director, and Josh Gregory, district deputy.

The parishioners of St. Monica Church, Duluth, and the Knights of Columbus donated an ultrasound machine to the Pregnancy Resource Center of Walton.

The presentation of the ultrasound machine was made on Wednesday, Nov. 9, at the center, located in Monroe.

The machine costs more then $33,000. Half of the money was raised within St. Monica with its Knights of Columbus council and was then matched by the Knights of Columbus Supreme Headquarters.

Attending the presentation were Mary Boyert, archdiocesan director of the Respect Life Ministry; David Canale, Knights of Columbus state pro-life director; Mike Boden, Knights of Columbus district director; Ron Simard, Grand Knight, Knights of Columbus Council 12883. Center representatives at the presentation included Yvonne Genest, executive director; Mary Madani, chairman, board of directors; Carol Jelke, member of the board of directors; Terry Queen, board member and president, Walton County Right to Life; and Miriam Nelson, nurse manager.

The St. Monica’s Knights Council is currently raising additional monies to fund another ultrasound machine for a pregnancy center in the Atlanta area.