When thinking of the impact the Junior Achievement (JA) Discovery Center of Greater Dalton has made on the community and beyond in just under three years, Caroline Frost, the director of volunteer partnerships and experience for the Junior Achievement of Georgia, kept her response simple.
“I am proud,” she said.
Since opening in March 2021, the JA Discovery Center on the campus of Hammond Creek Middle School at 328 Pleasant Grove Drive has served thousands of students, teachers and visitors. The 15,000-square-foot facility contains an immersive “town” where middle school students can learn about financial responsibility, gain entrepreneurial skills and utilize budget and planning through local career pathways.
Local businesses and organizations represented as storefronts inside the facility include Shaw Industries, Marketing Alliance Group, Builtwell Bank, Ford of Dalton, the United Way of Northwest Georgia, Chick-fil-A, Dalton State College, Hamilton Health Care System, Engineered Floors, Georgia United Credit Union, Textile Rubber and Chemical Co., Georgia Northwestern Technical College, Starr Mathews Insurance, Alliant Health Plans and National Plumbing Service. On Tuesday, the center welcomed Mohawk Industries as its latest storefront with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
“The JA Discovery Center of Greater Dalton opened really as a joint collaboration between all of the businesses that you see here and Junior Achievement of Georgia,” Frost said. “At the time we opened, we were one of four in the state of Georgia. We were the smallest at the time and the first to open outside of a metro region, so that’s something that we’re really proud of and that was a national recognition.”
Since the Dalton location opened, two more discovery centers have opened in Savannah and Evans.
“Each one…
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