[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 13017]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         JUDY WATERS RETIREMENT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Georgia (Mr. Woodall) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WOODALL. Mr. Speaker, I come often to this floor to talk about 
community and service and the notion that, if we work to put a little 
less emphasis on figuring out how to control people from Washington, 
D.C., and a little more emphasis on trying to serve one another back 
home in our communities, that America will be moved in the right 
direction.
  Mr. Speaker, I come today to have that same discussion and to put a 
face on that conversation. For me, in north Georgia, Mr. Speaker, that 
face is Judy Waters.
  Mr. Speaker, in 1979, Judy Waters was known as the best hairdresser 
in all of Snellville. By the end of 1979, she was known as the first 
female ever elected to the Snellville City Council, and her path of 
service continued from there.
  Mr. Speaker, for more than a decade, as Snellville grew into the 
first suburban-from-rural community in Gwinnett County, Judy helped to 
navigate those challenges. Her fingerprints are on absolutely 
everything that you see in the foundation that has allowed Snellville 
to become what it is today.
  Mr. Speaker, after serving the City of Snellville, seeing that our 
county was going through some of those same challenges, in 1992, Judy 
answered the call to serve Gwinnett County.
  She ran for the District 3 county commissioner seat and was sworn in 
in 1993 to that post. Over the 8 years that she served, Gwinnett 
County's population almost doubled to 600,000 people and her hand 
helped to guide that development.
  Mr. Speaker, our motto in Gwinnett County is ``Gwinnett is great,'' 
and Judy's emphasis on ensuring that that was true absolutely every 
single day earned her the love and devotion of an entire community.
  But her service does not either begin or end with these kinds of 
public roles, Mr. Speaker.
  In 1992, she ran for that post. But, in 2004, she answered the call 
to serve the Community Foundation for Northeast Georgia. Mr. Speaker, 
the motto of the Community Foundation of Northeast Georgia is 
``Connecting people who care with causes that matter.''
  Mr. Speaker, this foundation, under Judy's leadership, grew its 
assets by more than $20 million. It has plowed back into service 
projects in our community more than $52 million since 1985.
  Thousands upon thousands of lives in Gwinnett County have been 
impacted in no small part due to the love, devotion, and commitment of 
Judy Waters.
  Mr. Speaker, it is my belief that all of the individual deeds we see 
in our lives are woven together to make us more than who we are.
  Judy set out early in her life to make sure that no one would be 
giving back more than she did, and she exemplifies exactly the kind of 
person that I am surrounded by in my community absolutely every single 
day.
  People ask, Mr. Speaker: How can you give away Washington's power and 
influence and return that to the community? My answer is Judy Waters.
  Mr. Speaker, no matter how well-intentioned the folks in this 
building are, they will never care more about my community than folks 
like Judy Waters do, and Judy lived that commitment every single day.
  Mr. Speaker, Judy retires from her service at the Community 
Foundation. Her official retirement is August 22. I want to add my 
heartfelt thanks to her for her decade upon decade upon decade of 
service.
  Judy, we are all better off and grateful for all that you have done 
for our community.
  But, Mr. Speaker, we are all better off and grateful just for the 
opportunity to have known her.
  Mr. Speaker, there is no measurement of how many Judy Waters there 
are out there across the country, but there is a measure of what Judy 
Waters has done for our community.
  You see it in the faces of the elderly and you see it in young 
families and you see it in the children in our community systems.
  Thank you to Judy Waters for all that she has done for Gwinnett 
County.

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