As world prepares for Paris, Thomasville reflects on hosting torch in 1996

• Thousands of neighbors gathered at the Thomas County Courthouse to witness the Olympic Torch passing through Thomasville in 1996
  
• Beloved principal Mary Grubbs, who carried the torch, left a lasting legacy, remembered fondly by the community.
  
• Watch the video to see how local schools got involved at the time.

BROADCAST SCRIPT

It was the afternoon of July 11, 1996 when The torch made its way down to Thomasville.

Decades have passed, and neighbors are still talking about it.

I'm talking with neighbors to see how much of an impact that had on their neighborhood at that time.

Twenty-eight years ago, Thomasville was celebrating the arrival of the games torch to Thomasville, a huge event that gathered thousands of neighbors around the Thomas County courthouse

"It was a big deal for Georgia and was really nice for Thomasville to get to participate in that and being the stops along the pass and one of the later ones too. It was only another 5 days or a week or so before it got into Atlanta," said Ephraim rotter, curator at Thomasville's history center.

I met Joy Basford and Peggy Barhite, six grade teachers at MacIntyre Park Middle School back in 1996.

They say the whole school got involved.

"We marched from our school down Jackson Street all the way down the thomasville high school stadium where we participated in olympics style games during the day," said Barhite.

Basford tells me it was just great to know that the whole world was coming to Atlanta to watch the games

"these kids a lot of them had never been very far and wide and to know that the torch was coming through here, I think it really made an impact on them," said Basford.

Around 90 counties of 152 in Georgia were participating in the torch route that was taking place from LA all the way to Atlanta. They started off at Douglass and made their way down through Tifton, Valdosta, Quitman and finally on the afternoon of July 11th it made its way to Thomasville.

several people go to carry the torches and pass them to runners.

"Between each city they weren't running it, they were usually using a motorcycle, sometimes a car but they liked using a motorcycle to carry the torches through the long stretches," said Rotter.

When the torches arrived to town they passed it to runners

"Finally the very last runner was a woman named Mary Grubbs, who was a long time principal of Harper school and a teacher before then and a lot of people called her "Grubbsy". she was hugely popular through town," said Rotter.

Grubbs was the principal for Harper elementary school for 30 years.

Grubbs died in 2008 but her legacy carries on through each new torch bearer.

Ephraim tells me Mary Grubbs, one of the selected torch bearers, was able to keep the torch from the games and pass it down to her family in Thomasville.