Twelve years after opening the Averitt Center for the Arts in downtown Statesboro, the impact of the Center, the embrace of the Statesboro community and our neighbors continue to pleasantly surprise us all. For years, community leaders struggled with ideas of how to reclaim two dilapidated and potentially dangerous eyesores in the center of our downtown. It was with vision and courage the late Hal Averitt, then mayor, shared his idea of what would become a new centerpiece for downtown.