So, Thursday, the division will pause to pray, case the division colors and dance in the streets just before the impending deployment of more than 1,000 soldiers of the division’s headquarters late next week. Area residents are invited to come together to bid farewell to the division headquarters.

Residents are invited to kick off the day with a spiritual fitness luncheon at 11 am at Club Stewart when University of Georgia’s head football Coach Mark Richt will speak. At 4 p.m. the general will case the division’s colors in a symbolic ceremony signifying the division’s deployment. The ceremony is at Marne Garden followed by a street dance in the Newman Gym parking lot.

“It will be a day that we will all recall for many years to come as the day our community stood together. It will be a day that we will all think of a year from now no matter where in the world we are and smile. March 8 will be remembered as a great day for each and every one of us,” Lynch said.