The Buckhead Coalition is celebrating its 30th anniversary in one sweet way – handing out chocolate bars designed to look like $30 bill in local currency.

The front of the Buckhead Coalition’s commemorative “30 Big Bucks” chocolate bar. (John Ruch)

The candy wrapper is designed to look like a bill of “30 Big Bucks” is decorated with a deer’s head and bears the slogan, “Forty-Five Neighborhoods United in Buckhead.”

The design was dreamed up by Sam Massell, the Buckhead Coalition president and a former Atlanta mayor. But the actual illustration was created by his granddaughter Isabel Massell, who graduated from Georgia Southern University with a bachelor’s degree in studio art and is now pursuing a master’s in medical illustration.

The back of the Buckhead Coalition chocolate bar credits illustrator Isabell Massell, the graddaughter of coalition president Sam Massell. (John Ruch)

“I had a lot of fun working on the sketch,” said Isabel Massell in an email. “…I try to take any opportunity to get my work out there, so this was a perfect project to work on!”

The chocolate bars were distributed to guests at the Jan. 30 annual meeting of the invitation-only group of 100 business and community leaders, where Gov. Brian Kemp was the keynote speaker.

John Ruch is an Atlanta-based journalist. Previously, he was Managing Editor of Reporter Newspapers.