About Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current | View Entire Issue (June 30, 2021)
Elliott has tough weekend at Pocono Raceway. SPORTS, IB r.ilin Here’s where you can catch fireworks this July Fourth. INSIDE, 7A DawsonCountyNews WEDNESDAY I JUNE 30, 2021 Dawson News ► com dawsonville, GEORGIA $1.00 Pirkle to lead 54th Moonshine Fest Jacob Smith jsmith@dawsonnews.com A familiar face will be leading the parade in the 54th annual Mountain Moonshine Festival in Dawsonville. K.A.R.E. for Kids has named Dawsonville legend Gordon Pirkle Grand Marshal of the three day festival. “Well it’s usually one of those big NASCAR drivers so I’m not sure why they called me,” Pirkle said. “But I will gladly do it.” Though he has never driven in the NASCAR Cup Series, Pirkle is known in the national NASCAR community for his devotion to Dawsonville’s effect on the history of racing. Pirkle helped bring the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame to Dawsonville and sounds a siren after every Elliott family racing victory. Pirkle was a major part of plan ning the first ever Moonshine Festival and said that he would have never imagined now being asked to lead the Friday parade to kick off the festivities, calling the recognition “a honor.” Rhonda Goodwin, president of K.A.R.E. for Kids was there with Pirkle at the beginning of K.A.R.E. for Kids and was the one who let Pirkle know he would be Grand Marshal at this year’s festival. “I think people respected him and his heart so much that they wanted to spread it out as well,” Goodwin said of Pirkle earlier this year. “He called someone and they called their friends who called their friends and it’s still going on. He still talks with at least 90 percent of the people that participate because they respect his heart so much.” Pirkle recently received recog nition at the 2021 Best of Dawson Awards Gala with the Best Volunteer award and the renaming of the Heart of Dawson Leadership Award to the Gordon Pirkle Heart of Dawson Award. Despite rainy weather and the COVID-19 pandemic, last year’s Moonshine Festival was called one of the most success ful events ever by K.A.R.E. for Kids leaders. Retired NASCAR driver David Ragan was hon ored as Grand Marshal last year. Pirkle will kick off the 54th Moonshine Festival on Friday, Oct. 22. The festival runs through Sunday, Oct. 24. c What a ride 5 Alexander Popp Dawson County News From left,Ted Bearden, Wesley Bearden and James Bearden pose for a photo near the Bearden Funeral Home sign on the funeral home's 30th-anniversary, June 24. Bearden Funeral Home celebrates 30 years of service to Dawson County By Alexander Popp apopp@dawsonnews.com When asked to sum it up, Ted Bearden of Bearden Funeral Home in Dawsonville said that everything he and his family have done over the last 30 years all comes down to service. Service to grieving families, service to the departed and service to the Dawson County community — that’s what it’s all been about, Bearden said on Bearden Funeral Home’s 30th-anni- versary, June 24, 2021. "The service to people, that’s why we’re here. That’s why we do what we do. To serve this community," he said. Leaning back in his chair in the funeral home’s front office on Hwy. 53 in Dawsonville, Bearden reflected that even though those three decades, filled with countless funerals and thousands of families served, seem like a long time, he isn’t sure how the years slipped by so fast. "30 years, what a ride," he said. "30 years in one sense is a long time, but then I wonder where the time went because it sure doesn't seem like it's been 30 years." But Bearden’s journey to becoming a community servant began years before he purchased his business. According to Bearden, he found his true calling as a teen when he took a part-time job cutting grass and wash ing cars for Ford Banister, owner of Banister Funeral Home — the business that he would one day buy. "I took the job and it wasn't very long until he bought me a suit," Bearden said. "He was taking me along on funerals and I was getting to help roll the casket down the aisle and even though I didn't have a driver's license, I would take the flowers to the churches." Before long, Bearden said that he began to feel drawn to the work, espe cially to the comfort that he and his co-workers could give to grieving fam ilies in their time of need. "We're probably the only business in the community that nobody wants to do business with,” He said, laugh ing. “They come here because they have a need and it's an honor when that phone rings and there's a family on the other end that's asking us to help them, that's an honor, to be asked to help." That calling to serve continued when Bearden graduated from Dawson County High School in 1974, taking Dawsonville approves development annexation By Erica Schmidt eschmidt@dawsonnews.com The Dawsonville City Council has approved a request to annex 44.82 acres of land off Duck Thurmond Road into the city to be rezoned for a future subdivi sion, Aero Heights. With the city council’s approval at their June 21 meeting, land for the Aero Heights development, proposed to be built near the Atlanta Motorsports Park, will be annexed into the city and rezoned from Dawson County’s residential sub- rural manufactured/moved (RSRMM) zoning classification to the city’s single family residential (Rl) zoning. See Annex 18A Sweet Charlie’s rolled ice cream sets up shop in Dawson County By Erica Schmidt eschmidt@dawsonnews.com A brand new dessert shop, Sweet Charlie’s, has opened in Dawson County, offering rolled ice cream creations, cook ies, milkshakes and more to the commu nity. Rolled ice cream, according to Sweet Charlie’s Dawsonville owner Pinkesh Patel, is a product originally from Thailand and involves dessert ingredients being frozen into ice cream on a -20 degree slab, before being scraped into thick rolls. Patel said that throughout the process of making rolled ice cream, customers are treated to visual experience, as they watch the ingredients mixed, frozen and rolled right in front of them. “Rolled ice cream tastes like any other See Sweet 15A See Bearden 18A 0 9 0 9 9 4 Inside Volume 7, Number 24 © 2021, Dawson County News Dawsonville, Georgia Church Events 3B Classifieds 8B Dear Abby 7B Deaths 2A Legals 9B Opinion 9A Sports 1B BOC approves rezoning for townhomes, denies Hwy. 9 subdivision 6A 3B Rotary dedicates Peace Pole at Veterans Memorial Park * EXCELLENCE AT HEART IS BACK IN GAINESVILLE After over a year, a team of Georgia's top cardiologists are returning to care for you—right here in your neighborhood. Trust your heart to the experts of the Northside System. Visit us at northsidecvi.com/gainesville or call 404.962.6000 to schedule an appointment today. JEXCELLENCE |NJH S™ S s'cu E lar?n1™e 1240 Jesse Jewell Parkway, Bldg. B, Unit 500, Gainesville, GA 30501 Allison Dupont MD, FSCAI, FACC Interventional Cardiology Mark Leimbach MD, FSCAI, FACC Interventional Cardiology Jeffrey Marshall MD, MSCAI, FACC Chief, Northside Flospital Cardiovascular Institute Pradyumna Tummala MD, FSCAI, FACC Interventional Cardiology
