About Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 17, 2021)
Wednesday, November 17,2021 dawsonnews.com I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I 3A Dawson County Board of Education celebrates 2 schools for recent awards By Erica Jones ejones@dawsonnews.com During the Nov. 9 meeting of the Dawson County Board of Education, board members recognized Robinson Elementary School and Black’s Mill Elementary School for two awards that were recently given to the schools by the Georgia Association of Elementary School Principals (GAESP) during the association’s fall conference. Black’s Mill Elementary School was given the 2021 GAESP School Bell Award for the school’s program, “The Bear Den”, directed by Media Specialist Allison Lundy. According to BMES Principal Cindy Kinney, the School Bell Award is pre sented to schools with outstanding pro grams in the areas of curriculum and organizational leadership. This year, the media center, called “The Bear Den” and directed by Lundy, was cho sen to win a School Bell Award. “'The ‘Bear Den’ was pleased to be nominated this year and to be an award winner; in the nomination it talked about promoting a lifelong love of reading and learning,” Kinney said. “Some of the words in the nomination that was turned in to describe Mrs. Lundy and the things that she does for our school were collaborative, instruc tional partner, engaging and creating a stimulating learning environment.” Kinney said as the media specialist, Lundy teaches literacy lessons, intro duces students and teachers to new dig ital apps and technology tools, teaches internet safety and digital citizenship and gives students the opportunity to practice using their iPads, apps and the Apple TV in the media center. “She also works with our morning broadcast which is WBME News; it’s a great way for our fifth grade students to be leaders in our school and they also utilize their iPads, tripods, green screens and iMovie,” Kinney said. According to Kinney, one way that Lundy helps the school to excel through her position as the media spe cialist is by creating leadership oppor tunities for the students and fun ways for them to learn to love reading. This includes programs like “library lead ers”, in which the fourth grade students help out in the media center, and fun activities like the “March Madness book bracket”, when students and their Photo courtesy of the Dawson County BOE Black's Mill Elementary School recently won a 2021 GAESP School Bell Award for the school's program, "The Bear Den", directed by Media Specialist Allison Lundy. parents can vote on their favorite books in a competition to see which book comes out on top. “We figured out that if you give stu dents a chance to be leaders in your school they love it, and we love to pro mote our students as leaders,” Kinney said. “[Lundy does] community reader visits, dress up days for Read Across America, March Madness book battles — she does a fantastic job.” Kinney said Lundy is very deserving of the School Bell Award for the job she does in the school’s media center. “We’re so proud to have her as a part of our family at Black’s Mill, and we were so excited to be able to stand beside her as she received the School Bell award,” Kinney said. Robinson Elementary School was also part of the presentation of a 2021 GAESP Award, the Education Patron Award, which was presented to the Dawson County Woman’s Club for their support of Robinson and the pro grams at the elementary school. According to RES Principal Page Amette, over the last two years the relationship between Robinson and the Dawson County Woman’s Club has become deeper and been able to pro duce quite a lot of support and assis tance for the school by the women in the club. “Our Dawson County Woman’s Club has an education committee, and the chairwoman MG Finch came to me and said she would like to support our school,” Amette said, “and it didn’t take us very long to see that we had a great fit for needs in our school and expertise that so many of these ladies were willing to bring.” Amette said the women in the club have supported Robinson in dozens of ways, from helping transport cardboard boxes from the school to the recycling center for the student recycling pro gram to helping procure and install a Little Free Library outside of the school building. “They helped with our book fairs — we always need volunteers for that to be able to serve all of our students — and during the year they provided snacks and drinks for our teachers who had a difficult year,” Amette said. “I know I’m probably forgetting something that they do for us, but they have just been such a part of our school and really brought such a rich experi ence to our kids that we wouldn’t have without them.” Finch, on behalf of herself and the other Woman’s Club members in atten dance at the meeting, said being a part of the support system for Robinson and the students there has been rewarding for her and the others in the club. “We’re delighted; the gift of books to us is huge and it’s a great school to work with,” Finch said. Superintendent Damon Gibbs also thanked the Woman’s Club members during the meeting for their support of not only Robinson, but of the entire school system. “These ladies not only work with Robinson, they’re supportive of our school system and they’ve been great friends to me and to our school system over the last eight years,” Gibbs said during the meeting. “So thank you and we appreciate you very much.” The Woman’s Club was given a 2021 GAESP Education Patron Award for their service with Robinson. Amette said that she and the rest of the school administrators couldn’t be happier that the club is getting recognition for all of their hard work. “I am super excited to get to honor these ladies,” Amette said. “They have become great friends of Robinson over the last two years.” FROM 1A BOE members that have been actively working since Sept. 1.” Board members approved the supplement immediately and unani mously, prompting looks of happy surprise and clapping from the princi pals and other school staff in attendance at the meeting. The board members took time to personally thank the employees in attendance for their work in serving the children in the school system. “It’s a Christmas pres ent from all of us,” Chairwoman Elaine Wilson said. “You do it for the right reasons for our kids — we wish we could do more, but we’re so happy we could do that much.” Board member Doris Cook thanked employees for not only their effort so far this year, but also for their effort last year during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Thank y’all for all that you’ve done; as Dr. Gibbs said it’s been a hard year, really a hard two years, so thank y’all so much,” Cook said. Board member Karen Armstrong said she was glad the board was able to approve a tangible thank-you to the system’s employees, and told the principals in attendance to pass on the board’s sincere thanks to the employees who weren’t at the meeting in person. “We do appreciate you, and we’re so glad that we can do something to say thanks,” Armstrong said. “Thank you in words is nice but a little something mone tary is always welcome — so let everybody know how much we real ly and truly appreciate them.” FROM 1A Cheer throughout the entire regular season until Saturday’s meet. “We have overcome lots of obstacles to get to the level we competed at on Saturday,” Fleming said. “This past Saturday was the first time we have had all sixteen team members on the floor. I do not think we have peaked yet and I am very hopeful we do that Friday at the State finals.” The team now advances to the state finals, where they will battle against 15 other top cheerleading teams in 3A for a chance to win a state title. Dawson County has never won a cheerlead ing state championship. Jacob Smith Dawson County News The Dawson County cheer team celebrates after being named Region Champions with an overall score of 97/100. FROM 2A Trial accidentally shot herself after he’d handed her the gun. He said he was showing it to her to prove he had “the tools” to accomplish stealing from the dealer and said she held the weapon incor rectly as she looked down at her phone. In the aftermath of the shooting, Stryker testified about deciding to stab Bender to try to alleviate body fluid weight. He admitted to him and Reid wrapping her body in a blanket and putting it in Huff’s fire pit. He and Bailey Williams admitted to disposing of Bender's belongings near a camp site off of Nimblewill Gap Road. Reid and Stryker admitted to moving the remains to a Blacks Mill Road residence on Sept. 16 using a toolbox that came from the truck and then stripping the vehicle of its parts, with Donaldson also allegedly helping. A person living at the Blacks Mill property tes tified about witnessing the car cleanup and some of Stryker’s search for the items disposed of near the Nimblewill campground. A farmer, as well as Stryker, testified about the defendant and Harper coming over to a farm property in Forsyth County to give away the Mazda truck. Stryker admitted to burying Bender. Reid testified that Stryker had asked him to put dirt over the shallow grave. Reid agreed to do so until he eventually led authorities to the site. Stryker also said that after others refused, Harper took him to West Virginia, where he initial ly wanted to stay at an ex girlfriend’s place before he ended up temporarily homeless. After Bender’s mother reported her missing on Sept. 19, law enforcement discovered the Mazda truck on Sept. 24, 2019. The next morning, authorities recovered her body from a shallow grave in northern Forsyth County. Stryker turned himself into authorities in Pittsburgh, Pa. on Oct. 2, 2019. Meanwhile, Donaldson was arrested on Sept. 25, while Harper was booked two days later. Huff and Reid were arrest ed on Sept. 30. The next day, Williams was booked in Lumpkin County. Experts testify On Nov. 4, the state’s medical examiner, Keith Lehman, clarified that despite uncertainty over the order in which Bender’s wounds were inflicted, her cause of death was from shooting and stabbing, and he clas sified the manner of death as homicide. Bender died from a gunshot wound to the head and at least 32 stab wounds to her neck, back, chest and side. Furthermore, ballistics expert and Georgia Bureau of Investigation special agent William Edison discussed the dif ficulties of accidentally shooting oneself with a Ruger .380, given its internal safety features. He added mistakenly pulling the trigger with an inverted index finger and thumb position, like Stryker claimed, would likewise be challenging. Edison also said in his experience as a firearms safety instructor, people unaccustomed to firearms like Bender are typically unwilling or heavily cau tious about holding weap ons at all. Whats next Stryker was immediate ly taken into custody upon the announcement of his verdict. As previ ously mentioned, his sen tencing hearing is expect ed to occur in the coming weeks. DCN and its affiliate newspapers will provide updates about his sen tencing and the others’ cases as more information becomes available. EARLY DEADLINES FOR THANKSGIVING DAY Because of the upcoming Thanksgiving Day holiday the Dawson County News wiii alter its advertising and legals deadline as follows: Retail Display Ads Publication Date Deadline Dawson County News Midweek Edition 12/01 Wednesday, 11/24,3:00pm Classified Line Ads Publication Date Deadline Dawson County News Midweek Edition 12/01 Wednesday, 11/24, Noon Legal Ads Publication Date Deadline Dawson County News Midweek Edition 12/01 Wednesday, 11/24, Noon Obituaries Publication Date Deadline Dawson County News Midweek Edition 12/01 Wednesday, 11/24, Noon DawsonCountyNews DawsonNews com Will be CLOSED Thursday, Nov. 25 in observance of Thanksgiving. WINTER SPORTS — IN THIS EDITION OF ~ DAWSON COUNTY NEWS
