Dawson Forest hunters
feed the hungry
SPORTS, 1B
Vote on your favorite
police dog and help
Dawson County
INSIDE, 4A
WEDNESDAY I DECEMBER 1,2021 DaWSOflNeWS ^COITI DAWSONVULE, GEORGIA $1.00
Community serving community
Rotary Club of Dawson County serves 600 Thanksgiving meals
By Erica Jones
ejones@dawsonnews.com
On the evening of
Monday Nov. 22, dozens
of volunteers from the
Rotary Club of Dawson
County gathered at
Veteran’s Memorial Park
to serve Thanksgiving
meals to anyone from the
community who came to
get one.
Despite the cold weath
er, those who came to
pick up meals were greet
ed with a wave and a
smile from volunteers
standing outside, bundled
up in coats and jackets
and directing cars where
to drive. Cars circled the
park before pulling up
outside the gymnasium,
where volunteers were
hard at work inside pack
aging Thanksgiving
meals with food from
Tam’s Backstage.
Attendees rolled down
their windows and were
greeted by smiling
Rotarians asking how
many meals they needed.
Their meals were then
loaded into their cars and
they went on their way,
waving and shouting
“thank you"’ and “Happy
Thanksgiving”.
The “drive thru dinner”
is the Rotary Club’s
annual Thanksgiving
event and one of the
many ways that the orga
nization aims to serve the
community however pos
sible.
According to Rotary
Club President Jo Brewer,
this year the organization
gave away 600 meals,
which were free to any
community member who
wanted one.
“Each meal was a
pound of food, so we
served right at 600
pounds of food or 600
meals,” Brewer said. “We
closed up shop a little bit
before 7, and it looks like
everybody got served —
we didn’t run out of food
this year.”
The Rotary Club hosts
the community
Thanksgiving dinner each
year, but last year was the
first event done in a
drive-through fashion due
to the COVID-19 pan
demic. This year’s event
was also a drive-through
dinner, but according to
Brewer the organization
learned from last year’s
dinner to make this one
run even more smoothly.
“We had a really great
team of Rotarians, and
this year we kind of
See Rotary 12A
‘PRAY FOR MASON PALMOUR’
Local student rushed through brain surgery after being found unresponsive
Photo submitted to DCN
Mason Palmour (center), student at Dawson County High School, with his
friends and teammates on the football team.
Jacob Smith
jsmith@dawsonnews.com
Four weeks ago, Dawson County
High School student Mason Palmour
was experiencing an odd tingle in his
leg, causing his foot to fall asleep.
While over at his best friend’s, fel
low DCHS student Alex Stewart, he
began to explain to Stewart’s mom,
Anastasia Smith, symptoms of what
sounded like spasms in his foot and
had been experiencing for around two
walks.
After Smith encouraged Palmour to
talk to his parents about it, they went
to the doctor to find out what the prob
lem might be. Running more tests
showed that Palmour had a blood clot
in his brain.
“Thank God he had broken his
thumb earlier in the fall, so he had not
been playing football,” Smith said in a
phone interview. “That was honestly a
miracle in disguise.”
Palmour stayed at Scottish Rite in
Atlanta for the next few weeks as doc
tors learned more about Palmour’s ail
ment and while Palmour relearned how
to walk, due to his entire right side of
his body going numb.
Stewart and Palmour joined the high
school’s fishing team right before
Palmour’s diagnosis. A fishing tourna
ment was about to happen and the doc
tor’s approved Palmour to be able to
participate. However, the night before,
Palmour complained of a headache
and told Smith the next morning he did
not think it was a good idea for him to
go to the tournament.
A round of scans at the hospital
showed a tumor had grown on
Palmour’s brain. Doctor’s were uncer
tain about what type of tumor it was,
but went ahead and scheduled surgery
to remove the tumor within the coming
week.
However, Palmour was unresponsive
Thanksgiving morning while at the
hospital.. He has been sedated and sta
ble since going back to the hospital
and a group of surgeons successfully
removed most of the tumor the morn
ing of Monday, Nov. 29. Palmour has
been surrounded by his parents and
sister during this time.
Smith let the football team and foot
ball family know of Palmour’s condi
tion and said she believed the best
thing everyone could do was pray for
Palmour and his family.
According to Smith, 50-55 people
gathered at the DCHS football field on
Sunday, Nov. 28 in prayer for Palmour.
At the gathering, donations were
See Palmour 13A
NGHS has less
than 2 weeks to
comply with
vaccine mandate
Conner Evans
DCN Regional Staff
About 900 employees in the Northeast
Georgia Health System have applied for
exemptions rather than get vaccinated
against COVID-19 and comply with a
federal mandate.
One in four employees in the health
system are not fully vaccinated, and all
employees without approved medical or
religious exemptions must have at least
one dose by Dec. 5 and be fully vaccinat
ed by Jan. 4 to comply with the Centers
for Medicare and Medicaid Services vac
cine mandate.
CMS notified health care providers on
Nov. 4 of the coming mandate, which
affects almost all staff at health care facil
ities that participate in Medicare and
SeeNGHS|3A
The Place of Forsyth offers
new way of shopping, 7th
annual Holiday House
Sabrina Kerns
DCN Regional Staff
The COVID-19 pandemic limited the
ways The Place of Forsyth could serve
the community during a time when more
and more families were reaching out for
help.
President and CEO Joni Smith said the
local pantry jumped from serving an aver
age of 85-100 households per week to an
average of 400 in 2020. Due to this
increase, the nonprofit was no longer able
to invite all these families into the build
ing or pantry.
With limited physical space, The Place
was unable to accommodate safety pre
cautions inside the pantry. They were
forced to begin giving out pre-made
boxes of food where before families
could pick their own food from the
shelves using allotted points.
See Place 14A
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9 0 9 9 4
Inside
Volume 7, Number 44
© 2021, Dawson County News
Dawsonville, Georgia
Events
2B
Classifieds
7B
Dear Abby
6B
Deaths
2A
Legals
8B
Opinion
7A
Sports
1B
4A The best
places to get a
Christmas
tree in N. Ga.
5A 30th Annual
Buck Jones
Toy Run
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