About Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 8, 2021)
SPORTS DawsonNewscom Wednesday, December 8, 2021 facebook.com/dawsonnews twitter.com/dawsonnews Family donates money from haunted trail Backyard attraction raises $4K for church food bank Jacob Smith jsmith@dawsonnews.com Dawsonville man Robert Still, along with his wife and in-laws, started doing a haunted trail for friends and family in their backyard around four years ago. The amount of work to put every thing together was a lot, according to Still, so if he were going to continue doing it, he wanted to make sure it went to a good cause. Still works for the Forsyth County fire department and both his wife and mother-in-law are nurses, so donat ing time and resources to do some thing for others was not out of the ordinary for them. As year two rolled around, Still raised probably about $700 and gave that money to the Dawsonville Food Lion to distribute to food boxes for a local food bank. This year, Still’s donations were up to $1,600 just from his friends and family that were invited to see the trail. In total, the haunted trail has raised around $4,000 for the food bank associated with the Soul Filling Station church in Dawsonville. “It was a good time and it was a lot of work,” Still said. “I wouldn’t stay dedicated to it if we weren’t doing something positive for it. It’s pretty rewarding to have fun and do a good thing. To turn around and feed peo ple in need and have a good time with it.” The money has paid for nearly 1,000 food boxes to feed locals in need around the holiday season. Robert Still (left) with his son and father- in-law after donating this year's money to Food Lion from their private, haunted trail. Photo submit ted to the Dawson County News Help fill a need in community Erica Jones Dawson County News Dawson County EMS personnel, volunteer firefighters and prospective volunteers gathered at Station 7 on Dec. 2 for an open house and information session about the county's volunteer firefighter program. Dawson County Fire recruiting volunteer firefighters By Erica Jones ejones@dawsonnews.com Have you ever wondered what volunteer firefighters do and what goes into becoming one? During the Dawson County Fire Department’s recent volunteer firefighter open house event, anyone interested in it was invited to come to one of the county’s fire stations, meet the men and women who are volun teer firefighters for the coun ty, and learn what is involved in the incredibly important job. Captain Randy Edwards, the volunteer coordinator for Dawson County Fire and Emergency Services, said that in the day-to-day life of a volunteer firefighter, he and the other volunteers can be found responding to many kinds of calls and helping with a myriad of tasks. “We do a lot of other stuff besides the search and rescue and the fires and the medical calls,” Edwards said. “We also help out the fire marshal with public safety and educa tion, we help out at the Moonshine Festival, public safety and smoke detectors.” Volunteer firefighters are provided with the training necessary to do the job well, and can choose to advance as far as they want within the program. According to Edwards, this can range from filling the role of a support firefighter all the way up to moving on from the volun teer program to a career fire fighter. “The first step is a support firefighter class which is about an 8-week class, and then after that people can decide if they wanna go to the next step but they can also stay as a support fire fighter — they can go on and do as much as they want,” Edwards said. “We have a feeder program where we also feed folks out into the career side; so you can come try it out and we’ll provide the training and you can see if it’s something that you’re cut out for.” Barbara Roberts is a sup port firefighter who said that, while she doesn’t go directly into the fires herself, she serves the important role of helping out the ones who do. “Support firefighters go and help the firefighters; for instance they get parched from the fire and the heat so we’ll bring them water, switch out the air packs if they’re empty, or roll hoses at the end,” Roberts said. “You can start out as a support fire fighter, and then there’s more training to be a volunteer firefighter, more training to move up to the next step, there’s always training to keep learning.” Edwards said that the vol unteer firefighters are trained two times a month, and that they can respond to as many calls or work as many hours as they want to in their roles. “Most of us have full-time jobs and we have other things going on, so sometimes we respond from our house, sometimes we’re volunteer ing a shift at a station and we volunteer from there, some times we respond from the volunteer stations, or some times we’re in our car,” Edwards said. “So we have a lot of flexibility on riding at stations, working at the vol unteer stations, or running calls from your home.” Currently there are 22 vol unteer firefighters in the county, and two fire stations, Station 4 and Station 5, which are volunteer stations. Captain Denny Blackwell is the head of Station 5 and has been serving as a volunteer firefighter for 30 years. He said that he serves as a volun teer when he gets off work at his full-time job, and that he loves the ability to serve his community. “When the tones drop, we go to an EMA call, a car wreck, lost persons, wherever we’re needed,” Blackwell said. “My favorite part is serving my community and people that come to our county; we try to handle all the problems they have or wrecks or whatever.” Edwards said that the vol unteer firefighters sign up for the program for a multitude of reasons, from wanting to help their community to wanting to push themselves to achieve goals. For the pro gram’s newest volunteer fire fighter, Justin Fedoruk, his decision to sign up was heav ily influenced by his family and wanting to serve his county. “My parents had been doing it for a long time so I’d been around it, my brother did it for a while, so it was interesting for me to be on the other side of how the county operates and how things happen,” Justin Fedoruk said. “I love this county and wanted to be a part of it in some way, so this is a way for me to be involved in it.” Currently, Justin Fedoruk and both of his parents, Dennis and Stephanie Fedoruk, serve as volunteer firefighters together. Dennis Fedoruk, who has served as a volunteer firefighter for nine years and is the lieutenant over the east volunteer dis trict, said that the ability to serve their county as a family has been a huge blessing to him. “It’s something you can do with your family,” Dennis Fedoruk said, recounting a time several years ago when his whole family helped to fight a fire in their own neighborhood. “It helps the county, your whole family, friends, relatives, strangers — you never know.” For Stephanie Fedoruk, who has been serving in the role for five years, an added plus of the job has been the ability to push herself and to expand her limits. “I feel that it has expanded my interests; it wasn’t that I was out seeking to do this but I’m all about personal growth, getting out of my comfort zone, so that’s how I look at it,” Stephanie Fedoruk said. “It really teaches you survival skills and gets you thinking in a way that you wouldn’t nor mally think in normal, every day life; you’re more geared toward situational aware ness.” Charley Hogwood is a fire fighter and EMT who is on staff at the Fumpkin County Fire Department and uses his spare time serving as a vol unteer in Dawson County. Hogwood said that for him, the challenge and the chance to help other people in the worst and best times is a huge draw to the job. “If you really want to learn something and feel like you’re making a difference, if you wanna feel like you’re really helping somebody and waking up with a purpose every day, this is the way to do that,” Hogwood said. “If you’re looking for something a little challenging and inter esting and you like to live on the edge this is for you; not to mention the fraternity and camaraderie of it if you want to be part of a family of peo ple who will be there for you.” Currently, the county has a total of 22 volunteer firefight- ers in the program. According to Dawson County Fire Chief and EMA Director Danny Thompson, volunteer firefighters willing to help out the fire depart ment are a very needed asset. “We’ve gotta have volun teers, cause volunteers in the fire service as a national thing is really down,” Thompson said. “With Dawson County being a combination department with both paid personnel and vol unteers, they help supple ment and augment and pro vide essential resources on fire grounds.” Thompson added that the training provided to the vol unteers is a great way to pre pare those who are interested in making a career of it. “The other part to that is we like to be able to have volunteers come in on that volunteer level, get some training and then become full time members of our depart ment, so it’s a great training and recruitment tool for us as well,” Thompson said. To apply for the volunteer firefighter program, those interested must be at least 18 years old, a resident of Dawson County, have a clean See Firefighters 13B Three win in wrestling individually Jacob Smith jsmith@dawsonnews.com On Tuesday, Nov. 30, the Dawson County High School wrestling team hosted Habersham Central in a duals match, losing 55-21. Head coach Arron Haynes said he was sat isfied with the result. A significant part of Habersham’s points came from forfeits on Dawson County’s part, due to having nobody to wrestle that specific weight class. Three Tigers won their individual match. Fuke Fowe pinned his opponent with 52 sec onds left in the first period. Kyle Putnam finally pinned his opponent with 37 seconds left in the third round and Riley Westbrooks won by points in three rounds. The high school was host to all Dawson County Parks and Recreation youth wrestlers on Tuesday night as well. The Tigers high school team will continue their season Saturday, Dec. 4 at a tournament hosted by North Oconee High School. Q&A with Commissioner Gaines after receiving his pilot’s license Jacob Smith jsmith@dawsonnews.com Everybody wants to reach great heights in their life. Though everyone has different standards for what personal success is, it is always nice when a community can rally around one of their own reaching one of their life long goals. Dawson County Commissioner Chris Gaines reached one of his new goals after obtaining his pilot’s license last weekend. DCN editor Jacob Smith talked with Gaines about his new documentation. JS: So when did this happen? CG: I was introduced to North Georgia Aviation flight school in Gainesville by a close friend that knows the owner Bud. After visiting and discussing a plan I signed up in June (5 months ago) and started this adventure. What is your favorite part of flying? Flying is just an incredible experience and something everyone should try at some point. Not only is it a time machine that allows me to get places quicker to spend more time on business or with friends, fami ly and activities that I enjoy but also it’s just beautiful being up in the air soaring over North Georgia. Training during the fall has allowed me the opportunity to see the leaves change colors from a different perspective and seeing the lake come alive as the sun rises and burns off the low layer fog that covers the water is magical. Flying in the evening has presented me the opportunity to see the sunset over the beautiful north Georgia mountains which is an incredible experience. How long have you known you wanted to fly? Growing up I had a really good friend who’s dad was a pilot for the Atlanta Gas Fight company. My friend and I would hang out at the hangar during the summers and I always thought how cool it would be to have my license to fly a plane on my own. I finally made the decision this year to get it done and I am proud of my accom plishment. See Gaines 13B
