About Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current | View Entire Issue (March 16, 2022)
4A I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I dawsonnews.com Wednesday, March 16,2022 During the March 8 meeting of the Dawson County Board of Education, the board members were recognized as part of School Board Appreciation Week. During the March 8 meeting of the Dawson County Board of Education, the board recognized the winners of the 2022 HOBY awards. Photos courtesy of the Dawson County Board of Education During the March 8 meeting of the Dawson County Board of Education, the board recognized the school and district spelling bee winners. School board holds recognitions for students, faculty By Erica Jones ejones@dawsonnews.com During the March 8 meeting of the Dawson County Board of Education, the board held recognitions for several groups of students, faculty and board members. HOBY Award Winners Debbie Borovitcky, pres ident of the Dawson County Woman’s Club, came before the board to present three DCHS sopho mores with the 2022 Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership (HOBY) Award. “The Hugh O’Brian Youth was founded by Hugh O’Brian in 1958 as a nonprofit organization whose mission is to inspire a global community of youth to a life dedicated to leadership, service and innovation,” Borovitcky said. “Each year the Dawson County Woman’s Club awards scholarships to students from the sopho more class to attend the Northwest Georgia HOBY Leadership Conference.” At the conference, the scholarship winners will learn how to explore their unique leadership skills, she added. This year’s con ference will be held in June. A selection commit tee from the Dawson County Woman’s Club selected three sophomores from DCHS to send to the conference. “The three students this year impressed our selec tion committee with their academic accomplish ments, their achievements and extracurricular activi ties and sports, and their involvement in volunteer FROM 1A Star the candidates after me had very written out speeches and so after lis tening to them talk about all of their achievements I was a little bit intimidat ed,” Wright said. “So I was very surprised.” Wright said that, while she knew she had a high SAT score, she wasn’t expecting to beat out all of the other competitors at the region banquet. “Leading up I was not very confident in the fact that I was going to win; I knew I had a good SAT score but I’m not as much of a public speaker and a lot of the kids there were,” Wright said. “So it felt really good — I was sur prised because there were a lot of very impressive people there.” Wright added that she took the SAT three times, and while her first scores were high too it was the third time that pushed her score to the very top. “I had a high enough score the second time and I decided to take it a third time just to see, and I’m glad I did that because otherwise I wouldn’t have won district,” Wright said. “I only improved by like 20 points but that was enough to get to where I am.” Wright tied with the stu- dent representing Gainesville City from Lakeview Academy, and both students will go on to the state competition in Duluth on April 25. During the meeting, the board recognized mem bers of the eighth grade girls basketball team. activities,” Borovitcky said. “It seemed to us that each of these students spends every waking minute enriching either themselves or others. We’re so proud to have these wonderful young people represent us at HOBY.” This year’s three HOBY scholarship winners are Trinity Jade Brooks, Owen Evan Walls and Alex Bordeaux. Borovitcky called each winner forward, told the board and audience mem bers a littie about each one and their academic and community achievements, and presented them each with plaques honoring their award. School Board Appreciation In celebration of School Board Appreciation Week, Superintendent Damon Gibbs took a moment to recognize all of the mem bers of the Dawson County Board of Education. “It’s interesting when you’re in the position that I’m in that I work so close ly with each of our board members and I’ve worked with a few that are not with us anymore,” Gibbs said, “and to see the work and dedication that the board of education has in all the decisions that they make, it’s really unfortunate that there’s only a week a year that we stop and pause to celebrate our board of edu cation and say thank you.” Gibbs thanked the mem bers of the board for their hard work, and the faculty and staff in attendance at the meeting applauded in agreement. “On behalf of our chil dren and our community members in Dawson County, thank you very much for your service to our county,” Gibbs said to the board members. School and district spelling bee winners Several of the winners of the recent spelling bees were present at the meet ing, and Director of Instruction Support Secondary Schools Nathan Hand introduced the win ners and read the names of those who weren’t there. “This year we get to do something we weren’t able to do last year, and that’s recognize our amazing stu dents and their talents for spelling bee competitions,” During meeting, the board recognized members of the school system's maintenance and custodi an staff. Hand said. “Our fourth and fifth graders compete for elementary, and then we have a middle school spell ing bee and a junior high eighth grade spelling bee championship and our dis trict spelling bee.” This year’s spelling bee winners were: • Black’s Mill Elementary School: Brody Houseweart, fifth grade (district runner-up) • Robinson Elementary School: Charlee Bishop, fifth grade • Riverview Elementary School: Annabelle Clark, fourth grade • Kilough Elementary School: Amaleena Miller-Alien, fourth grade • Dawson County Middle School: Merik Wilkins, sev enth grade • Dawson County Junior High School: Aiden Taylor, eighth grade (district cham pion) 8th grade girls basketball team The board recognized the eighth grade girls basket ball team for winning the Mountain League Championship. Head Coach Natosha Beary brought the members of the team up in front of the board, introducing them and commending them for their hard work this season. “One thing we really try to talk about is it’s not an ‘all about me’ team,” Beary said. “This is a very hard working group, we had to weather the storm quite a few times this year but they were able to do that, they built themselves and built up each other to where when we were having a bad day, bad game, what ever... they were able to weather through it, pick each other up and finish out strong.” The assembled board and faculty applauded the team on their win, and all of the members of the team walked forward to shake hands with each member of the board. Maintenance, custodian staff The board recognized members of the Dawson County Schools mainte nance and custodian staff, thanking them for their hard work in the school system. Several members of the staff were in atten dance and came forward to introduce themselves and shake hands with the mem bers of the board. “We got a good group, we’re blessed, and I really appreciate all of them,” Director of Facilities and Maintenance Scott Morgan said. ^ortt^Georg/cj Hair Cutters Wright’s Region 2 win this year marks the first time that a student from Dawson County has won the region competition since the STAR program’s inception in 1958. Wright’s counselor, Cherie Ferguson, said that the win is not only a huge honor for Wright, but for the school system as a whole. “This is the first time that Dawson has won the region, so it’s a big deal for Megan and for our school system,” Ferguson said. “I knew if we had a shot it would be with her and she did it; and I know she’ll do great at state so it’s exciting.” Hope Honea, Wright’s STAR teacher, said that hearing her student’s name called as the region winner was an incredibly exciting and emotional moment for her and the rest of the school staff at the banquet. “When they announced it Mrs. Negley (DCHS principal) and I were so excited and I started cry ing,” Honea said. “I felt like when we got there we saw all of the prowess when we came in, and Megan is so humble so she said ‘oh no they’re really smart’, but then she beat them all so I’m super super proud of her.” At the state competi tion, Wright will go on to compete against all of the region winners for the title of the state STAR student. For the state competition, she and the other competitors will be interviewed in front of a panel of judges, so she said that between now and then she’ll be practicing interview techniques and other public speaking skills. “At this point I’m not going into state expecting to win, I’m going to try my hardest but state is even more competitive than region was,” Wright said. “I’m going to go into state and do my best but I’m not expecting that to make me a state winner and I’m okay with that because it’s such an honor anyways to get to state.” Auditions for Talented, Professional Hair Artisans North Georgia Hair Cutters will be holding auditions for talented professional hair artisans in the spring of 2022. For information on what to expect, deadlines, and to sign up for an audition, please visit our website at www. nort hgeo rgia ha i rcu tters.com 706-482-0541 2375 BURNT STAND ROAD (BETWEEN DAWSONVILLE & DAHLONEGA) Dawson County Humane Society a no kill shelter Doggy Spotlight Meet our sweet Bowser! This boy is nothing but a hunk of love in need of a family. Bowser came to us as a stray pick up so we don’t have much information on his temperament however, from what we’ve seen, we can tell that he is extremely loving and affectionate. This guy is higher up on our energy scale and we imagine he would do best in a home with middle aged kids to run and romp around with. Bowser also has excellent potential to go to a multiple dog home so long as proper introduction are made at our facility first to ensure compatibility. If you’re looking for your typical family friendly, go on a run, take a hike kind of dog, come see Bowser today. He is two years old and weighs 55 pounds. 706-265-9160 Bowser For more information contact the 706-265-9160 | 633 Martin Rd, Dawsonville Dawson County Humane Society Adjacent to the Rock Creek Sports Complex Visit our RESALE SHOP & BOUTIQUE Wed. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. | 54 S. Lumpkin Campground Rd. All proceeds benefits the Humane Society Dawsonville Veterinary Hospital 706-265-8381 ANH Collision Specialists 706-216-0992 103 Industrial Park Road, Dawsonville Bradley M. Maple CPA, PC 706-216-2362 2390 Thompson Rd • Ste 100 Dawsonville
