Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current, April 13, 2022, Image 1

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Dawson County news., April 13, 2022, Image 1

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Newspaper Page TextElliott fades late after long run at front. sporis,ib Easter egg hunts coming up in, around Dawson. INSIDE, 6A DawsonCountyNews WEDNESDAY I APRIL 13, 2022 DaWSOflNeWS ^com DAWSONVULE, GEORGIA $1.00 'We're in a fight for the soul of our state' Kemp makes first stop of reelection tour in Dawson By Julia Fechter jfechter@dawsonnews.com Local citizens, aspiring and current politicians alike happily greeted Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) after he stepped off the bus at Dawson County res taurant Papa’s Place, the first stop in his 2022 reelection cam paign tour. After concluding his visit at Papa’s Place Thursday morn ing, Kemp visited the Dawson County Sheriff’s Office to thank local law enforcement. “We’re literally in a fight for the soul of our state. I’ve said that a lot, but it’s true...the rea son we’re in a fight for the soul of our state [is that] when you look around the country, I think people now know more than ever it matters who your gover nor is,” Kemp said. Kemp was elected as the state’s governor in 2018, beat ing Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams. He faces a pri mary challenge against multiple other Republican candidates, including former U.S. Senator and businessman David Perdue. If he prevails in the May 24 pri mary election, Kemp could face off against Abrams again dur ing the fall general election. Current state house represen tative and Dawson County native Will Wade (R) enthusias tically introduced the governor, pointing out his leadership dur ing the 2022 General Assembly was one of the state’s “most conservative sessions.” Before continuing his speech, Kemp referenced the severe weather across the state earlier this week, mentioning the at least one fatality from the Tuesday tornado and the destruction wrought on homes in places like Bryan County. The governor considered it “very lucky [that] the storm See Kemp 12A Photos courtesy Lt. Brad Hardman for DCN Gov. Brian Kemp speaks during a reelection campaign stop at local restaurant Papa's Place. From left, Ga. First Lady Marty Kemp, Brian Kemp, District 9 Ga. House Rep. Will Wade and Dawson County Sheriff Jeff Johnson. Woman turns struggle into art . "TVWS SIDE UP HANDLE WITH CM" T W/V Mt if If t ■ Wf 91 1 iiM ■ Ji i A A &MF ' b Photos by Erica Jones Dawson County News Dawsonville woman Vickie Croft has turned her time in the house battling Lyme disease into art by making everything from canvases to bricks into her own handmade masterpieces. Vickie Croft paints 700 bricks to build decorative wall Croft painted 700 brightly colored, individualized bricks that her friend helped con struct into a wall in front of her home. By Erica Jones ejones@dawsonnews.com About six years ago, Dawsonville woman Vickie Croft was diagnosed with Lyme disease. She has been artistic and loved making crafts her whole life, but when she suddenly had so much more time at home because of the painful disease she began creating art out of anything she could find, from rocks to soda cans to canvas es. Since then, Croft has paint ed thousands of rocks to dis perse in the community for people to find, and has just completed her most recent project: a brightly colored decorative wall in front of her house made out of hand- painted bricks. Croft’s first big project was painting rocks, an idea that was inspired several years ago when she found a painted rock while out in Cumming with her sister. She began painting rocks to distribute to parks and other local spots, and since then she has painted over 3,400 rocks. She still loves to paint small rocks for her daughter, a teacher at Robinson Elementary School, to take to school and hide for the students to find. But when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Croft said that suddenly the rocks she’d been able to purchase in bulk to paint before became impossi ble to find. Because of this, she had to get creative with what she was able to turn into artwork. “I started doing these bricks because during the Covid thing for some reason nobody had the rocks,” Croft said. “These bricks have been way harder to paint than the rocks, but they didn’t have any rocks.” Croft painted hundreds upon hundreds of the bricks, and as she accumulated more and more of the pieces of art she knew she had to come up with a way to display them. In front of her house stood an old brick wall that was falling apart, and she came up with the idea of rebuilding the wall with her freshly painted bricks. “The brick wall was there and I had mosaic stuff all over it but it was all falling off it had been there so long,” Croft said. “So my friend scraped it all off and hauled all the bricks down here and hauled them back out there and stuck them on the wall.” Croft’s friend, Brett Jackson, pitched in hours of See Bricks 12A Rotary Club of donates $lKtohelp in Ukraine By Erica Jones ejones@dawsonnews.com At this week’s meeting of the Rotary Club of Dawson County, the club held a presenta tion for a contribution of $1000 to the Disaster Response Fund, aimed at helping provide relief to refugees and other victims of the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. Jo Brewer, president of the Rotary Club of Dawson County, said that contributing to the Disaster Response Fund in emergencies like this is one of the many ways that she and her fellow Rotarians work to help accomplish their goal of “service over self’. “This tears our hearts out because there’s Rotary clubs in Ukraine and Russia and my heart goes out to them,” Brewer said. “It’s just a horrible situation, so we’ll do whatever we can do to help.” The Disaster Response Fund was created by The Rotary Foundation as a way for See Ukraine 14A Man arrested with marijuana, illicit substances By Julia Fechter jfechter@dawsonnews.com One man from northwestern Georgia remains in custody after deputies discovered multiple drugs in his vehicle. Ceddrick Turner, 46, of Rockmart was arrested by the Dawson County Sheriff’s Office following a traffic stop near the Ga. 9 and Dawson Forest Road roundabout on March 29 around 11 p.m. Turner faces felony charges for possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, vehicle containing false or secret compartments and four counts of possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute. He was also charged with misdemeanor obstruction of an officer, a drug-related DUI and having an improper tag display. The Georgia State Patrol cited Turner for alleg edly having a tinted license plate cover. During a search of Turner’s car, two DCSO officers opened the 2003 Fincoln Navigator’s hood, and the suspect immedi ately began to flee on foot, according to multiple DCSO warrants. Turner allegedly refused a deputy’s multi ple verbal commands before being caught. After apprehending him, the deputies See Turner 12A Turner 9 0 9 9 4 Inside Volume 8, Number 15 © 2021, Dawson County News Dawsonville, Georgia Events 2B Classifieds 6B Dear Abby 4B Deaths 2A Legals 7B Opinion 7A Sports 1B 3A BOC talks library, IT upgrades. 4A Teen who wins art contest will have work shown in U.S. Capitol.