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6B I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I dawsonnews.com
Wednesday, April 27,2022
Chamber holds ribbon cutting for Tiger Threads
Erica Jones Dawson County News
On Tuesday April 19, the Dawson County Chamber of
Commerce held a ribbon cutting for Tiger Threads Boutique at
the DCHS College and Career Academy.
By Erica Jones
ejones@dawsonnews.com
On Tuesday April 19, the
Dawson County Chamber of
Commerce held a ribbon cutting
for Tiger Threads Boutique, a
student-run “store” at Dawson
County High School that is
aimed at providing professional
clothing to DCHS students who
are in the workforce or intern
ships.
Madelyn Lee and Abagail
Darlow, who are both juniors at
DCHS and members of Family,
Career and Community Leaders
of America (FCCLA), first start
ed Tiger Threads when Work-
Based Learning/Youth
Apprenticeship Coordinator
Kristy Moore told them about
the need for high school stu
dents to have professional attire
as they enter the workforce, take
on internships or participate in
work-based learning programs.
“We started this because Ms.
Moore came to FCCLA and she
really wanted to do something
for her students in the work-
based learning program or that
have internships or just students
that she knew that had jobs,”
Lee said. “She saw that there
was a need that a lot of them
could not afford the clothes they
needed for those; so they would
come to her and say, you know,
‘Ms. Moore, I need black scrubs
and I can’t just go out and buy
black scrubs for five days a
week’, so she came to Lori
Grant and Lori came to us and
thought that maybe we could do
this.”
Lee and Darlow jumped on
the idea and began going around
the community, collecting cloth
ing and funding for the boutique
and letting fellow students at the
high school know about their
project. According to Darlow,
the boutique gained traction
quickly with students who need
ed the clothes it offered.
“We’ve had lots of customers
already, and they’ve told Ms.
Moore and Ms. Grant that it’s
just so wonderful to get that
opportunity to get their first out
fit and be able to participate in
the work-based learning or the
work field, so it’s really been a
great success,” Darlow said. “It
took a lot of hard work but it
turned out really awesome and
it’s totally worth it.”
Tiger Threads collects dona
tions from the community, rang
ing from new dress clothes or
professional attire to monetary
and gift card donations that the
students then use to purchase
clothing to have in the boutique.
Students who need the clothing
offered through Tiger Threads
don’t have to pay for it, but rath
er are allowed to pick out and
keep what they need for their
job or work-based learning.
“This is available to any stu
dent in the school, it doesn’t just
have to be a work-based learning
student, it’s any student in the
school who needs something
specific for a job,” Moore said.
“We also host mock interviews
every year so some students
might not have clothes appropri
ate for an interview; we have stu
dents participating in competi
tions so they might need some
thing specific for competitions...
and they get to keep it so they
have it for the next time.”
Lee and Darlow will continue
to run Tiger Threads next year
during their senior year, but
added that they would love to
pass it on to students younger
than them and make it a project
run each year by juniors at the
high school.
Career, Technical and
Agricultural Education (CTAE)
Director Amy Smith said that
being able to offer a program
like Tiger Threads at the high
school is a helpful step toward
the school being able to help
students succeed.
“Half of what we do in educa
tion is removing barriers for stu
dents,” Smith said. “We take the
‘I can’t’ away so that when a
student comes to us and says ‘I
can’t take this job because I
don’t have work boots’ we’re
going to remove that barrier
immediately by taking care of
the boots for them.”
Before cutting the ribbon,
Dawson County Chamber of
Commerce President and CEO
Mandy Power applauded Lee
and Darlow for their idea and
their hard work to make Tiger
Threads happen.
“It’s such an amazing way to
give back to the community and
to give back to the students here;
we have a phenomenal work-
based learning program that is
gonna benefit from this,” Power
said. “This plays a vital role
because if they feel confident
with what they’re wearing and
how they’re presenting them
selves, that’s miles ahead of
where they’d be otherwise.”
For more information about
donating to Tiger Threads or
how to drop off donations, call
Dawson County High School at
706-265-6555 or go by the
College and Career Academy at
1665 Perimeter Road.
‘Ease dropping
taught me a
powerful lesson
Oh, the things a child can learn when she hears a
conversation between her parents.
It was early summer, when a misty dew glistened
the grass, the cows grazed in the pasture, and the
colorful birds flittered
around the porch, sing
ing happily like an old
Disney movie.
I was seven.
Dressed for a day of
romping and reading
among the maple trees
by the creek, I wore
shorts and a homemade shirt, my long hair divided
into pigtails and my feet, as always, bare. From May
to October, my tiny feet were stained in the stubborn
red of the Georgia clay.
Mama, an unflappable mountain woman, didn’t
mind. She’d look at my evening bathwater, colored
by the day’s dust, shake her head at the sight of my
feet, then hand me a bar of Lava soap. “Scrub ‘em as
good as you can. It’s a good thing you wear socks on
Sundays.”
With a book clutched under my arm, I was started
toward the screen door and my day’s adventure, pad
ding through the living room when I heard the
hushed serious tones that lifted up and drifted from
the kitchen breakfast table.
I stopped to “ease drop”. This is what country kids
do - we ease in quietly to listen covertly to conversa
tion. City kids eavesdrop. No one realizes the skill it
takes to ease drop.
My parents never fought. They argued or dis
agreed but there was never any shouting, name call
ing (except for Daddy calling Mama “stubborn as an
old farm mule”), or ugliness. Mama, on rare occa
sion, would drop a tear or two but mostly she pouted
and Daddy stewed. Then, after a day or two, one of
‘em said something kindly to the other and all else
was cast into the sea of forgetfulness.
Being frugal mountain people, they saw no sense
in arguing over the same thing twice. It was a waste
of time and effort that could be put to better use
“sommers” else. The conversation I overhead that
morning was different. Daddy used a pondering,
wistful voice and Mama listened keenly, asking her
usual bright, insightful questions.
“I don’t know what to do,” Daddy said quietly, his
arms folded on the kitchen table, a cigarette pinched
between two fingers and a cup of coffee with cream
and sugar nearby. “It’d be a lot.”
I peeped around the comer in time to see Mama,
hands folded, straighten up then speak in the self-
assured voice she used when she was certain. The
tone that indicated there would be no turning back or
defeat. Whatever it took to do whatever was needed,
she would rise to the challenge.
“Ralph, if you want that farm, buy it and I’ll cut
every comer necessary to make the payments.”
This is what an ease dropping, peeping seven-
year-old will never forget: her daddy, who is sliced
between “want” and “worry” lifting his head up with
watery gratitude filling his eyes and studying, for a
moment, his stubbom-as-an-old-farm mule wife.
Her dark eyes met his green ones and not one tiny
muscle in her face wavered.
He nodded, a slight smile of appreciation glancing
his face. “I’ll call the bank today.” He snuffed out his
cigarette, took a final gulp of coffee then stood. As
he passed Mama’s chair, he placed a work-calloused
hand on her shoulder and gripped it tightly - a big
show of emotion for Appalachian folks.
“Thanky, Bonelle.”
The next morning, Mama baked extra biscuits,
fried additional sausage, and scrambled eggs. She
made sandwiches, wrapped them in napkins and
placed them carefully into a loaf bread bag. It would
become a lingering snapshot of my childhood -
Daddy toting his lunch in a Sunbeam bag.
Together, they bought 100 acres and paid it off by
hard work and saving. And, though they never knew
it, the ease dropping little girl learned a powerful les
son.
If you set your mind to it, you can do it.
Ronda Rich is the best-selling author of What Southern
Women Know About Faith. Visit www.rondarich.com to
sign up for her weekly newsletter.
RONDA RICH
Columnist
Elections board preps for midterm primary
By Julia Fechter
jfechter@dawsonnews.com
Residents will soon be able to cast
their ballots in person for candidates
running in the general primary election
on Tuesday, May 24.
The Dawson County Board of
Elections and Voter Registration con
vened for a regular meeting on April
19, a little over a month before the big
day.
Advance in-person voting will be
allowed from May 2-20 at the Dawson
County Board of Elections Office,
located at 96 Academy Ave. in
Dawsonville.
Polls there will be open Mondays
through Fridays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
and May 7 and 14 from 9 a.m. to 5
p.m. The deadline to register to vote is
Monday, April 25 by 5 p.m.
Individuals who are either elderly,
disabled or military members need to
request absentee-by-mail ballots each
election year in order to get ballots that
way for the rest of the year. The absen
tee request window continues from
now until May 13 by 5 p.m.
A request form is available at:
https://securemyabsenteeballot.sos.ga.
gov/s/. Applicants must use their
license or another form of specified
identification as notated on the form.
Ballots must be returned to the
Dawson County Elections Office no
later than 7 p.m. on Election Day.
Ballots can either be mailed with
sufficient postage or delivered to the
office in person by the voter or some
one that’s been given written authori
zation to deliver it.
Starting May 2, people delivering
their advance ballots in person can
deposit them in a drop box inside of
the elections office.
On Election Day, the voting pre
cincts in Dawson County will be as
follows:
West: Fire Station Road at Hubbard
Road
Central: Dawson County Elections
Office
East: Fire Station 2 on Liberty Drive
(next to Tractor Supply)
If you are unsure about your day-of
voting location, you can check online
at https ://www.dawsoncounty.org/elec-
tions or call the Dawson County
Elections Office at (706) 344-3640.
People who want to see a sample bal
lot can go to https://mvp.s0s.ga.g0v/s/.
Challenges
Like Georgia’s other counties,
Dawson County will hold off on
implementation of the GaRVIS voter
registration system due to software
issues during rollout, according to
Board of Elections and Registration
Director Glenda Ferguson.
She said the glitches were partially
access-based, as the system limited
people who could enter data to those
in certain roles or designations. The
decreased accessibility made it so
Ferguson and her colleagues “just
couldn’t do voter registration.”
And so, about a week after starting
with GaRVIS, the local elections office
paused the switchover before a large
amount of voter data could be trans
ferred over to it.
The Secretary of State’s office
acquired GaRVIS earlier this year to
take the place of ElectioNet or “ENet.”
During the 2020 voting season, ENet
went down due to processing the
extraordinary influx of in-person and
absentee voters, and outages exacer
bated long wait lines as a result.
Dawson County was able to patch
the immediate strain at the time by
using a third-party, web-based soft
ware called EZVote, but that tempo
rary approach had its downside, too, as
it didn’t instantly give credit for voting
like ENet does,
“We purchased EZ Vote as a third-
party software and we kept rolling,”
Ferguson said. “As long as we had the
internet, we kept rolling along. We had
to work late hours at night to give
credit for voting because EZ Vote
doesn’t immediately give credit for
voting like ENet does.”
Ferguson elaborated that she expects
the new software launch will be revis
ited statewide after the June runoff
election in Georgia.
While she admitted that ENet can
still be slow at times, she credited it as
better for smaller counties in the
meantime.
Board members also discussed the
audit logs that citizens have requested
several times as part of open records
requests since 2020. These logs record
every keystroke and move made at a
given image-casting or ICC machine.
In response to Vice-Chairman Dale
Holland, Ferguson said that while
some information is not able to be
shown, people making the requests
may be looking for who’s accessing
the machines or exact numbers if the
voting counts seem off.
“If we get an open records request,
have we got that [data] readily avail
able so we don’t have to search for it?”
, said board member Dan Pichon.
They back each log up twice, via the
ICC and a jump drive, Ferguson
added. Also, she floated the idea of
starting to copy over the log sheets of
who’s processing what for record
keeping purposes as well.
“It’s not that anything’s trying to be
held back or not disclosed...we want
to be as transparent as possible,” she
said.
Two citizens, Anna Gunning and
Beth Mercure, shared their concerns
about voting security after listening to
the elections board. Gunning pointed
out that she’s heard, both personally
and when asking other elections offi
cials, that some people are getting
mailed multiple others’ voter registra
tion cards.
Further discussion yielded that that
could be due to reasons such as a mili
tary member leaving a last-known
address or if a previous house was at a
property.
For inactive people whose cards
were sent to an outdated address, vot
ing would make them active.
If they come to vote, they’re inac
tive, and that’s going to make them
active,” Ferguson said. “But we’re
going to put a challenge on that...
because there are different challenges
that could be made according to code.
We have a fiduciary duty as an elec
tions board that if we know that some
thing’s not right or accurate, we chal
lenge that.”
The county also coordinates with
city elections officials to ensure that,
say, tenants whose landlords have dis
continued city utilities can still vote,
provided they respond to a challenge
by bringing proof of residency to vote.
Typically, it takes eight to nine years
for someone to fall off of the election
roll, Ferguson said.
In that respect, Mercure asked about
deceased individuals still being on the
voter rolls. When county elections offi
cials identify such a person, said
Ferguson, they’re labeled as “canceled
for deceased” in the registration sys
tem.
They used to have to wait three to
six months to receive vital statistics
data before being able to change
someone’s status. But now, the elec
tions office can use obituaries and the
now more-frequently updated vital
stats to make a determination.
Gunning also mentioned double vot
ing, since “not all but a lot” of the
homes near hers on Burnt Mountain
are second homes.
“If any person does that and if it’s
found out, it’s a felony offense,”
Ferguson said.
The director did recognize, though,
that the mistake, though technically
fraudulent, sometimes isn’t intentional,
and people just want to make sure that
they can vote.
She added that Georgia’s system
will not allow for a person to be a reg
istered voter in two of the state’s coun
ties. Although Georgia belongs to an
organization called the Electronic
Registration Information Center, it
doesn’t automatically cancel duplicate
registrations like other states.
“I think it’s something we need to
look into doing.. .it would be so nice if
we had even a
requirement where the states con
nected with each other and talked,”
Ferguson said.
Dawson County Schools hires new transportation director
By Erica Jones
ejones@dawsonnews.com
At the most recent meeting of the
Dawson County Board of Education,
board members approved the appoint
ment of PJ Huggins as the new
Director of Transportation.
Huggins will replace Jim Rich, who
will be retiring. She comes to Dawson
County with 11 years of experience in
pupil transportation, according to a
release by the Dawson County School
System.
“She started with the Banks County
School System, where she earned her
CDLs and worked for five years driv
ing a route, training new driv
ers and learning the ins and
outs of pupil transportation,”
the release said. “Mrs.
Huggins moved to the Hall
County School District, and
has been serving as an assis
tant director for transportation
for the last six years. Since
Hall County is a large system,
it has given Mrs. Huggins a chance to
see the different approaches for pupil
transportation.”
Huggins also leads the Pioneer
RESA Job-A-Like for transportation
directors across northeast Georgia and
serves on the transportation board for
the state of Georgia.
Huggins is married to Gene
Huggins, and they have five
children and three grandchil
dren. Outside of work, she
enjoys riding her motorcycle
with her husband, traveling,
listening to music and being
active in her church.
Huggins will begin her new
position in May, and will work with
the current leadership to help ensure a
smooth transition.
“Mrs. Huggins is looking forward
to working with the staff and serving
the students of Dawson County,” the
release said.
Huggins
