4A I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I dawsonnews.com
Wednesday, October 5,2022
Photo courtesy of Becky Callihan
Dawson County CoronerTed Bearden stands with his family during the Georgia Coroners Association
annual conference after receiving the award and title of the 2022 Coroner of theYear for the state.
FROM 1A
Coroner
year it was just very
humbling and very emo
tional,” Bearden said. “I
have received this award
before but this one was
special and one of the
things that made it spe
cial was that they snuck
all my family in without
my knowledge so they
were all there.”
Bearden has been with
the coroner’s office for
over 30 years, and he and
his family run Bearden
Funeral Home in Dawson
County. As the Dawson
County Coroner, Bearden
said that he’s made it his
mission to not just do his
best for his county but
also to be an advocate for
other coroners in the
state.
In doing so, he has
worked with other coro
ners and state legislators
for the past several years
to help bring attention to
several issues including
coroners’ salaries, which
have not been addressed
by the legislature in 31
years, and to help pave
the way for those who
will take up the mantle of
coroner after he and oth
ers currently serving have
stepped down.
“Most of the coroners
in this state have held
their offices for many
years, but they’re coming
to an end, and unless we
correct the wrong that is
out there you’re not
going to be able to find
good people willing to
hold the job,” Bearden
said. “The coroner’s
office is a service-based
office; it’s a very valu
able service to the com
munity and I’m just try
ing to make sure that in
the future there is a sys
tem in place where
you’re going to have
good people willing to
hold that position.”
Bearden said that while
holding the office of cor
oner is sometimes a diffi
cult job, he’s incredibly
grateful to work with a
great staff of qualified
individuals who help
make it easier. He and his
deputy coroners, one of
whom is his son Wesley
Bearden, hold a com
bined total of 90 years of
experience in the field, a
number unequaled by any
other coroner’s office in
the state.
“One thing that has
helped me to be able to
do the things I do is
because I’m just sur
rounded by good people,
wonderful people, and I
could not do the job that I
do without them,”
Bearden said. “I could
not do what I do without
the support of the staff
here, nor could I do what
I do without the support
that I have been given
throughout the years
from the county commis
sion.”
Bearden is also incredi
bly grateful for the never-
ending support of his
family, he said.
“Without the support of
my family there’s no way
I could do what I do,”
Bearden said.
In addition to winning
the Coroner of the Year
Award once before,
Bearden has also received
the Distinguished Service
Award from the Georgia
Coroners Association two
times in the past. He said
that he is humbled and
honored to have been
selected as the 2022
Coroner of the Year again
this year.
“It’s humbling to know
that your peers and the
other coroners across the
state have a respect and
appreciation for the work
that you do,” Bearden
said. “It was humbling;
that’s the only way I
know to describe it.”
He said that while his
name may be on the
award, he couldn’t have
won it without his family
and staff, and that in the
end his goal isn’t to win
awards but to do his job to
the best of his ability and
to help people in the com
munity.
“I don’t do what I do
for awards and accolades;
while they’re special and
it’s nice to receive them
they don’t mean as much
to me as just being here to
help others,” Bearden
said. “It’s not the Ted
Bearden show — it’s not
a one-man show, it is a
team effort and that team
consists of family and
staff — and without that it
just would not happen.”
FROM 1A
Caray
up their classrooms to our
kids so they can have the
least restrictive environ
ment — everyone has just
been really open to trying
to grow this program to
just be really competitive
with some of the bigger
counties that we’re sur
rounded by.”
Caray said that when she
first graduated high school
she originally wanted to
major in international busi
ness, until a family vaca
tion to Florida opened her
eyes to a different kind of
teaching.
“We took a trip to St.
Augustine and I was out
shopping with my mom
and I saw this teacher with
all these kids from the deaf
and blind school; I started
researching it and Flagler
had a deaf and blind school
so originally I wanted to
go to Flagler,” Caray said.
“When we came back here
I started volunteering with
the special Olympics and I
just really had a passion for
these kids and advocating
for them, so I changed my
major, graduated from
Brenau, got my masters
from Central Michigan
University and got my spe-
cialist from Lincoln
Memorial University.”
Caray herself is dyslexic
and has reading processing
problems, so she said that
she understands the strug
gles of some of her stu
dents on a deep, personal
level.
“I had to go through
reading learning labs over
the summer and tutors and
everything just to get
through high school, so I
know some of the chal
lenges these kids face,”
Caray said. “I like to get
involved with the kids,
model for them what needs
to be done, and get down
there with them, share my
story with them about
being dyslexic and show
them that I make mistakes
too so it’s okay to make
mistakes; you don’t have to
be perfect.”
Caray has served as a
special education instructor
at all grade levels and is in
her 27th year of teaching.
She came to Dawson
County in 2016, when she
decided that she wanted to
do more in her work with
job site training and pre
paring students to enter the
real world after high
school.
“I realized I really need
ed to spread my wings; I
wanted to do something
more with transition and
job sites and I wanted to
challenge myself so I came
over here to Dawson, fell
in love with it, couldn’t
wait to get started and here
I am,” Caray said. “With
everybody’s help we’ve
kind of taken the program
to the next level.”
In her position, Caray
prepares her students for
life after high school by
helping them find jobs in
the community and teach
ing them skills like bud
geting, scheduling
appointments and com
pleting medical forms.
The goal, she said, is to
get the students out in the
community and working
in whatever way is best
for them and their specific
needs.
“I tell the kids by the
time you get to high
school you’ve already
learned everything possi
ble you can learn in the
classroom, so now our job
is to bridge the gap from
high school to you going
out there in the real world
and contributing to your
community and being a
part of society,” Caray
said. “We just try to take
the baby steps to get them
to be as independent as
possible — taking the
skills here that we’ve
learned over the past years
in elementary and middle
school and generalizing it
to a different area.”
Caray said that her
classroom motto is “Why
not?”, and that she
encourages her students
daily to “turn your can’ts
into cans and your dreams
into plans”.
“I tell them ‘you can do
anything you put your
mind to; it’s okay to make
mistakes and that’s how
you grow’,” Caray said.
“When they say ‘I don’t
think I can do this’, I ask
them ‘why not?’ and tell
them that you can totally
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do this. My job is to help
them find a job and to
help modify that job to
make them successful.”
She added that, while
she has had offers in the
past to be a department
chair or other positions
other than a teacher, she
wouldn’t ever want to
leave her students and her
classroom.
“I have my specialist
degrees in leadership and
administration but I can’t
leave the kids, I don’t
want to leave the class
room,” Caray said.
Caray said that she’s
incredibly excited to have
been named as the dis
trict’s teacher of the year,
and that she couldn’t do
what she does without the
support of her colleagues
and school administrators.
“It’s not something you
do on your own; you have
people to bring you up,
keep you going, keep you
up when you’re down and
vice versa and that’s really
what ‘IDawson, one fami
ly, one excellence togeth
er’ is about,” Caray said.
“It’s all of us; when you
have an amazing team and
you put the kids and their
needs first that’s the best.
I’m very thankful, hum
bled and blessed to be
here and to be surrounded
by such an awesome com
munity and Dawson fami
ly”
Voting Schedule
For the November 8, 2022
General/Special Election
Voter Registration Deadline: October 11th (new and changes)
Advance Voting:
October 17-November 4, 2022 -
Mon - Fri 8am to 5pm
Sat-October 22 & 29,2022 - 9am to 5pm
At Board of Elections office -
96 Academy Ave
• October 22 is Moonshine Festival Saturday.
~ Note: Absentee by mail ballot applications for elderly/disabled/
military need to be requested each election year in order to receive
ballots, by mail, for the remainder of that year; not sooner than
78 days prior to an election on the application supplied by the
Secretary of State’s office.
August 22, 2022 is the due date to begin requesting absentee by
mail for this election.
https://www.sos.ga.gov/search?division=&board=&type=&query=
Absentee+Ballot+Application
All Polls will be open Election Day from 7:00 am - 7:00 pm
1. ) WEST precinct - at Fire Station #6 on Hubbard Rd
2. ) CENTRAL precinct - at Board of Elections office, 96 Academy
Avenue
3. ) EAST precinct - at Fire Station #2 on Liberty Drive (next to
Tractor Supply)
If in question about your voting location, and/or to view a
^sample ballot you may visit
“My Voter Page” @ http://www.mvp.sos.ga.gov/MVP/mvp,
Our web page https://wwwdawsoncountyga.gov/elections or
call the Elections & Registration office at 706-344-3640.
Sample ballots will be available first of October.
~ To avoid heavy voting lines day of election, it is strongly advised
to Advance Vote (See advance voting times above)
(No voting on Monday prior to all elections).
PLEASE NOTE: Due to continual concerns of health risks due to
COVID-19 variants, we ask that you exercise social protocol as
suggested. Any necessary changes will be posted to our website
and Facebook page.
