Wednesday, October 5,2022
dawsonnews.com I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I 7A
Medical spa marks spending
18 years in Dawson County
By Julia Fechter
jfechter@dawsonnews.com
As people gathered in
groups laughing and telling
stories with cocktails and
finger foods in hand, the
lobby of Serenity Medical
Health and Beauty Spa felt
more like a family living
room than the entry to a
business this past Thursday.
The spa, located at 1080
Lumpkin Campground
Road South, Suite 200,
recently marked its 18 year
anniversary in June. Staff,
customers and product rep
resentatives gathered at the
spa Sept. 29 for an after
noon of lively conversation,
games and skin treatment
demonstrations.
“It was like a dream
come true ... [it’s] a dream
job,” co-owner Sharon
Keating said of opening the
business.
She and her husband,
William Keating, moved to
the Dawson County area
from Pennsylvania in 2002,
and they started the spa two
years later.
Sharon brought with her
30 years of experience in
different aspects of the
health and wellness fields,
including her time as a
medical/surgical nurse and
a researcher in testing new
drugs in clinical trials.
William brought his
experience as a doctor
who’s board certified in the
areas of family practice and
addiction medicine. He
founded a medical practice
that’s next door to where
his wife’s spa now is.
The spa originally
debuted off of Hightower
Parkway, near Ga. 53, but
they moved to the current
location in 2010.
“I’ve always had a pas
sion for the beauty industry
and being a nurse, I also
had a passion for medical
things,” Sharon said. “At
the time I opened the spa,
that was a fairly new con
cept of pairing medical
with beauty treatments.”
The medical spa’s offer
ings include eyelash exten
sions, eyebrow microblad
ing, facials, body sculpting,
Botox cosmetic and hair
regrowth treatments, as
well as a range of other
skincare options.
During the spa’s anniver
sary event, Sharon demon
strated the CoolPeel treat
ment that her business
offers. This non-surgical
laser technology is used to
treat sun damage, lines and
wrinkles or other skin
blemishes in order to revi
talize skin appearance.
In order to adapt her
business, Sharon said she
keeps abreast of all the new
Julia Fechter Dawson County News
Serenity Medical Health and Beauty Spa owner
Sharon Keating demonstrates a CoolPeel skin
treatment on customer Lainey Ambery during the
spa's Sept. 29 anniversary event.
beauty and wellness treat
ments, devices and inject-
ables coming out onto the
market.
It’s meant a lot to her to
be on this business journey
as a member of the
Dawson community.
“We weathered the last
economic downturn ...
actually, we were barely
open for a few years. I just
had a few appointments
here and there,” Sharon
said.
It took almost three years
for her facility to be built,
but the wait was well worth
it.
“Then in 2010, when we
moved here, it started turn
ing around and booming
again,” she added.
In addition to customers,
the growing sense of com
munity created by the med
ical spa has also drawn in
newer employees, too.
Esthetician Desarae
Valadez started working at
the business about three
years ago. Her parents lived
near Dawson County when
she was attending estheti
cian school in Roswell.
“Back when I was in
esthetician school, I didn’t
feel confident that I was
really educated and pre
pared for the medical side
of it,” Valadez said.
Her solution was to go to
the medical spa she knew
about in town-Sharon’s
business.
“I decided that I was
going to be bold and ask
her, ‘What would make
you wanna hire me?”’,
Valadez said.
So Sharon showed her
by offering some cursory
training and then sending
her on her way.
“A couple years later
after I graduated, I sent my
mom in here to grab some
makeup,” said Valadez,
“and Sharon asked my
mom, ‘Where’d you get
your eyebrows done?’ And
she told her. Then she
(Sharon) goes, ‘I need your
daughter to work here.’”
About “nine times out of
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Director
school [or] mentoring
programs ... things like
that,” Leist said. “I want
to make sure that we’re
doing everything we can
for our community. That’s
what we’re here for.”
So far in his role, Leist
pointed to employee
retention and recruitment
as the department’s over
all “number one issue.”
Hiring more personnel
was likewise something
Chief Thompson had spo-
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10,” Valadez shared that
Sharon and a group of
ladies can be caught in one
of the back rooms having
“way too much fun” during
treatment sessions.
“It’s the most laid back
and comfortable place I’ve
worked,” Valadez said.
“The med spa industry can
be really uptight, and that’s
the great thing about
Sharon in general is that
she’s down to earth,
approachable, and she
treats her clients and staff
like family.”
Sharon added later that
her business is, at its core, a
“people business.”
“We’ve become friends,
and we’re on a journey
together, not just in beauty,
but in life,” she said, “so it’s
been a real pleasure and a
real honor to be a part of
their lives. That’s really
what this celebration is all
about.”
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Brett Meeks, MD
Orthopedic Surgery
now seeing patients
ken to the Board of
Commissioners about
during multiple public
meetings over the last
year.
“It’s becoming a very
competitive occupation,
especially in Georgia,”
Leist said. “Jurisdictions
are jockeying for who can
provide the best pay and
the best benefits, so it’s
going to be a challenge to
work through that.”
He added that resolving
the issue was “going to
take time,” given the
expenses associated with
adding personnel and
equipment.
NGPG Orthopedic Surgery
1315 Jesse Jewell Parkway
Suite 300
Gainesville, GA 30501
108 Prominence Court
Suite 200
Dawsonville, GA 30534
For more information:
770-848-6190
ngpg.org/meeks
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^ Northeast Georgia
PHYSICIANS GROUP
