About Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 2, 2022)
6A I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I dawsonnews.com Wednesday, November 2,2022 Photo courtesy of Edie Chodora Amicalola Beekeepers Association members present DCHS junior Athena Martinez with a $200 scholarship during the club's end of the year banquet. From left: club member Edie Chodora, Martinez and club memberTim Evans. Amicalola Beekeepers Association gives $200 scholarship to student By Erica Jones ejones@dawsonnews.com Recently, members of the Amicalola Beekeepers Association presented a Dawson County High School junior with a $200 scholarship during the orga nization’s annual banquet. According to club member Edie Chodora, Dawson County High School Junior Athena Martinez is planning to begin beekeeping this spring, so club members presented her with a $200 scholarship during their recent banquet at Cornerstone Christian Church in Dawsonville. “Bee club members are committed to mentoring Athena as she begins bee keeping in the spring of 2023,” Chodora said. The Amicalola Beekeepers Association is a club of Georgia bee keepers with memberships in Dawson, Lumpkin, Forsyth and Hall counties. For those who are interested in learning more about beekeeping or in joining the club, members meet on the third Tuesday of each month at 6:30 p.m. at the Dawson County Extension Agency, located at 298 Academy Avenue in downtown Dawsonville. Photographer’s work goes to international exhibition By Erica Jones ejones@dawsonnews.com Local photographer Richard Hayes has recently had two of his photographs accepted into an interna tional photographic compe tition and will have his work on display in one of the largest annual conven tions and expos for profes sional photographers. Hayes owns Voyage Fine Art Photography in Dawsonville along with his wife, Jessica, and has been in the photo and video business for over 12 years. According to a recent press release, two of his photo graphs have recently been accepted into the Merit Collection of Professional Photographers of America’s (PPA’s) 2022 International Photographic Competition. “A panel of 36 eminent jurors from across the United States selected the top photographs from over 5,000 total submitted entries at PPA headquarters in Atlanta,” the release said. “Judged against a standard of excellence, 2212 images were selected for the Merit Collection and 1013 imag es (roughly 20%) were Photo courtesy of Richard Hayes selected for the esteemed Imaging Excellence Collection—the best of the best.” The images in the Imaging Excellence Collection will all be pub lished in the much-antici pated “Imaging Excellence Collection” book by Marathon Press. His photograph, titled “Traversing Contrast”, will be on display at the upcom ing Imaging USA — Nashville, TN, which will be held January 22-24. Imaging USA is one of the largest annual conventions and expos for professional photographers. “Hayes’ photograph will be in the International Photographic Exhibition alongside other top photo graphic works from the competition and traveling and special invitational dis plays,” the release said. “These images constitute one of the world’s largest annual exhibits of profes sional photography gath ered simultaneously in one place.” In addition to taking senior photos, high end portraits and wedding pho tos through his photogra phy business, Hayes teach es full time as the Audio Visual Technology and Film teacher at Dawson County High School, shar ing his passion for the art form with his students in the classroom. He said that he is excited and honored to have his work selected for the honor and to have it displayed in the upcoming exhibition. “The medium of photo and video has given me many amazing experiences for over a decade,” Hayes said. “I am truly grateful to have reached a level of mastery in which I am being recognized by my peers. My wife and I look forward to creating many more amazing photos and videos in the future.” Local farriers visit DCHS, teach students about shoeing horses By Erica Jones ejones@dawsonnews.com On Thursday Oct. 27, two local farriers visited Dawson County High School to teach the juniors and seniors in an animal science class all about shoeing horses. Morgan Hurst and Derek Perry, both of whom are farriers with the Georgia Professional Farriers Association, talk ed through the anatomy of a horse’s hooves and tech niques for cleaning and shaping a horse’s hooves, making a horseshoe cus tom fit to the horse, and correctly nailing the shoe to the horse’s hoof. Students were able to watch each step in real time as Hurst and Perry demonstrated on one of the students’ horses, Lady. First, Hurst cleaned the horse’s hooves, filing them down to remove sharp edges. He then measured the hooves and Perry cre ated custom shoes for the horse using the forge and variety of blacksmith tools they had brought with them. Hurst then demon strated how to nail the shoes to the horse’s hooves, clip off the sharp ends of the nails and file down the nails to finish with a smooth surface on each hoof. Hurst and Perry have been working as farriers for nearly 30 years and 27 years respectively. Hurst said that he first started into the trade as a way to earn money to put himself through school, but decid ed to take it up full time. “We had had horses growing up and I had kind of started shoeing horses to help pay for school, and then I found out that I was a better horse-shoer than I was a student,” Hurst said. Keith Pankey, who Erica Jones Dawson County News Local farrier Morgan Hurst cleans and files a stu dent's horse's hooves during a horse shoeing demonstration at DCHS on Oct. 27. teaches the animal science class at the high school, said that a demonstration like the one Hurst and Perry brought to his stu dents is useful in many more than just one way. “This covers the kids who are interested in the metalworking aspect, you’ve got the livestock aspect, you’ve got the ana tomical and the veterinary aspect of it,” Pankey said. While his animal sci ence class isn’t centered on equine science, he said that the industry is a big one in Georgia, and sever al of his students either have horses already or hope to go into a similar field to Hurst and Perry. “This being the animal science class, equine is not one of our big centers, but equine is big in Georgia as far as recreational horses,” Pankey said. “Cherokee County is one of the larg est equine producers in the state and it’s a several mil lion dollar industry in Georgia.” For his animal science classes, Pankey added that he always tries to bring in hands-on, interesting dem onstrations and activities for his students to learn from. In the past, this has included bringing in lla mas to discuss alternative livestock and spending a day with a local large ani mal veterinarian. This is the first time that he’s had a farrier demonstrate shoe ing a horse to his students, he said, and he was pleased with how the dem onstration turned out. Dawson County Humane Society a no kill shelter 706-265-9160 Doggy Spotlight Scarlett and Redman Meet our dear Redman and Scarlett. These two are the perfect pair for a quiet relaxed home that is looking for a couple of furry companions. They both walk excellent on leash and are very easy to handle at the same time by one person. While they appreciate the occasional walk, these two don’t require much and would be happy to just lay and be in the company if their people. Unfortunately both Scarlett and Redman came to us with serious skin infections due to flea infection and potential owners will have to commit to regular grooming to help them grow their coats back and keep their skin hydrated. Scarlet and Redman are about eight years old and weigh 19 pounds each. 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 All proceeds benefits Wed. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. | 54 S. Lumpkin Campground Rd. the Humane bociety Bradley M. Maple CPA, PC 706-216-2362 2390 Thompson Rd • Ste 100 Dawsonville ANH Collision Specialists 706-216-0992 103 Industrial Park Road, Dawsonville Dawsonville Veterinary Hospital 706-265-8381 Choose Democracy! Vote for Democrats! YOUR VOTE MATTERS!!
