About The Eatonton messenger. (Eatonton, Ga.) 18??-current | View Entire Issue (June 19, 2025)
Community Thursday June 19, 2025 The Eatonton Messenger MVS provides scholarships to PCHS grads Ian Tocher ian@msgrnews.com Dr. Willie Oliver of Most Valuable Smiles in downtown Eatonton said he was inspired in 2023 to begin awarding $1,000 scholarships to Putnam County High School students interested in pursuing careers in any medical/dental field. “What motivates me to do this is trying to get people from Eatonton to want to come back here and dedicate their services in healthcare,” Oliver said June 5, after awarding scholarship checks to three recent PCHS graduates. ‘We don’t want the healthcare system to fall apart. “And also, I always think about who’s going to take care of me when I get older,” he added. Receiving the first award was Lauren Oliver, who will be attending Kennesaw State University this fall to begin schooling to become an ortho dontist. Lauren was a member of the Service Leadership class and Key Club at PCHS, as well as on the school’s cheerleading squad. While she enjoyed her friends and time at PCHS, Lauren said she’s ready to move on. “I'm excited to see where life takes me,” she said. Next, Oliver presented a scholarship check to Makayla Todd, an Anchor Club and Beta Club member in her senior year. In addition to the MVS award, Makayla received a Delta schol arship courtesy of alumni in Milledgeville. Makayla is poised now to enter Augusta University, where IAN TOCHER/Staff Dr. Willie Oliver congratulated (l-r) Putnam County High School graduates Regina Aspen, Makayla Todd, and Lauren Oliver as recipients of his $1,000 Most Valuable Smiles scholarships, as each will begin attending various universities this year. MM TIDVANA FOR 100 DOLLARS 025 Scholarship JOO DOLLARS 2025 Scholarshit 122 w Maxion St. • MS Eatonton, GA 31024 s 706-623-0518 PtU.E8 PAY TO THE Regina Espin ORDER OF — SA one thousand dollars — saw Makayla Todd 7 and dollars DUlDVtzoM 706-6 she also will study biology with the intent to become a dental hygienist. The final MVS scholar ship recipient, Regina Aspin, will enter the biochemistry program at the University of Georgia on its pre-pharmacy track this fall. Regina was named a STAR student at PCHS and received a scholarship from PEO, a women’s organization, as well as a Citizenship Award scholarship from The Pilot Club. She also was an athlete at Putnam, serving as team captain for both the girls’ volleyball and soccer teams. Oliver said his scholarship program is gaining popularity annually and he’s responded by adding to it each year so far. “Next year we may stay with three, but then, we may go up in numbers or maybe go up on the amount, I just don't know,” he said. “But every year I want to try to do more to pour back into the healthcare of Eatonton. “Because hopefully they’ll come back, and they’ll serve the city of Eatonton with their skills and their talents and their gifts in medicine,” Oliver continued. “Hopefully, they’ll want to come back and help their people, their friends and families here.” Oliver explained he makes his scholarship award selections after carefully considering each application received. “I kind of focus on academics, but I also consider any extra curriculums and they also write a short essay for me. I do have a kind of points system that I use to give them certain points per things that I’m looking for, and then I kind of narrow it down from there,” he explained. “I prefer to do it all myself because when it gets to the end, I just kind of follow my heart and pick who I think are most deserving.” Former local teaches students about mental health Bailey Ballard bailey@msgrnews.com During the spring semester, Dr. Greg DeLoach and his class “Dementia, Disabilities and Differences” of Mercer Universi ty’s McAfee School of Theology in Atlanta visited Milledgeville’s Central State Hospital Museum. Jessica Whitehead is a local photographer and author who began teaching the history of what once was the largest asylum in the United States through her exhibit Seeking Asylum. The exhibit that captured the campus’ present decay transformed into a small museum located at the Central State Hospital Depot through a partnership with Georgia’s Old Capital Heritage Center. Most recently, Whitehead debuted her photography novel Seeking Asylum that blends the history of the museum and her photography together in a hand held keepsake. “Prior to starting the project that evolved into Seeking Asylum, I worked in mental health for 14. I have worked as the assistant to Judge Terry N. Massey for seven years, and prior to that I was a program coordinator for the juvenile court Judge Philip B. Spivey (retired) for four years,” said Whitehead. “I became acquainted with Dr. DeLoach through connections with a coworker, and he was interested in offering his class a thorough history of Central State Hospital and a visual perspective.” Whitehead led a tour of the museum, a drive-around tour, and an open discussion on mental health with the class of 12 students. Using her own experience working in mental #• the 1 CONTRIBUTED Dr. Greg DeLoach and his class "Dementia, Disabilities and Differences" of Mercer University's McAfee School of Theology in Atlanta toured the local Central State Hospital Museum and discussed mental health history and present-day care with Seeking Asylum founder and museum curator Jessica Whitehead (red shirt, front row). health and discussing her own challenges related to mental illness, Whitehead offered a retrospective of not only the past of mental health but also what present-day care and treatment looks like. “I spoke about the history of each building, the size of the campus, the types of patients served, my motivations, and the importance of mental care advocacy,” said Whitehead. “The class has a focus on memory. I have a dissociative disorder that impacts my memory, so I was able to speak with them inti mately about that. “I think when you can have hands-on experience like this, you can truly apply your text- book information to real life and take a moment to step back and learn more about the indi viduals,” added Whitehead. “It’s easy to say, ‘the people at the hospital,’ but when you hear the personal stories, it makes the book learning more impactful because it becomes intimate and offers new perspectives.” DeLoach designed the 16-week course and stated that it teaches about “serving cognitive impairments,” with a focus on dementia. The students who took the course are most commonly preparing for parish or congressional work or planning to be involved with nonprofit organizations. “The idea behind the graduate course was to help students prepare for these careers. Dementia and mental illness are strongly on the rise in so many categories, so I wanted to offer a class to allow students to think about what it means to serve when mental health, illness, and intellectual/develop- mental disability challenges are present,” said Deloach. Deloach grew up in Eatonton and had strong family ties to Baldwin County. Knowing about Central State Hospital historically, DeLoach came across the novel Administra tions of Lunacy by Mab Seagrest while reviewing possible texts and criteria for the course. “While I ultimately did not use the novel because it did not tie in well enough to our syllabus, it led me to think about the time period when people struggled to know what to do with loved ones with cognitive impairments, mental illness, or intellectual/ developmental disabilities,” said DeLoach. “It would be a good historical field trip for the students to not only see what occurred in our state but throughout the country and see the transformation over gener ations of how people learned to address the societal concerns of mental health challenges.” According to DeLoach, this was a first-time experience for the majority of the students, which gave them a deeper perspective to the “surreal” quality of the campus. “It was an incredibly impactful and meaningful tour,” said DeLoach. “It’s important to have these healthy conversations. Jessica White- head did a wonderful job empa thizing with the approach of how many people did the best they could with the limited resources of the time. We had deep conversations on how each generation experienced and responded to any kind of cogni tive impairment and how we value or disvalue that.” DeLoach also stated that the tour aimed to give courage to his students to share their own stories. Identifying and empathizing with mental health is critical in learning how to stop outsourcing a “problem” and rather learn how “healthy communities cultivate healthy responses,” according to DeLoach. Deloach plans for future participants of his course to tour the museum as student feedback was a “strong affir mation” that the new course should be offered regularly and that the field trip is a necessity to the experience. The course is offered every other year. Dr. Meigan Miller ] • 706 485 9031 • H DIN WW 1 LV THE COMMUNITY PROUD TO BE SERVING AND CARING FOR YOUR FAMILY’S SMILES 706.485.9031 • WWW.DRMEIGANMILLER.COM • 104 N. LAFAYETTE STREET • EATONTON
