August/September 2024
FACES OF DAWSON:
Meet the DCHS Alumna representing her state in a national pageant
Show “The Fabulous Flocks” highlights local families
~Tim & Lindsay White
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Dawson Faces
AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2024
Meet the DCHS Alumna representing her state in a national pageant
Christine Hinton Small business alert
Dawson Places Changes coming to Because Coffee
Dawson Wellness Mind your thoughts
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Dawson Arts “The Fabulous Flocks”
/dawsonnews
@dawsoncountynews
@dawsonnews
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PUBLISHER
Stephanie Woody
MANAGING EDITOR
Erica Jones
DIRECTOR OF REVENUE
Margie Rogers
ADVERTISING SALES
Jessica Shirley, Advertising Director
Meghan Hernandez, Multimedia Sales Representative
CREATIVE SERVICES
April Seymour, Chelsea Sunshine, Courtney Smith
PHOTOGRAPHY
Erica Jones, Julia Hansen
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Sudie Crouch, Erica Jones, Julia Hansen
THIS DCHS ALUMNA AND FORMER MISS DAWSON COUNTY IS REPRESENTING HER STATE IN A NATIONAL PAGEANT COMPETITION
Erica Jones DCN Editor
This November, Dawson County High School alumna and former Miss Dawson County winner Kelci Folsom will have the chance to take an even bigger stage and compete at the national level in the National AllAmerican Miss pageant competition.
Folsom moved to Dawson County when she was in eighth grade and has lived in the county ever since, attending school at Dawson County Junior High School and Dawson County High School and winning the title of “Miss Dawson County” during the annual pageant competition in 2022.
Besides the Miss Dawson County competition, she’d never competed in any larger pageants, but when she got an invitation from the National American Miss pageant circuit to attend an open call she decided to take a chance and go for it.
“They sent me a letter in the mail saying come to an open call so I did an open call, got accepted as a state finalist and just kind of winged it from there,” Folsom said.
And so Folsom, who is now a kinesiology student at the University of North Georgia, began pouring herself into preparing and getting ready to take the biggest stage of her pageant career at the National American Miss Georgia competition.
“I put in all the prep work and did as much research as I could beforehand, but this was my first large scale pageant so it was a big learning experience for me and I learned a lot in a very short amount of time,” she said.
The National American Miss pageants consist of four required competitions: formal wear, personal introduction, interview and community service. The community service portion counts for 10 percent of the total final score, and each of the other three competitions counts for 30 percent of the total.
The pageants also include a long list of optional events that the competitors can sign up for, which are judged separately and completely removed from the main pageant competition but give competitors another chance to move up to the national level. For the National American Miss Georgia pageant, Folsom decided to sign up for the resume, spokesmodel and academic achievement competitions as well as the main
pageant.
The National American Miss Georgia pageant took place at the end of June, and Folsom said that while she was nervous she was also confident in all the practice and prep work she’d put in leading up to the pageant.
“Once I got to the pageant, everything that I could have done prior was done and over with and I knew that I did my best prior to the pageant, all the prep work was done and I had to just rely on that, do my best and not worry about the results as much,” Folsom said.
At the end of the state pageant, Folsom won the title of fourth runner-up overall out of over 60 competitors in her age group. She also won first place in the resume competition, first runner-up in the academic achievement competition and second runnerup in the spokesmodel competition.
As an overall runner-up and a winner and runnerup in the optional competitions, Folsom will now have the chance to compete in the national level pageant competition, which will take place in Orlando in November.
“Because I placed in the top five but I did not win Miss Georgia, all of the runners-up and the winners and runners-up of the optional competitions are invited to compete in the National All American Miss competition, so it’s not National American Miss but it’s All American Miss so that’s what I’ll be competing in for the overall pageant,” she said. “And then I’ll be competing in resume, spokesmodel and academic achievement as well for the optionals.”
Between now and then, Folsom will be practicing, working on getting more sponsors and preparing to take an even bigger stage than she did in June. But to her, getting to participate in the pageant is more than just competing in each event — it’s about sharing an important and personal message with as many people as possible.
“One thing I learned going into this pageant is that it’s important to have a ‘why’ and to understand what you’re trying to say so that you can deliver an articulate and concise message when you’re at the pageant,” Folsom said. “One thing that I shared specifically in my interviews at the pageant was that ‘confident humility’ is not an oxymoron but each needs the other to thrive. I was able to share with the judges that confident
humility is being secure enough in who you are to put that aside for the sake of someone else.”
This idea, she said, is rooted in her faith, which is something else she wants people to know about her.
“That all stems from my faith and my identity as a daughter of Christ, and that mattering more than what the world perceives of me,” she said. “If people are going to know anything about me, I’d love for them to know that my faith comes first.”
Anyone interested in following Folsom’s progress in the national competition in November can follow the National American Miss Instagram account at @nationalamericanmiss or Folsom’s account at @kelcifolsom.
DCHS alumna and former Miss Dawson County Kelci Folsom will compete in the National All-American Miss pageant competition this November. (Photo courtesy of Kelci Folsom)
SMALL BUSINESS ALERT: New Federal Reporting Required
Especially important for new business startups…
Beginning in 2024, many small businesses will have to report information about their owners to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (commonly referred to as FinCEN), a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury that collects and analyzes information to help fight financial crimes. Here is what you need to know.
Determine if your business must comply with the new reporting rules. Any company created in the United States that has registered with a secretary of state or any similar office under the laws of a state or Indian tribe, or foreign companies registered to do business in the U.S., must comply with these new reporting requirements.
Many small businesses that are C corporations, S corporations, partnerships, or LLCs (including single-member LLCs) must comply. There are, however, nearly two dozen types of businesses that are exempt from these new reporting requirements, including sole proprietors, accounting firms, insurance companies, banks, certain large businesses, and tax-exempt entities.
Know when you MUST report. The
reporting deadline varies depending on when your business was created or registered:
Created before January 1, 2024. For existing companies that were created before January 1, 2024, you must file your FinCEN report, commonly referred to as a Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) report, sometime this year (before January 1, 2025).
Created during 2024. Companies formed this year have 90 days to file their FinCEN BOI report after they are created or registered.
Created in 2025 and beyond. The BOI report must be filed within 30 days of being registered or legally created.
Immediately report any changes. After your initial BOI report is filed, an updated BOI report must be filed within 30 days following any change in information previously filed with FinCEN. Any inaccuracies discovered on previously-filed reports must also be reported within 30 days.
Why they want to know. The Federal government wants to know who owns or is a beneficial owner of businesses in the U.S. This information is meant to protect
national security by making it easier to find corruption, money laundering operations, tax evasion, and drug trafficking organizations. They will be sharing this information with approved agencies including Federal and State law enforcement and Federal tax authorities.
There are penalties for noncompliance. You may be liable for up to $5,000 or more in fines for each defined violation for noncompliance or false information provided on the form. There are also daily fines for potential errors and omissions.
Where to register and learn more. When filing, be prepared to not only identify owners and beneficial owners of your business, but also be prepared to submit visual proof of each owner’s identity (i.e. Driver’s license, passport, etc.) Click here to learn more: www.fincen.gov/boi
Remember, existing companies have until the end of 2024 to complete their BOI report, and FinCEN just put the reporting system live in early January 2024. So don’t delay, but you may wish to wait a bit to ensure the reporting tool is working properly.
“Thank you for making us Best of Dawson for six years in a row. We are known for the quality of our service and the high standards we set for ourselves. Our primary goal is to help our clients make informed financial decisions.”
Big changes are brewing AT BECAUSE COFFEE SHOP
By Julia Hansen DCN Staff
With local establishment Because Coffee seeing consistent growth in business and customers over the years, the time has come for the Dawson County store to expand its physical footprint.
The local coffee shop is planning to expand into two neighboring business suites, nos. 110 and 120, within the Dawson Village shopping center. Because Coffee has already moved into those suites and is currently sprucing up the spaces, according to business co-owner Doug Cole.
Cole sat down with DCN for a recent interview about Because Coffee’s future plans.
Now considered a staple of the Dawson-area community, Cole and four other business partners started the store a little over five years ago.
The store’s roastery and café are currently in one spot. The shop started simple, adding espresso and drive-thru capabilities after its initial debut.
Because Coffee grew to help other shops, like Community Cup or IGY6 Coffee, that have wholesale accounts with them. Cole and his colleagues have also since started Myth and Legend locations in the Cumming City Center, Johns Creek and St. Augustine, Florida.
Meanwhile, the sole Because Coffee location in Dawson County has stayed its own unique venture.
Now, at around 1,400 square feet of space, the local shop is “out of room” and “in need of a place to go,” Cole said.
SHOP PLANS
As for the former boutique area, Cole said
they plan to use Suite 110 for more roastery and café space as well as a coffee lab. Customer seating will be placed at the front, near the windows, with the coffee lab next to that.
In this coffee lab area, Baristas will be able to test different brewing methods with equipment like an espresso machine, batch brewer and typical manual brew methods and study things like coffee color, water content and drink density.
“Those are all important factors when you’re trying to figure out what’s going on in your roasted coffee,” Cole said.
The goal of the coffee lab would be to help increase quality control.
Because Coffee co-owner Doug Cole smiles as he reflects on the Dawson County coffee shop’s five-plus years in operation and the store’s future plans. Photo by Julia Hansen
“The more [that] you grow, if you’re not careful, your quality can go down,” Cole added. “We want to be able to do more coffee and maintain our quality...and not just maintain our quality but up it.”
Plus, the lab space would allow for extra training of not only shop employees but also other workers involved with the wholesale accounts.
Cole added that the coffee lab space will have a sliding window and bar area, making it easier to host coffee-themed events on topics like how to brew coffee or espresso at home.
Extra café space and the coffee lab will also be a big help once Because Coffee is ready to renovate its original shop. Then, while the original shop would be temporarily closed, customers can still order coffee, which can be made and served on site, thus avoiding a full shutdown of Because Coffee, Cole said.
As for the former vape shop space, Cole acknowledged they’ve taken control of that space, too, but “didn’t want to let the cat out of the bag yet” about the store’s exact plans for the space.
Generally, though, that space would help with retail-related operations and allow them to serve customers “in a different way” that’s more “event driven,” Cole said.
“That wasn’t on our radar as seriously at all until very recently,” he added about the Suite 120 space.
Cole elaborated
that the goal is to have “some stuff” going on in the new spaces by the end of August.
Local connections
Looking back, Cole said he’s thankful for being able to plug in with the chamber of commerce and wider Dawson-area business community.
Over the past several years, he and his colleagues have been able to make a wide array of connections with the shop.
“It’s an easy community to plug into. There’s good people and a good community to plug into,” Cole said, adding that “it means a lot” to be associated with different people, events or organizations he admires with which they’ve been involved.
The community-centered culture goes both ways, though, with people coming to Because Coffee for, say, business deals or first dates.
Multiple couples who started working at the coffee shop and then dated are now either married or engaged, Cole said.
“That speaks for our people and the people that come here as customers,” he added, expressing his gratitude for his business partners and colleagues overall.
“Most of the time, people who work here start off as customers,” Cole said. “They’re people who jump in. They’re just good people.”
Mind your thoughts
by Sudie Crouch
Health & wellness columnist
A fellow health coach recently shared a bit of trivia I found fascinating. We think over 60,000 thoughts a day. To say I was surprised was an understatement! Sixty-thousand thoughts is a huge number and when I started exploring more information about it, I found out that number may even be on the low side.
Our brain is processing upwards of 70,000 thoughts per day according to the Cleveland Clinic’s website healthybrains.org.
We may not realize we’re thinking that many thoughts at times – but our brain is processing and functioning in ways we may not realize as it takes in subtle cues and information and attributes it in various ways.
Since our brain plays many roles in our day to day lives, the fact that we’re having this many thoughts is a fascinating piece in how we may direct our actions and behaviors.
We’ve often heard about the power of positive thinking –Norman Vincent Peale wrote a book about the very subject. But what if there is something to it?
Imagine if out of those 60,000 plus thoughts they are negative. They are focused on fear, anger, negativity; we’re replaying failures, regrets, and arguments. How does that take a toll on a person’s mental health? It can worsen depression, anxiety, and raise our blood pressure. Not good for our mental and physical health at all.
So what happens if we shift some of those 70,000 thoughts towards subjects that are more uplifting and positive?
THE HEALTH IMPACT OF POSITIVE THOUGHTS
There’s one reason people tell us to think of rainbows or puppies when we’re stressed. It helps us release dopamine and oxytocin in our brain, which can help lower the stress hormone cortisol. High levels of cortisol can cause high blood pressure, inflammation, and fatigue, among a host of other health issues.
Lowering our body’s stress response can help us reduce those health risks. When we’re facing a health scare, our attitude and thoughts can help support our outcome as well. While positive thinking shouldn’t be used in the place of medical care, it can help support our overall well being. Watching something that is funny in particular has been linked with improved health for similar reasons to thinking of puppies.
Not only does positive thinking help improve our health, it also helps us be able to be solution focused. Instead of seeing only obstacles and roadblocks, it enables people to look for the opportunities and possibilities. People who tend to be more optimistic also are more active and feel like they have more purpose and meaning to life, which leads to improved health outcomes as well.
WHAT
CAN HELP SHIFT YOUR THOUGHTS?
It may sound like a daunting task to try to control so many thoughts and we may even struggle with the how of it. Undoubtedly, of those thousands of thoughts, not all of them can be conscious, intentional ones. Focusing on the ones we can control can help us not only influence those subconscious thoughts but train our brain to have more positive thoughts in general.
One thing that can help you shift your thoughts and perspective is gratitude. Author Melody Beattie describes gratitude as being able to “unlock the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.” If this seems like a challenge at first, start with three things each day that you’re grateful for – they don’t have to be major things, but can be simple ones. Practicing gratitude is a powerful way to start thinking more positively.
Along the lines of thinking about puppies and butterflies, making sure that your environment is positive and encouraging
can help as well. If we’re around people who are constantly negative and looking for the bad in every situation, it can be contagious. When we’re around people who help us focus on what’s going well rather than wrong, we start to look for those areas to highlight as well.
Challenging our negative thoughts when they do pop up can also be helpful. Weighing the thoughts as to whether or not they are true and are rooted in fact rather than fear can help us determine if it’s something that we need to dismiss or something that needs to be addressed. If we think something to be true (“No one likes me”) and challenge it by thinking of all the people who do care about us, we’re able to rewire those thoughts into more positive, affirming thought patterns. Reminding ourselves that we don’t have to accept every one of our thoughts as fact but can explore it and ultimately change it can help us have more control over our thought processes, which can lead to healthy, happier lives overall.
“The Fabulous Flocks” TV SHOW OFFICIALLY BEGINS FILMING
Erica Jones
DCN Editor
On Saturday June 22, cheering and the sound of stock car engines revving filled the air at the Banks County Speedway. Dirt flew up from the track as four classic cars circled it, and audience members sitting on hay bales stood and yelled excitedly to cheer on their favorite drivers.
While this may sound like a scene from a dirt track race from years ago, it was in reality a recreation of a race from the 1950s, back near the beginning of NASCAR racing. The specific race being recreated was the 1955 race in which NASCAR legend Tim Flock won the Grand National Series Champion title, and the recreation was part of the first day of filming the upcoming TV series “The Fabulous Flocks”.
“The Fabulous Flocks” is set to be a TV series following the story of the Flock family, a family of daredevils who were known for everything from stock car racing to wing walking to tight rope walking. When the family’s patriarch Lee died in 1925, the oldest son Carl went to work for his uncle Leonard “Peachtree” Williams transporting moonshine from the North Georgia Mountains to Atlanta. When moonshine runners began
racing their stock cars for fun, the sport that would become NASCAR began. With the official formation of NASCAR in 1948, several members of the Flock family were key players in the sport and became very well-known within the NASCAR world.
The most well-known of the family members is Tim Flock, who never ran moonshine but learned about racing from his brothers who did. Tim was a two-time Grand National Series Champion in 1952 and 1955 and won many other awards and achievements before retiring from the sport in 1961.
Joy Flock, Tim’s youngest daughter, was present at the Banks County Speedway on Saturday and got a frontrow seat to watch the recreation of her dad’s 1955 race.
“This is amazing; my mom and dad would be ecstatic to see this,” she said. “It’s just unreal.”
Joy contributed to the filming by bringing her father’s original trophy from 1955, as well as the original flags from the race. She recounted how her father’s racing career included several unique and colorful stories, including how he used to race with a rhesus monkey named “Jocko Flocko”.
“[The monkey] had his own little
perch and helmet and he’d sit there next to my dad,” she said. “One time he was winning a race and something scared the monkey and he jumped on his back and put his hand over my dad’s eyes, so he had to pit — he’s the only NASCAR driver ever to have to pit to get a monkey off his back. And he still came in second.”
While she doesn’t personally remember very many of her father’s races, Joy said that she remembers the end of his career. Tim’s wife and seven children would go to races with him, and the kids would spend time in the family station wagon or in a playpen set up nearby.
“My father was very superstitious — you did not wear green and you did not eat peanuts,” Joy said. “They put us up in the stands and the man beside me gave me peanuts. My dad wrecked, broke his arm on the fourth turn and lost the race — because I ate peanuts. And I had to go home and confess that to him, that’s one I’ll never forget.”
In 1986, Tim also participated in a legend race, which Joy said she was able to attend with her own son. She also got to see him drive his car at Daytona in 1998, just weeks before he passed away, as part of him being honored as one of NASCAR’s top 50 drivers.
Classic stock cars line up to start racing during the first day of filming upcoming TV series “The Fabulous Flocks” on June 22. Photo by Erica Jones
After the first big dirt race scene last weekend, the majority of the rest of “The Fabulous Flocks” is set to be filmed in Dawson County. According to producers and husbandwife duo Jeff Kaminski and Allegra Deneroff, they’ve been working with Dawson locals like Dwight Bearden and David Sosebee to scout filming locations and are excited to continue working on their project in Dawson County.
Dawson County was also a special place for the Flock family, family friend Grady Rogers said.
“Tim’s brothers were frequent visitors to Dawsonville with their moonshining, and they were the ones that propelled Tim to racing,” Rogers said. “From the inception of the Moonshine Festival, Tim and Frances were there every year. They loved Dawsonville because it had been such an important part of the history of racing.”
For more information about “The Fabulous Flocks”, go to https://thefabulousflocks.com/.
Joy Flock stands in front of the film set recreating her father Tim’s 1955 NASCAR race win. Photo by Erica Jones
