Thank you Dawsonville, Dawson County!

How can two small words express the gratitude for all the support shown for our Veterans during our 2nd Veterans Day Celebration? So many people were involved that we wish to thank.

We want to acknowledge the following businesses for donating their delicious food for our Veterans:

Dawsonville Pool Room, Dogs & Hogs, Champions Café, Chick-fil-A, Longhorn’s Steakhouse Zaxby’s, Kroger, Ingles, Steamers Coffee, Perfect Gatherings, Fire Mountain, Sanky’s Bar-B-Q, Quizno’s,, I-HOP, Fajita Grill, The Blue Bicycle, Super Suppers, Domino’s Pizza, Captain D’s, Amicalola Falls State Park Kentucky Fried Chicken, Beef O’ Brady’s, Dawson County Board of Education and Johnny’s New York Style Pizza. Thank you to Fred’s and Dollar General for decorations and paper products.

We want to recognize the following Sponsors:

Appalachian Community Bank, Chestatee State Bank, First Citizens Bank of Georgia, Regions Bank, United Community Bank, W D Signs & Graphics. Thank you to Country Boy Trailers and Family Trailers for donating their trailers for our floats. Thank you Forever Saved Productions and www.dawsontoday.com for pulling our floats. And, thank you Jim Hunt of Sojourn Tours for carrying our precious cargo, our WWII Veterans in your tour bus, and Vernon Smith of Lakeview Center Complex for escorting our Purple Heart Recipients.

We want to thank the Dawsonville Municipal Complex for allowing us to host the ceremonies and our Veterans banquet in their facility. We filled the house!

We wish to acknowledge Vickie Wofford of Balloons N’ Stuff for donating the beautiful wreath for our ceremony.

We wish to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of the employees from Etowah Water & Sewer Authority. They worked with the food sponsors and produced a wonderful banquet. The entire staff volunteered to serve our Veterans at the luncheon.

We wish to acknowledge the North Georgia Military College for the Color Guard, Veteran’s Alliance, Atlanta Chapter of Vietnam Veterans Business Leaders, Dawson County High School Band, Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 970 of Dawsonville, Vietnam Veterans of America/ Gainesville Chapter 772, VFW, Marine Corp ROTC Color Guard and Drill Team, Lumpkin County High School ROTC and American Legion -- along with Angela Daniel and James (Jimbo) Wheeler for their performances and participation. The awesome sounds of Dan Titus' bagpipes will be remembered and cherished.

We wish to thank Jacky Jones Ford and Chestatee Ford for donating vehicles in our parade for our dignitaries and to Channel 4/Wind Stream for airing our parade live on cable.

We wish to acknowledge Colonel Jim Chapin for announcing the Moment of Silence, Phil Anderson, Larry Freeland and Rick Harris as our keynote speakers, Dr. Jerry Ashcroft of Southern Catholic College for delivering the invocation, Wayne Watkins as our Master of Ceremonies and Kim Cornelison for delivering the welcome.

We wish to thank Grand Marshals Bart Alford, Shubie Abercrombie and Ryan Nix of the 48th Infantry Brigade.

We wish to acknowledge our Veterans Committee: Kim Cornelison, Larry Freeland, Bill Sexton, Wayne Watkins, Tara Profeta, Rosalind Chambers, Marie Cook, Marty Williams, Tony De Vita, Sheriff Billy Carlisle, Dan Titus and J.T. Trinkle for their tireless devotion in our endeavor to show our Veterans the respect, support and honor they earned defending our country.

We wish to thank Dawson News & Advertiser and Dawson Community News for all their support. We especially want to thank Michele Hester of Dawson Community News for her “In Their Own Words” feature of our hometown heroes. And to the many others that contributed, we say, humbly, thank you.

We wish to acknowledge all of the people who came out to show support to our Veterans. So, from the bottom of our hearts, we say earnestly and sincerely, “Thank you Dawsonville and Dawson County! You are awesome!”

Pam Hamalainen and Linda Williams
Dawson County Chamber of Commerce