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STOVALL: It's Visions time again and we need your nominations for award winners
Gabriel Stovall
Gabriel Stovall, Publisher and Editor of The Covington News.

The time for our annual Visions Magazine and Celebration Banquet is rapidly approaching, and though we’ve already begun our preparations and have started receiving award nominations, we still need your help. 

As it has done each year, Visions gives us the opportunity to take an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at the people and places that make our Covington/Newton County area one of Metro Atlanta’s best places to live, work and play. 

At the end of April, we’ll publish our Visions Magazine that will highlight our Community Spirit Award winner, several Unsung Heroes as well as our community’s Employer of the Year and Youth of the Year award winners. 

In conjunction with the magazine, The Covington News will host a celebration banquet where we’ll present tangible accolades to our community’s award winners. 

As always, we need your help in identifying who these award winners should be. No one can speak for the community better than those of you who spend your lives in it. So we’re asking you to provide us nominations for this year’s Visions awards. 

Here’s a breakdown of the award categories: 

Employer of the Year: What is the best local business to work for in Newton County? That’s what this award will recognize. We want the business or industry that has shown outstanding, above average investment into Newton County and the workers it employs and the community members it serves. This business is so impactful that if it were to go away, our Newton County community would never be the same.

Community Spirit Award: This winner exemplifies the absolute best that the Newton County area has to offer. This award winner will be someone who is associated with volunteer work, has an exemplary rapport with local residents, businesses and non-profits and has an impeccable reputation for embodying what our community is. When you think of this person, you’ll say, “He/she is Newton County.” 

Unsung Heroes Award: Here, we’re looking for three people who do incredibly work to strengthen our communities and make life better for those around them, but whether by nature of their work or by their own personal choice, they often operate behind the scenes, rarely getting public recognition for what they do.

Youth of the Year Award: This award winner will be 21-years old or younger and will be honored for making a major impact in Newton County through significant, above-and-beyond contributions whether through business, community service, non-profit organizations or in day-to-day service of others. Think of this award winner as “Community Spirit Jr.” 

If you know of anyone deserving of these awards, we need you to tell us about them TODAY. 

Some nominations for these awards have already come to us just through random communication, but we want to provide our readership with an opportunity to make nominations as well. We will accept nominations starting now through Friday March 10, 2023. When nominating, please provide the following: 

First and last name (or name of business for Employer of the Year):

The award you’re nominating them for: 

What they do (occupation, service provided, etc.):

Reasons why you think they should win: 

You can send nominations via email: news@covnews.com. You can also send written nominations to The Covington News at 1166 Usher St., NW, Covington, GA 30014 or you can nominate award winners via our Covington News Facebook page either in the comments section where this article is posted or through our inbox. 

Once again, the deadline for nominations is Friday March 10 at 5 p.m., so don’t wait. Nominate today, and we’ll see you at the banquet in April! 

Past Community Spirit Award winners: 

  • Serra Hall (2022)
  • Sheriff Ezell Brown (2021) 
  • Shannon Buff (2020) 
  • Matt Cooper (2019) 
  • Judge Samuel Ozburn (2018) 

Past Unsung Hero Award winners:

  • Duane Ford, Janet Goodman, Mike Hopkins (2022) 
  • Linda Hays, Phil Johnson, Bradley Steward (2021) 
  • Clara Lett, Crystal Little, Michael Whatley (2020)
  • Denny Dobbs, Stevanie Reynolds, Gary Stevenson (2019) 
  • Andre Cooper, Wendy Hankins, Claudia Minge (2018) 

Past Employer of the Year Award winners:

  • Snapping Shoals EMC (2022) 
  • Piedmont Newton Hosptial (2021) 
  • Arbor Equity (2020) 
  • Georgia Piedmont Technical College (2019) 
  • United Bank (2018) 

Past Youth of the Year award winners:

  • J. Harrison Kirkham (2022) 
  • Meredith McCrorey (2021) 
  • Ava Jane Teasley (2020) 
  • James Wilson (2019) 
  • Dos Harper (2018) 

Gabriel Stovall is the Publisher and Editor of The Covington News. He can be reached at gstovall@covnews.com.