Dawson County High School’s club for business-minded young men and women took home some top prizes last week at a regional meet.
“We’ve always done well at this event, but this is really big,” said Dianne Mayfield, the local school’s Future Business Leaders of America adviser.
The regional event’s first place winners included Grant Shope, business calculations; Amanda Florentine, business communications; Christopher Bywaletz for public speaking I and business math; Craig Butler, digital design and introduction to technology concepts; and Maddie Alvarado, future business leader.
Second place winners included Clay Glover, business math; Cole Simmons, introduction to technology concepts; Cody Hall, public speaking II; Miranda Abe, impromptu speaking; and Amanda Martin, computer applications.
Third place winners were Marty Rogers, introduction to business communication and the team of Allie Costley and Cody Wright, desktop publishing.
Other winners include Jake Hafemalz, business math, fourth place; Lyric Baty, personal finance, fourth place; Larry Florentine, business math, fifth place; Haley Hamil, business communications, ninth place; and Kara Hafermalz, introduction to business communications, 10th place.
Mayfield bragged on the students.
“We’re proud of all of our students, whether they placed or not,” she said. “As our chapter grows, the excellence of our students grows as well.”
For many of the students, next stop is the state finals March 18-19 in Atlanta.
In the regional event last week, Dawson County students competed against other students from Cherokee, Cobb, Fannin and Gilmer counties.
According to its Web site, Georgia FBLA is a nonprofit student organization “committed to preparing today’s students for success in business leadership.”