Dawson County High School's 2012 Tiger Yearbook Staff recently received two national awards for the 2012 Tiger album.

Walsworth Publishing Company announced last month that the 2012 Tiger was going to be included in its Gallery of Excellence, meaning the book will be showcased with other top books in both printed form and on the Web.

"Volume 5 of our premier idea book contains more than 600 examples from 172 middle school, high school and university yearbooks," said Don Walsworth, president of Walsworth Publishing Company.

"[This] places your yearbook among the best yearbook printed by Walsworth."

Yearbook advisor Beth Hamby said she is proud of her staff.

"This did not happen by happenstance. A few years ago we set a goal as a staff to earn top honors at the Southern Interscholastic Press Association, the National Scholastic Press Association and Columbia Scholastic Press Association. We have worked very hard since then to create a book that will not only excel when judged journalistically, but also please our hometown audience," she said.

"This award is the first step toward reaching our final goal of being one of the best yearbooks in the nation. Our critiques from NSPA and CSPA have not come back yet, but I am looking forward to getting them very soon.

If this SIPA critique is any indication, we should do extremely well."

According to Walsworth's Web site, the book was chosen because of the theme package, "Unpredictable."

"The opening copy presents unpredictability without a value judgment. However, the division pages of the book go on to put unpredictability in a positive light by focusing on the good things that happened unexpectedly," states the Web site.

In addition, the 2012 Tiger has received an All-Southern Award from the Southern Interscholastic Press Association.

This is the highest award that can be received through the organization.

The 2012 Tiger is the high school's first yearbook to reach this level.

The critique that came with the award stated: "These publications demonstrate excellence in all areas of scholastic journalism production. These publications effectively integrate writing, design and photography/art to give readers an excellent record of the year."