LOST & FOUND Gwinnettian reconnects with former pen pal, Page C1
Gwinnett Daily Post gwinnettdailypost.com
$2.00 ©2019 SCNI
Vol. 49, No. 66
599214-1
Sunday, June 2, 2019
GEORGIA PRESS ASSOCIATION
Daily Post reporter named Emerging Journalist Paper nabs 13 Better Newspaper Contest awards
From Staff Reports Gwinnett Daily Post reporter Isabel Hughes was honored with the Emerging Journalist Award and the newspaper took home 13 awards in the Georgia Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest. The awards were presented Friday night as part of the GPA’s 2019 conference held at Jekyll Island Club. The Daily Post earned eight first-place honors, including awards for local news coverage, best sports section, lifestyle cover-
Michael J. Gebhart, executive vice president and chief operating officer of SCNI, parent company of the Daily Post, is pictured with Daily Post reporter Isabel Hughes, who was honored with the Georgia Press Association’s Emerging Journalist award Friday night at the organization’s annual conference at Jekyll Island.
age and multimedia journalism. Individually, four staffers earned firstplace honors. Hughes, who has been with the Daily Post since December 2017, won for breaking news and also placed second for investigative reporting in addition to being named Emerging Journalist. That award honors a reporter who is under the age of 30, has worked for a newspaper for five years or less and has demonstrated excellence in the field of journalism. Hughes, a 2016 graduate of
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See AWARDS, A5
Special Photo
BUFORD HIGH
Principal strives to sustain success By Taylor Denman
taylor.denman @gwinnettdailypost.com
water is moving faster, so you’ll need to move different lures.” Bratton notwithstanding, Kid’s Fishing Day at Jones Bridge Park was not meant for the seasoned fishermen. It’s an event designed to introduce children to flock to their local parks and experience and learn about wildlife and conservation during the summer. Seven-year-old Anthony Parker, who attends Simpson Elementary School in Peachtree Corners, was
Lindsey Allen interviewed at Buford City Schools more than 20 years before he was hired as Buford High School’s new principal last March. In 1998, Allen said Buford’s school system was — at least from the outside looking in — upand-coming. His first interview was with Terry Green at Buford Middle School, but a series of decisions led him to teach briefly in an English village Lindsey called Guide Post. Allen One year later, he was back in Buford at Lanier Middle School, teaching under principal Richard Holland. As a teacher and coach early in his education career, Allen didn’t necessarily have an administration role on his radar. That changed as he worked for Holland until 2014. “He was my principal for 15 years, and in Gwinnett, it’s very unusual to have a principal for that long,” Allen said. “He was just somebody who spoke possibility in me when I didn’t necessarily see myself as a leader inside the classroom; he did.” Something all of his mentors and educational role models had in common, he said, were their ability to emphasize how far the reach of their employees actually was.
See FISH, A5
See ALLEN, A5
Staff Photo: Taylor Denman
Gregory Petralia, left, and Rocco Petralia fish for trout during Jones Bridge Park’s Kid’s Fishing Day on Saturday.
Getting their feet wet
Jones Bridge Park hosts Kid’s Fishing Day for beginners By Taylor Denman taylor.denman @gwinnettdailypost.com
Merritt Bratton waded fearlessly into the waist-deep icy water of the Chattahoochee River on Saturday morning. While some people fishing around him were struggling to hook their first catches of the day, Bratton saw his pole bend, jerked it back and reeled in his first catch shortly after 10 a.m. The 11-year-old seasoned fish-
erman from DeKalb County had caught his first fish of the day, but far from his last. While Saturday’s trout was small compared to the 9-pound bass he said he once hauled in at Lake Hartwell, Bratton said he’s enjoyed fishing in any setting since he was introduced to the sport at 6 years old. He first started fishing with one of his friends, but he’s taken to researching tips and tricks and delves into fishing books. He explained the nuances
MORE ONLINE ♦♦Visit us online at gwinnettdailypost.com for a photo gallery. between river and lake fishing techniques. “Fishing in a river, normally you’ll get trout and you might get some smallmouth bass,” Bratton said. “Lakes you’ll get largemouth bass and fish like crappie. Also the
Former NICU babies meet their Gwinnett Medical Center physicians By Taylor Denman taylor.denman @gwinnettdailypost.com
Megan Benton hugs her former physician Leslie Leigh at Gwinnett Medical Center on Friday.
For Megan Benton to be back in the natal intensive care unit at Gwinnett Medical Center 22 years later was a strange feeling. It’s where she and her sister, Natalie Benton, lived the first days of their lives and where their triplet, Lindsey Benton, died 10 hours after birth. Yet, there she was Friday, showing photos of herself and her sister to Leslie Leigh, the physician who cared for them in NICU at Gwinnett Medical Center 22 years earlier.
♦ Staff Photo: Taylor Denman
INSIDE Classified................B7 Comics....................C8 Community..............C1 Crossword...............C8
Horoscope............... A4 Local....................... A2 Lottery..................... A4 Nation..................... A6
Obituaries................B4 Perspectives............B5 Sports.....................B1 Weather................... A4
“It’s pretty shocking and pretty amazing that we survived,” Benton said. “It is a creepy thing (to be back), but it’s also a good thing.” Benton and her sister were born the size of their mother Sheri Benton’s hand. Natalie and Megan were both one pound and two ounces when they were born after approximately 23 weeks of gestation. “It’s just wonderful to be back,” Sheri Benton said. “Dr. Leigh and the nurses saved our girls’ lives. They gave us our girls with the Lord’s help.” It’s not the first time Megan Benton reunited with Leigh.
gwinnettdailypost.com Stay connected with the Daily Post online, where you can submit news tips, browse photo galleries and sign up to receive headlines digitally at gwinnettdailypost.com/newsletter. Send us engagements, wedding, births or anniversaries under “Submit your news” on the home page.
MORE ONLINE ♦♦Visit us online at gwinnettdailypost.com for a photo gallery. Gwinnett Medical Center links NICU “graduates” with their former physicians at an annual reunion, which was Saturday afternoon at Infinite Energy Center. The Bentons returned as infants with their parents, as several former NICU patients did on Saturday. See NICU, A5