We Let the Dawgs Out

By Alaina Boyden, M&M TIPster

The saying goes “Good things come in small packages.” This time though, the package looks like a giant bull dog.

The "We Let the Dawgs Out" project originated when members of the Athens-Oconee Junior Women's Club learned of the Cow Parade. The Cow Parade is a public art exhibition initially intended to bring publicity or attention to local artists and their work. Now the Cow Parade has visited over fifty cities worldwide, including Paris, Milan, and Tokyo, since it began in the year 1999. The money made from auctioning off the sculptures goes to nonprofit children and arts groups.

In Athens, however, the sculptures are instead bulldogs, which is the mascot for the University of Georgia. Originally, the Junior Women’s Club’s goal was to get enough sponsors and artists to complete twenty-five bulldog statues. Yet the project turned out to be so successful that they ended up with thirty-six instead! The statues’ homes are all around the city and attract attention from tourists and visitors all the time.

“I think everybody who comes here loves them. I can’t even begin to tell you how many people take pictures with them,” says Linda, an employee from Heery’s Clothing Closet, located close to the Bulldog statue called “Bugga,” which has different bugs and leaves painted all over it.
Another example of one of the statues includes “Caesar Dawgustus,” located on 100 College Avenue near Starbucks wearing a red toga, sandals, and a crown.

For many, the statues are symbols of team spirit or even a kind of special trademark. It is said that they are almost like guard dogs watching over the city of Athens.

Alaina Boyden is a 10th grader at Marathon High School in Marathon, Florida.

The Amazing Michael Davenport

By David Garcia, M&M TIPster

"Words can't express it. He still keeps his motivation and faith."

These are the words of Leo Davenport, father of the locally famous Michael Davenport. But if he’s so famous, why doesn’t anyone recognize his name? This is probably because he has a more recognizable appearance, an even more remarkable talent, and has amazing character.

When Michael was only 13, he was in a traumatizing event changing the rest of his life. While playing in his yard with a copper wire, he got tangled in an electrical cord, leaving him injured in the hospital. When he awoke a month later, he found himself in a completely different world: a world without his hands. The accident left him handless on one side and with a prosthetic arm on the other. Michael was faced with the challenge of re-learning everything he could do with hands, but in a different way.

Through the years, Michael began to make some decisions that weren’t the best: he took up drinking and began to take for granted the life God had given him. But Michael is now living a happy life in Athens. After he saw what he was doing to himself, Michael decided to turn a new leaf and start his life over the right way. By doing this, Michael found his new passion: drawing.

Before his accident, he claimed to be a horrible artist, but once he lost his limbs, that changed. He said he began to draw with his mouth when he was about 15 or 16 and that was when he made his first sketches of the UGA mascot. When he saw that his creation had potential, Michael worked harder and harder at his mouth sketches until they met his standards.

He says his inspiration for drawing came from his artistic grandfather because he had the same go-to attitude and the same perseverance as himself. His paintings are now what keep him living, making most of his income from making drawings along the streets of Athens.

His amazingly accurate mouth drawings are sold for $40-$60 and he sells roughly five or six a day. Mikey, as many call him, gets friendly customers every day, but is most popular during the football season when all the fans want one of his drawings. Over only a decade, Michael has become a celebrity in Athens and is always welcomed by all its residents. He is even scheduled to meet with Oprah in the near future.

But his life after his change wasn’t all that easy. He continued to face many hardships, such as learning to write with his mouth and, recently, dealing with the loss of his sister. He says he continues because God gave him his life for a reason so he’s going to follow his dreams for as long as he can.

After his life changing experiences, Michael said that he became much more friendly and approachable. This is easy to see as ex-customers greet Michael as he draws for the tourists. They make sure he’s doing fine and ask about his family then continue on with their daily lives.

Michael says that if he had anything to say to the young people of today he would tell them “…just don’t ever give up and follow your dreams no matter the obstacles.”

Click here to see Michael making one of his drawings.

David Garcia, 15, is a sophomore at South Grand Prairie HS in Grand Prairie, TX.