Submitted by Sammy Smith (sammy@thesga.org)

HPD Director Ray Luce, on left, with award recipients Melina Vasquez, Lillian Davis, SGA President Dennis Blanton, Erica Danylchak, Richard Laub, Emily Eigel, Hilary Morrish, and Catherine Edgemon.

The Georgia Historic Preservation Division presented this year’s Preservation Achievement Awards on May 5th. HPD honored SGA President Dennis Blanton for his work bringing one of Georgia’s few existing Native American dugout canoes to Fernbank Museum, among his many other activities that promote archaeology in Georgia. Dennis’s day job is Curator of Native American Archaeology at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History, Atlanta.

Other 2009 winners include Catherine Edgemon, W. James Green and Lillian Davis, Richard Laub, and ten graduate students from Georgia State University: Emilie Arnold, Neil Bowen, Renee Brown-Bryant, Stephanie Cherry, Parinya Chukaew, Erica Danylchak, Emily Eigel, Hilary Morrish, Melina Vasquez, and Lillie Ward.

Preservation Achievement Awards are presented for contributions in conjunction with the HPD and its programs. The honorees are recognized as having helped further HPD’s mission, vision and goals, and thereby made significant contributions to historic preservation in Georgia.

Click here to visit the HPD’s website.

Posted online on Friday, May 8th, 2009