Daily Archives: November 4, 2020

Visual artist went from showing dogs competitively to painting and teaching

Growing up in the farming area of Baltimore County, Md., Ginnie Conaway was always around critters from dogs to chickens to cows.

She went on to show dogs competitively and started drawing them, as well as the dogs of competitors.

“I showed Dobermanns and Whippets for decades,” Conaway said.

In 2003, after spending her adult life in Wilmington, Del., and getting a divorce, Conaway decided to live elsewhere.

“I bought an RV and I started traveling around the country to figure out where I wanted to live,” Conaway said.

Her traveling companion was her last show dog — Travis, a Dobermann.

After a stint in West Virginia, she turned her attention to a city in a neighboring state.

“Winston-Salem, which was close relatively, had the reputation for being ‘The City of the Arts,’” she said.

Conaway, 71, has lived in Winston-Salem since 2005. It’s where she met her current husband, Bill Forrest.

Also, in 2005, she was hired by Sawtooth School for Visual Art to teach watercolor. She teaches drawing and painting primarily to seniors in the personal enrichment program at Forsyth Technical Community College. She is also an art instructor for Senior Services Inc. and Brookridge, a Baptist retirement homes community, both in Winston-Salem.

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North Carolina’s young voters are making their voices heard in the 2020 Election

GREENSBORO, N.C. — One group that traditionally doesn’t show up for elections is turning out for the 2020 presidential race.

Young voters are making themselves heard in early voting, and young volunteers are helping to drive the turnout.

Bill O’Neil talked to college students who have never voted before, but they are volunteering their time to get out the vote through the New Voter Project.

The non-partisan effort includes reaching out to young voters in a number of different ways, working the phones and reminding people to vote and how to make a plan to vote.

NC State University student Brigid Lindley says, “I just feel like it’s something that’s really important. We did not think about did not have that big of a turnout in 2016. We’ve really just been looking at trying to get as many kids out to vote as possible just because we feel like that’s so important this year.”

“There are people that quite literally don’t have the option whether they aren’t able to vote if they’re not old enough, or they aren’t a citizen, for whatever reason,” says Ellie McCutchen, who’s a student at both Early College of Forsyth and Forsyth Technical Community College. “I feel like the people that can be involved need to do their best to be involved because we have to speak for the people who can’t.”

When asked if these students have been surprised by anything in their efforts to get people involved, Lindley says, “It’s just been really incredible having a response from groups of people who you’d generally not expect to answer a phone call. We get people asking questions. I’ve had people that will text me a couple of days after I call them if they have any questions.”

McCutchen says she’s been worried about bothering people with calls. “This is necessary work I’m doing it with a purpose. It’s been really worthwhile when you have a good conversation about voting with someone who’s a complete stranger.”

 

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