Beaver Dam Farms, the 973-acre estate formerly owned by country singer Kenny Rogers is heading to auction on July 9, according to an article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Although Rogers has been most successful with country audiences, he has charted more than 120 hit singles across various music genres, topped the country and pop album charts for more than 200 individual weeks in the United States alone and has sold more than 120 million records worldwide, certifying his position as one of the best-selling musicians of all time.

The property, which is currently owned by the Weston Adams family, is not far from Athens. The estate is centered around a 12,000-square-foot mansion, but it includes three private spring-fed lakes, five guest houses and a clubhouse and a lake clubhouse, according to the AJC article.

There’s also an equestrian arena on the property that includes 44 stalls, two swimming pools, two clay tennis courts and an 18-hole golf course.

 “In my 33 years in the real estate business I have had the pleasure of touring many beautiful properties, but Beaver Dam Farms took my breath away,” Todd Good, CEO of Accelerated Marketing Group told the AJC. Accelerated Marketing Group is the company marketing the auction.

The estate’s owners live on the other side of the country, a statement from Accelerated Marketing Group read. “They felt their inability to utilize the country estate on a more routine basis was depleting from the beauty of the property and it was just time to let it go.”

The property is being sold fully furnished and the owners said they will sell the property to the highest bidder “at or above $3.5 million.” The replacement cost of the property is estimated at more than $30 million, the statement said.

Interested and qualified buyers can schedule an appointment to tour the grounds beginning June 4. Call 800-791-0913 or email Accelerate Marketing Group at Tgood@amgre.com.

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Pokémon enthusiasts competed in the Spring Regional Championship in Athens this weekend, one of eight championships that took place across the U.S. this month.
 
According to an article in the Athens Banner-Herald, hundreds of people – of all ages –competed in the competition, which was held at The Classic Center.
 
“Fans came with binders full of laminated cards, handheld gaming devices and Pokémon fan gear,” the article reads. “On Sunday, one of the few girls at the championship, Kelly Ellis, 20, of Easley, S.C., sat organizing her cards to prepare for a game.”
 
Ellis told the ABH it seemed like 90 percent of the players were boys and she felt it would be nicer if more girls were involved in the championship.
 
“She’s been to two other regional championships and is trying to win enough games to amass the amount of points needed to make it to the next level — nationals,” the article reads. “The Pokémon U.S. National Championships will be in Columbus, Ohio, the first weekend of July.”
 
In the Pokémon Trading Card Game players assume the role of a Pokémon trainer and use their Pokémon to battle their opponents. Players play Pokémon to the field and attack their opponent's face. A Pokémon that has sustained enough damage is knocked out, and the player who knocked it out draws a Prize card.
 
There are usually six Prize cards, and the primary win condition is to draw all of them. Other ways to win are by knocking out all the Pokémon the opponent has on the field such that the opponent has none left, or if at the beginning of their opponent's turn there are no cards left to draw in the opponent's deck.
 
Players begin by shuffling their decks and drawing seven cards, then playing one Basic Pokémon onto the battlefield. This Pokémon is known as the Active Pokémon, and is usually the one that attacks and receives damage.
 
The Classic Center buzzed with talk about prized cards amid rows of players facing each other engrossed in one-on-one matches, according to the ABH article.
 
“Some players hopped from table to table asking if anyone had cards they would be willing to part with, offering a deal on a trade.”

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Ryan Seacrest, who attended the University of Georgia for about a year in the ’90s before moving to Hollywood to pursue his dreams, returned to Athens Friday night to offer the commencement address at Sanford Stadium.

Seacrest is from Dunwoody, Ga.
 
Seacrest offered words of wisdom and encouragement to the class of 2016 and received an honorary degree from the school, according to an article on 11-Alive News, which he said was a proud moment for his mother – who's been waiting 24 years to see him in graduation regalia.

A committee of the state’s Board of Regents had approved Seacrest’s degree during the group’s monthly meeting, held in October of 2015.
 
During his speech, Seacrest told the graduating class to always trust their guts, and illustrated that point when he decided to up and leave college to go pursue his dream. He added that grads should also listen to people just as much as they talk and always be up for laughing, even if it's at yourself.

“We look forward to welcoming Ryan Seacrest back to the UGA campus,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports President Jere W. Morehead said in a statement before the graduation ceremony.

“Through Seacrest Studios, he has channeled his success into a source of comfort and creativity that has positively impacted the lives of pediatric patients and their families while providing significant learning opportunities for students. I am sure he will have a compelling message to deliver as the Commencement speaker.”
 
Seacrest even shot a selfie video during the ceremony with Hairy Dawg and the crowd. The event ended with a fireworks display.
 
His advice to graduates? Get busy and make it count, according to The Red and Black campus newspaper, because life is precious and fleeting.
 
In addition to his work in entertainment, including hosting “American Idol,” and creating and producing television programs, such as “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” and “Jaime Oliver’s Food Revolution,” Seacrest works with hospitalized children through the Ryan Seacrest Foundation. The nonprofit organization builds Seacrest Studios, or broadcast media centers in pediatric hospitals — including at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston — to allow patients and their families to experience radio and television broadcasting.

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Hundreds of athletes raced in downtown Athens Saturday during the 37th annual Twilight Criterium bicycle races.

The professional men’s race began at dusk, immediately following the women’s professional race. There were also multiple other races, including a children’s foot race and a BMX competition.

According to an article in the Athens Banner-Herald, thousands of spectators attended the annual event.
Ryan Aitcheson with Astellas Cycling Team took first place in the men’s race with Oscar Clark Holowesko, with Citadel Cycling Team p/b Hincapie Sportswear; and Bobby Lea, with Maloja Pushbikers, coming in 2nd and 3rd respectively.

"The race stayed hard," Aitcheson told race announcers at the podium. "We kept the pace up and then we reshuffled. Gap started opening and we just rode as hard as we could. I had one of the best lead out riders in the country, Aldo Ilseic. We were saving each other. Once we took the corners one, two and three, we knew we had it."

“Seven riders lapped the field including Clark, Lea, John Harris (GREEN LINE VELO driven by Zipcar), Eamon Lucas (Astellas), Tom Gibbons (Unattached) and Aitcheson,” an article by Cycling News reads. “Once they settled into the pack, another move went up the road with three of the seven riders from the original break going with them, meaning those riders would be two laps up.”

Gibbons and Harris missed the move, so they reportedly got stuck in the pack.

The race began with 170 riders and ended with only about 50, a testament to how fast the riders were traveling, according to Cycling News.

“Clark, Aitcheson and Lea were the three who lapped the field twice, setting them up for the inevitable sprint for first. Aitcheson had the advantage of Aldo Ilseic as a lead out, and the Astellas rider got on his wheel with a half lap left and was essentially escorted to the line by a fine lead out by his teammate.”
Riders are mainly from Georgia, but many in attendance were from other states and even other countries.

The race was founded in 1980 by former Athens bicycle shop owner Gene Dixon, according to the ABH. It was the first night race in the United States in more than 60 years and now attracts some 150 riders for the main race and hundreds more for the other races.

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The University of Georgia College of Engineering held its annual Senior Design Showcase Monday.
 
At the event, students showed spectators what they will be focused on when they become engineers.
 
 “Some took on the fundamental work of engineers to help out small communities, such as a sewer collection and treatment facility project seniors Bill Mapes, Chris Parker, Juan Urueta and Nick Wilson undertook for the South Georgia town of Whigham,” an article in the Athens Banner-Herald reads. “The facilities would take the city off septic tanks and, town leaders hope, set the stage for growth in the Grady County community.”
 
According to the ABH, Abby Caballero, Lauren Shannon, Max Ovett and Carson Coley are helping the city of Chattahoochee Hills decide what to do about the failing Garrett’s Ferry Bridge — analyzing hydrological and other kinds of data, creating structural and architectural drawings and costing out two possible solutions, rehabilitating the bridge or replacing it.
 
Seniors Damon Dunwoody, Michael Perleoni and Nick Thompson stuck closer to home and studied how they can help Athens’ Terrapin Brewery expand. The group’s goal is to quadruple the brewery’s bottling capacity and double or more its brewing capacity in the near future, the ABH reports.
 
“Other projects involved electricity, like the lead-free, lithium ion-based uninterruptible power supply for personal computers investigated by Kasandra Sandoval, Paul Sertwotka, Aaron Patrick and Myles Craig,” the article reads. “Others ventured into biotech manufacturing, including the team working on the project judges picked as best overall among the nearly three dozen senior projects. Alex Roman, Nikki Thai, Andrew Lyon, Alyssa Ghuman and Nicholas Winter undertook to design a commercial facility to manufacture a kind of stem cells that could help patients with spinal cord injuries.”
 
Other projects focused on things like emergency landings of aircrafts on water and new ways of manufacturing the influenza vaccine.
 
One group investigated a method of manufacturing the influenza vaccine that uses insect cells to produce virus-like particles, or VLPs, which contain no viral genetic material but can fool the body’s immune system into building defenses against the real thing, the article reads. “Most would agree with senior Bill Mapes’ observation after working on a project for two semesters. ‘We really learned a lot,’ he said.”

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