Four Wilkes County students are among the members of the Watson- Brown Junior Board for 2007-2008. The Watson-Brown Foundation has announced the members of the 2007-2008 Junior Board. "These wonderful students represent the best and brightest in CSRA schools," said curator Michelle Zupan. "They are scholars, athletes, actors, and musicians with an abiding interest in history and in preserving the historic character of their communities."

The new board members are as follows: Erica Bettross, junior, Thomson High School, Junior Board President; Delaney Russell, senior, Washington-Wilkes Consolidated School, vice-president; Laura Lemley, junior, Augusta Prep, Secretary; Kimber Kirkland, senior, Lincoln County High School, Historian; Spencer Swinson, junior, Washington-Wilkes Consolidated School, Parliamentarian;

Jamie Russell, junior, Briarwood Academy; John Spivey, senior, Briarwood Academy; Michael Edwards, sophomore, Washington- Wilkes Consolidated School; Haley Ward, junior, Washington-Wilkes Consolidated School; Kyle Hickox, junior, Evans High School; Mary Margaret Peebles, junior, Davidson Fine Arts School.

The Watson-Brown Foundation supports historic preservation in part through its Junior Board, a talented group of local high school students whose exclusive mission is to preserve local history. The Junior Board awards $25,000 in grants annually to historic preservation projects in the Central Savannah River Area (CSRA) of Georgia and South Carolina.

During the school year, the Junior Board conducts research, pre-grant inquiries, and site visits. The Board's past preservation projects have included the conservation of grave markers at the historic Wrightsboro Cemetery in McDuffie County, conservation of a pole truck for the Signal Corps Museum at Ft. Gordon, purchase of archival supplies for court records in McCormick County, the restoration of a civil war banner for the Washington Historical Museum, and restoration of a grist mill for the Lincoln County Historical Society.