On Saturday, October 26, 2024 the Aryan Freedom Network, a neo-Nazi organization, held their Aryan Fest gathering in Georgia. (See background information here.) We quickly discovered the location of the event, which was on a property at the northeast corner of Elberton Road and Brown’s Chapel Road in Lexington, Georgia. We recorded video from the ground and sky, including the clip below, in order to establish definitive proof of the correct address. Note the giant wooden swastika on the land, which was burned in a swastika lighting ceremony that night.
We now wish to expose the hosts of the neo-Nazi gathering: Shannon Ashley Haynie and George Raymond Haynie III.
The Haynies live at the Elberton Road property, which our footage confirms hosted the 2024 Aryan Fest. George Raymond Haynie III (born 1963) works for the University of Georgia as a Machine Shop Manager, where he made $83,627.10 in 2023, and where he has worked since 2020. George Haynie previously lived in New Jersey where he also worked in a machine shop.
Shannon Ashley Haynie (born 1985) is the founder and President of the Board for “Schatzkind Services Co.”, a new nonprofit which presents itself as “pregnancy crisis housing.” The website is full of neo-Nazi references. As stated in their “About Us” page, the name “Schatzkind” is German for “treasured child.” The logo of the nonprofit makes prominent use of the Algiz/life rune, which was used widely in Nazi Germany, in particular by the Lebensborn association, which aimed at increasing the number of “racially pure” Aryan children. William Luther Pierce, author of the race war fantasy The Turner Diaries, later used this rune as the logo for his neo-Nazi organization National Alliance. The mission of Schatzkind Services states: “Every mother and baby of our folk is loved, protected, and provided for, and every father has peace of mind that he may devote his strength to embracing his role as leader and defender of his family.” The website repeatedly uses of the phrases “our folk” and “our folk community,” another neo-Nazi dogwhistle referring to the concept of the “Volksgemeinschaft” (“racial community,” translated literally as “folk community”) that Hitler sought to create in Germany. Finally, the name Schatzkind Services has the initials SS, a reference to the Schutzstaffel, the German Nazi paramilitary group which ran the concentration and extermination camps.
If the Nazi references on its site were not clear enough, the chat for Schatzkind Services on Telegram (a messaging application) further reveals the project’s agenda. On 26 October 2024, the day of Aryan Fest, the admin of the Telegram chat shared on image depicting Schatzkind branded merch on a table alongside reprints of Nazi newspapers. A message sent 27 October 2024 by the admin states: “We raised $154 dollars at the event yesterday 😊.” The admin also mentions, “My friend that has done merch for Red Ice did these sample logo patches for us,” referring to white nationalist media channel Red Ice. The chat included two PDFs. The first PDF contains minutes from their first board meeting, which lists Shannon Haynie as President, George Haynie as Secretary, and David C. Cogdill Jr. as Vice President, and which lists their plan to open a bank account with Truist. The second PDF is a letter from the Georgia regulatory board confirming their status as a Maternity Supportive Housing Residence.
Slides linked on the Schatzkind Services website name the creator as “Sally Hausfrau,” an alias for Shannon Haynie. “Sally Hausfrau” has an account on Gab (a far-right social networking site) which originally used the address @ShannonAHaynie. The Gab account uses the same profile picture as “Sally Hausfrau” on Telegram.
On Telegram, Shannon Haynie/“Sally Hausfrau” is active on the periphery of the White Art Collective (WAC), a white nationalist project that seeks to influence culture. On one WAC Telegram channel, Haynie posted a portrait of Hitler she painted, as well as Adolf Hitler Christmas ornaments she made.
In April last year, Shannon Haynie’s Telegram account posted an “AFN [Aryan Freedom Network] Prospect” image as a profile picture, further indicating her affiliation with the group.
David C. Cogdill Jr., Vice President of Schatzkind Services, has a Substack using the name “DJ Cogdill.” Strikingly, in one of his posts, he details his presence at the US Capitol during the January 6, 2021 failed coup. Cogdill also recounts subsequently being contacted by and sitting down with the FBI.
We are actively seeking more information about Aryan Fest, the Haynies, and their associates. The best way to send us info is through the email on our site.
We encourage you to contact the University of Georgia about the university paying over $80,000 a year to a committed neo-Nazi who hosts other nazis from around the country at his property. Please also share our documentation with UGA students and alumni. While the Aryan Freedom Network claims to only engage in legal activism, its “Aryan Fest” gatherings have been promoted on “Terrorgram” channels promoting violent white supremacist revolution. Giant flaming swastikas present a substantial fire hazard to the Lexington community, but an even greater danger is from the neo-Nazis swarming into the area, should the Haynie property host further events.
If the Haynies succeed in their bizarre project to establish a neo-Nazi maternity home, they will be exposing vulnerable women and children to a population notorious for wife-beating and child abuse. We also encourage you to contact the Georgia Department of Human Services to politely ask why they approved a neo-Nazi homestead as a Maternity Supportive Housing Residence. Also ask why they include Schatzkind Services in an online search of resources, channeling vulnerable women toward the nazi project.