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50 CANNON’S POINT:
The St. Simons Land Trust’s acquisition offers an abundant natural respite, but it also provides deep historical links, including connections to indigenous people and the Colonial Era.
57 AN OCEAN EXCURSION:
The Emmeline extends many types of tours to guests and locals, but setting sail on an ecological adventure offers a unique peek at everything from dolphins at play to pelicans perching on piers.
66 HISTORIC HORTON:
The remains of a structure initially constructed in 1743 stand on ancient land on Jekyll Island and it has a fascinating past with links to the present.
74 WATER TRAILBLAZERS:
Michael Gowen and Cindy Dennard share the story of how they started their kayaking business and also contributed a legacy of stewardship in the Golden Isles.
82 HEROES OF THE HOMEFRONT:
As the nation and the world marked the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, the historical society’s homefront museum presents a testament to the sacrifices made in Brunswick and St. Simons Island.
Your Perfect Staycation Awaits locals already get it:
Plan your perfect staycation with our limited-time special offers and packages, designed to showcase the best of Jekyll Island. Whether it’s for a relaxing retreat or an adventurous escape, there are countless reasons to visit Jekyll Island Club and Jekyll Ocean Club. With a wide variety of activities to explore, our tailored staycation packages and specials make planning your next getaway a breeze. Discover the magic of Jekyll Island without traveling far from home.
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Contributing Photographers
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Michael Farris Jr.
Sam Ghioto
Elizabeth McLauchlin
Ronda Rich
Terry Dickson
Sam Ghioto
Michael Gowen
Michael Hall
Michelle Holton
Kyle Morgan
Aric Sparmann
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Contributing Designers
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Terry Wilson
Golden Isles Magazine is published six times per year by Brunswick News Publishing Company
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About the Cover: Local photographer Kyle Morgan captured this gorgeous sunrise over a tributary that flows into the Brunswick River. This issue explores the many waterways that connect the Isles, along with the ancient people who called them home.
Island’s Premiere Seafood Establishment
Tribuzio’s Grille is your family-friendly dining, entertainment, and catering destination located in the heart of Jekyll Island. Family owned and operated, Tribuzio’s restaurant is proud to offer breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Whether you’re headed out on the golf course, making the turn after nine, looking for a lunch spot with the gals, ready for a great evening dining experience, or hosting a special event, we’re ready to serve!
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All content is copyright of Golden Isles Magazine, a publication of Brunswick News Publishing Company. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without express written permission from the publisher. We have sought to ensure accuracy and completeness of the content herein, but neither Golden Isles Magazine nor the publisher assumes responsibility for any errors, inaccuracies, omissions, or other inconsistencies, including those related to quotations. We reserve the right to refuse advertising. All advertisements appearing herein are accepted and published on the representation that the advertiser is properly authorized to publish the entire contents and subject matter thereof. All ads are paid advertisements and/or gifts given as part of a contractual agreement regarding Brunswick News Publishing Company. Neither Golden Isles Magazine nor the publisher
All Sizes For Your Perfect Fit
ADRIFT
IN HISTORICAL WATERS
By all accounts, I was an odd kid — ask my parents. When I was 6, the only Halloween costume I wanted to wear was a custom-made Shakespearean getup. My patient parents relented, and I got my wish, though I was a little disappointed that the blue and pink outfit bore little resemblance to the gowns worn by Juliet in the production I watched repeatedly on VHS. It just didn’t seem historically accurate to my elementary school brain.
Another vivid memory was vacationing in the Gulf, where I would stare out into those turquoise waters and imagine the explorers who had traversed them through the centuries (I would also envision sharks swimming beneath them, but that’s another story).
impressed by the amazing local stories they bring to life. It’s a must-see for all locals and visitors.
And, of course, we have our other half — the open waters.
For our kayak feature, we turned to a few folks who know the topic better than anyone else — Cindy and Michael Gowen, as well as our own writer and photographer, Sam Ghioto.
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But whether it be the fictional streets of 14thcentury Verona, the escapades of Sir Francis Drake, or the horrific deeds of Hernán Cortés, history has always held me spellbound.
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And that’s why the Isles have truly proven to be a treasure trove for me. Each year, for our summer issue, we try to bring you a beautiful blend of history and nature, two of the characteristics that make this area so wildly rich and endlessly intriguing.
I think this year’s July-August edition won’t disappoint you either. We’ve assembled a lineup of stories that explore key areas with — and I’m not exaggerating here — thousands of years of human history.
As part of our Ancient Walls portion, we visit Cannon’s Point Nature Conservancy, which was initially occupied by indigenous people. Later, a plantation onsite hosted renegade Vice President Aaron Burr after his duel with Alexander Hamilton. While there are only ruins standing today, the historic energy on the grounds is palpable.
And as many did in olden days, we also sailed over to nearby Jekyll Island to visit Horton House and DuBignon Cemetery. Like Cannon’s Point, it also boasts history dating back 3,000 years to native tribes and played a key role in establishing the British colony in the 1700s. In our last fully history-based story, we take a tour of the World War II Homefront Museum on St. Simons’ East Beach. I’m ashamed to say that prior to writing this … I hadn’t visited before, but since I’ve been back twice and am truly
Michael and Cindy, co-owners of Southeast Adventure Outfitters, were incredibly generous in letting us tag along on a couple of trips. In fact, I went for my very first kayaking experience, and it was nothing short of incredible. I’ve never been an outdoorsy type of gal, and the idea of being in the water, kayak-style, was a little jarring (see my shark phobia referenced above). Their team’s expertise truly allayed my fears, and it’s a truly special memory.
Sam, of course, is an experienced kayaker who formerly guided tours at Southeast Adventures. For our feature, he sits down with Michael and Cindy for an intimate Q+A session with a unqiue understanding of the business and the local waterways.
Then, last, we ventured out with Anchor Excursions for an ecotour where we were able to see the Isles in all their golden glory. From herons to dolphins, the trip was magical, and it’s something I’d recommend to everyone. And the combination of Stephen’s historical knowledge with Captain Sy’s wealth of biological fun facts, you’re sure to learn something along the way.
I hope that’s always the case. May we always remain inquisitive about the world around us — from the oceans to the heavens, the past to the present.
With love — Lindsey
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TIME TO GET SOCIAL
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If you prefer to send us your comments by email, contact Editor Lindsey Adkison at ladkison@goldenislesmagazine.com. Anything posted to our social media accounts or emailed directly to the editor will be considered for publication. Comments may be edited for clarity or grammar.
Animals and Us
@wunderbar_florals: My happy place
@Grateful Cats/Canines Allies & Supporters: She’s beautiful inside and out.
@sarahmccroskey: The colors, papers, everything.
Callike Miligan: Amazing
Elizabeth McLauchlin: This house is beautiful.
Jennifer Garner Hinson: Love the colors and the details!
Jennifer Aldridge Rose: Not only is she talented, but she is such a ray of sunshine!
Louise Eaton: Love this picture of Ken Wallin and his work.
The Broken House
Ocean Bringing skimboards to life
Art
WORDS BY LINDSEY ADKISON | PHOTOS BY MICHELLE HOLTON AND ARIC SPARMANN
On any given morning, Cristi Kavanaugh can be found bobbing in her happy place — the ocean. The St. Simons Island resident has become a
mainstay in a group of local surfing enthusiasts who greet the day among the golden ripples of the Atlantic.
“You’re away from it all … that’s my favorite part of it,” she says with a wistful grin. “You’ve left it all behind for at least an hour.”
Her love for the isolation and freedom of the sea has also opened many doors for Kavanaugh. Several of them, she never imagined she would enter. And it all came about from an initial desire to build her own surfboard.
“I had never surfed, but I had paddle-surfed. I loved it, so I was doing that with Jeff Montaigne, Mark Andress, and Jason Latham, all those guys who paddle-surfed all the time. I just fell in love with it,” she says. “So, I decided I wanted to get into
surfing, and not just surfing, I wanted to make my own (board).”
Luckily, she knew precisely who to call to help her with that — Geoffrey Gable, owner of SML Surf Co., based in Brunswick. He has created a number of custom boards for area surfers.
“I called him up and asked him if I could shadow him or if he could look over my shoulder while I did it,” Kavanaugh says. “And I have to tell you, I fell in love with the whole process.”
That was the spark that would eventually become a business, KavPar Customs. She created her own workshop in her backyard and started handcrafting skimboards, an activity that always lends itself to the Isles’ (often) waveless seas.
“We don’t always have waves but you can always skimboard. My kids skimboard and they like to surf as well,” she says.
While she now had the know-how, she did have to phone a friend when it came to the artistic side of the coin. And that came in the form of Justin Parrish.
“He was my best guy friend from high school and he was always great at drawing, so I asked him,” she says. “I’ve always loved to paint though.”
But as far as the shaping and sanding, that’s all Kavanaugh. And like surfing or skimboarding, it’s become another cathartic past time.
“… headphones, sander, mask. You’re on a whole new planet,” she says.
It takes Kavanaugh about two weeks to create a skimboard. That’s if she has no other distractions. But she’s
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always a busy bee, though a lot of that is usually related.
A few years ago, Kavanaugh was instrumental in helping revive the Womp Off, a skimboarding competition held at the Coast Guard station each May.
“I didn’t realize how big this thing was when I jumped into it. Randy Owens and (owners of Southern Soul) Griffin Bufkin and Kitty and Harrison Sapp started the whole thing, and then Southern Soul burned
down. So they had other things going on,” she says. “I called them and asked them about bringing it back and they were all about it. Now, we’re on year four. It’s the biggest beach party out there and everybody had a blast.”
She relishes sharing the love of skimboarding with others. That’s what she’s doing now at her soon-to-open business, which will offer board rentals and lessons, in addition to custom boards.
It will be located at 113 Skylane Road, St. Simons Island and is set to open mid-summer 2025.
“There’s a section with glass where they can watch me make the boards,” she says.
Looking back on the journey, Kavanaugh is grateful for the way everything came together.
“So many doors opened and one door would open another,” she says.
Zachary Powell, DMD
DR. ZACHARY POWELL.
DR. AUSTIN BROWN DR. CHRIS ADKINS
Darien brewery breathes new life into historic building
History on Tap A
A father and his sons tossed bean bags toward corn hole boards as sunshine danced along the Darien River. Behind them, the freshly-refurbished Adam Strain building stands tall in the spring afternoon.
The structure stretches across layers of history, and after an extensive renovation process, it opened its doors as Tabby House Brewery. Owned by Milan and Marion Stavic, the effort to save Darien’s oldest structure was certainly a labor of love, five years in the making.
And today, it’s paid off.
Megan Stavic, the executive chef for both Tabby House and
its sister restaurant Canopy, says that her in-laws took extraordinary steps to create a space that honors the 200-year-old location, believed to have been constructed in 1815.
“It was built as a ship’s chandlery and cotton warehouse,” Stavic explains, seated at a table in the tavern. “It’s the second oldest building in the state.”
“There was a building here before, too, that burned down. You can see some of that original tabby structure underneath the glass over there,” adds manager Kat Young, gesturing to a viewing window worked into the building’s floor.
But the story begins even earlier. Archaeologists who were
hired to aid the restoration work have found pottery shards dating back to a time when indigenous people lived on the bluff 5,000 to 6,000 years ago.
“We are going to have a museum upstairs with the things they’ve found,” Stavic says.
Of course, perhaps the Adam Strain’s biggest claim to fame was that it is the only building to have survived the 1863 burning of Darien during the Civil War.
“… the tabby did, not the floors,” Stavic clarifies.
The namesake Strain purchased the property in the years afterward, where he operated it as a general store.
It later had incarnations as a movie theater, a newspaper office, an art studio, and a law office. But by the time the Stavics came on the scene, it was in deep disrepair and structurally unsound. Landmark Preservation of Savannah was tasked with saving the building in 2020.
“We reused as much of the building as we possibly could. The wood that is now the floors came from the building,
but it wasn’t the floor,” she says. “When we got it, it was basically a shell.”
After five years of construction, Tabby House Brewing Co. opened its doors in late 2024. Like the structure itself, the food and beverages served are deeply rooted in its historical connections.
“I really wanted to honor the history of the building in the menu and the types of beers that we choose to make. Everything is very Euro-centric, Euro-focused,” Stavic says. “We do artisan flatbreads and sandwiches, everything is very fresh.”
“Our vegetables are sliced daily,” Young adds.
The brewery operates out of the building next door, using a former bank vault as its fermenting hub. The beer styles and titles also harken back to history, with names like “The Highlander,” a Scottish ale, which pays homage to the Scots who came the New World with General Lachlan McIntosh nearly 300 years ago.
There’s also the German Hefeweizen called the Hessie; the King’s Brew, an English Porter; and the Altie, an Amber Red Ale, which pays tribute to the legendary sea monster of the same name (or the Altamaha-ha formally).
And while these are standards, new brews are always bubbling up.
“We just kegged a blond ale, and we have a hazy IPA that should be out next week,” Young says. “Right now, we have a Doppelbock and Double IPA on tap.”
“Because we are a nano brewery, we can really do whatever we want. We’re not locked into doing only one thing,” Stavic adds.
Whether it’s the brews, the balcony breezes, or the bountiful history, there’s been a steady stream of customers drawn in from both near and far.
“Of course, we have our locals. I’ve seen a lot of people from the Atlanta area and the Carolinas,” Young says. “We have a lot of people who have been following the building’s process online.”
Stavic says that the variety of visitors allows them to offer an expansive selection of menu options.
“We’re really happy to be here and provide something that represents Darien, but is a little more elevated version of the experience,” she says.
Island Echoes from the
Book explores history of St. Simons during World War II
WORDS BY LINDSEY ADKISON | PHOTOS BY MICHELLE HOLTON
Like many, Joy Jordan-Lake has sweet memories of summers spent on St. Simons Island. Her grandfather served as the pastor of First Baptist Church in Brunswick, and while she grew up in Tennessee, her family frequently visited the area. The island, in particular, held a special place in her heart.
“My dad brought us as kids here,” she says. “Then, I started bringing my kids here during the summers. We still have cousins who live here. I just had my first grandson, so he’ll be the next generation who will come here.”
But even though she has been coming to the area for decades, there were still some surprises waiting to be unearthed.
And as a professional writer, those
can be incredibly fortuitous.
“I’ve written 14 books … both fiction and nonfiction, but most of them are historical novels with dual timelines,” she explains.
“I was trying to think of a new book idea. And I loved the idea of trying to set something here. I was thinking of doing something on Jekyll during the club period. Then, I went to the wonderful World War II Home Front Museum on St. Simons Island, and I was just blown away. I had no idea, and I don’t think a lot of people have any idea of what was going on here during that time.”
After visiting the location, curated by the Coastal Georgia Historical Society, Lake learned about how German submarines (more commonly known as U-boats) proved
“The only thing new in the world is the history you don’t know.”
Harry Truman
to be a constant threat, patrolling off the East Coast. On April 8, 1942, two tankers were torpedoed off the shores of St. Simons.
“I had no idea that more Americans died on the East Coast during the war than in Pearl Harbor,” she says. “It really sent my imagination rolling. It must have been such a terrifying time.”
Learning about this and local efforts to support the war sparked Lake’s creativity.
And before she knew it, her next novel was underway. Titled Echoes of Us, the story is another of her beloved dual timelines. One half is set during the war, primarily on St. Simons, with a few scenes in northern France and the South Pacific. It features the journeys of three men and one woman who are in the midst of the war, although not all are on the same side, trying to find their footing and a way out of the chaos.
The second portion, which is interwoven, is set in the present. It features two sisters who are trying to arrange a reunion for some of those very World War II veterans.
And, there is another character, of sorts.
“… 90 percent is on St. Simons Island and a lot at the King and Prince,” she says.
That’s because, at the time, the King and Prince was a RADAR training facility. The present-day hotel’s restaurant, ECHO, is a nod to this very bit of history.
“We’d come to ECHO and walk past the photographs, but it didn’t click for me,” she says with a laugh.
As she dove into researching her book, Lake discovered countless stories of everyday men and women who displayed remarkable feats of valor.
“The Civil Air Patrol had civilians who would strap bombs to their own planes and go up looking for German submarines. And women played a major role in it, too. This was the golden age of female aviation, with so many women becoming aviators,” she says.
“There are so many great stories that were fun to work into the novel. Mimi Rogers (the past museum curator) shared letters they found from the instructor at RADAR training school at the King and Prince. And he was riddled with guilt because he was in this gorgeous
setting, teaching young men who were about to go and risk their lives. He felt that he needed to go back out there instead of being an instructor.”
These snippets of real stories add truth and texture to her pages. Lake relishes that sense of realism. But she does note that there are some pitfalls when it comes to writing historically-based fiction.
“You have to be careful, when you’re researching for a book, that it’s not so research-heavy that it’s not entertaining,” she says.
But by all accounts, that’s not the case with Echoes of Us. Lake, who lives just south of Nashville today, made a recent trip to share the book with the St. Simons Literary Guild. She says the attendees were very receptive and equally eager to delve into a new slice of historical perspective.
“People have given really kind of good reviews, and it has been striking to hear people become interested in World War II fiction. They have never thought much about the home front,” she says.
• To learn more about Author Joy Jordan-Lake, visit joyjordanlake. com. To read more about the local home front effort during World War II, see our feature on page X. It is available at Righton Books on St. Simons Island, along with her children’s book, All the Little Animals.
WORDS BY ANNA FERGUSON HALL
PHOTOS BY KYLE MORGAN AND TERRY DICKSON
FIVE-K, FESTIVAL FIREWORKS:
&
Annual run adds to Sunshine Festival Weekend
TTwo record-setting events played out in July of 2024. One came from NOAA, reporting that the Earth’s global surface reached more than two degrees higher than it had ever been, according to the national weather tracking agency.
Simultaneously, the other record came despite the heat index. That was seen in the numbers recorded by Orrie McCrea in recent years of the Sunshine Festival 5K Run and One-Mile Fun Run. As president of the Golden Isles Track Club, McCrea, along with a team of volunteers and club members, clocked a record number of runners taking part in the club’s annual run held the morning of the holiday.
Last July 1, 294 participants cruised through the finish line of the Sunshine Festival 5K, McCrea says, adding that 262 participants were in the One-Mile Fun Run, five adaptive athletes were in the Push Rim 5K, and to top it off, three individuals joined in with the Virtual 5K option.
While reciting impressive figures, McCrea says the grand total for 2024 came to 1,564 individuals registering and showing up for selected run options. But for McCrea, the number of shoes pounding the pavement on the morning race isn’t a major surprise, as the total number of finishers in the last four years has continually measured positive growth.
Like the racers who aren’t known for backing out when the heat turns up or a few raindrops fall, McCrea doesn’t anticipate a stop in growth again this year.
“In 2025, we are expecting 1,700 finishers,” he says.
Among those laced up and ready to run this year will be Mike Tigani.
For more than a decade, Tigani has been faithful to the finish line of the 5K, starting when he first moved to the Golden Isles more than a decade ago.
“I have run it 14 times,” Tigani
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says. “This year will be 15, since moving to the Golden Isles in May 2011.”
Since his days of running through high school as a member of the track team, to later running through company needs as Marketing Director for King and Prince Seafood, Tigani has routinely found his way into a runner’s circle. In his move to the Golden Isles, becoming a part of a track-andthrill club quite literally came with the job.
“When I moved here, this race was circled on the calendar to participate in,” Tigani says.
It was a date he didn’t have any plans on erasing either. Taking on the annual personal challenge in tandem with building bonds between employees and the community offers an elevated level of achievement. Even those new to running can tap into it as fuel for finding the finish line fun.
So much so that Tigani has passed down the running
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pastime to his family, most notably, to his daughter, who “was able to run the 1-mile kids run when she was younger and then she ran the 5K event,” Tigani says. “The race is very family-friendly.”
To that point, McCrea agrees, noting the 1-mile race is unique in that it is a chipped event. He also points to three years ago, when event organizers rolled in and added a layer of inclusivity, with the “push rim” division for adaptive athletes.
Designed for individuals who are not able to physically run the event, this addition came with a partnership between race organizers and Miles for Smiles. The Blackshear-based nonprofit organization now provides racing strollers, pushed by volunteers, “or ‘chariots’, as we like to call them,” McCrea said of the newer, adaptive race option. “It is a blessing to see the joy and fun these athletes show as they are able to compete in a 5K.”
Post-run, runners can wipe their brows, and onlookers can continue their browsing at the run’s accompanying namesake, the Sunshine Festival.
For more than 60 years, the annual St. Simons Island Sunshine Festival has filled the areas of Pier Village on St. Simons with activity. Held from 10 a.m. to sundown, the daytime event includes an arts and crafts show vendors, live music, and a golf cart parade, topped with a fireworks display to begin about 9 p.m.
Sunshine Festival Fireworks:
The annual Sunshine Festival fireworks display will be held at sundown, about 9 p.m., on July 4, at Neptune Park on St. Simons. Guests are encouraged to arrive early for the evening fireworks. Picnic blankets and beach chairs are suggested. Admission and parking are free of charge.
Guests are advised that the fishing pier and the southernmost end of Mallery Street will be closed to cars and pedestrian traffic, beginning the morning of July 4. A section of Neptune Park will be fenced off, and officials ask that all tents be taken down by 7 p.m., as a precaution against catching fire from fireworks’ sparks.
• For more information about this year’s Sunshine Festival and fireworks display, visit goldenisles.com.
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Around the Town
July 1
QThe Coastal Photographer’s Guild will host its 16th annual Big Photo Show at SoGlo Gallery, 1413 Newcastle St., Brunswick. Members will showcase their work. The exhibition will be open from 5 to 8 p.m. during the month’s First Friday event. Prizes will be awarded in various categories. For details, visit coastalphotographersguild.com.
The St. Simons Literary Guild will host an Author Talk with Kimberly Brock, who will speak about her book The Fabled Earth at 10:30 a.m. at the St. Simons Casino, 550 Beachview Dr., St. Simons Island. It’s free for members and $10 for non-members. For details, visit litguildssi.org.
July 4
The St. Simons Island Sunshine Festival will be held around the Pier Village on St. Simons Island. A 5K and 1-mile fun run, hosted by the Golden Isles Track Club, will begin at 7 a.m. in Mallery Park. There will be a golf cart parade at 11 a.m. starting at the park and proceeding down the street toward the pier. At 9 p.m., fireworks will be set off over the ocean. For details, visit goldenisles.com.
Brunswick’s Old Fashioned 4th of July Celebration will be held in conjunction with First Friday on Friday, July 4. There will be kids games, free watermelon and food trucks at Mary Ross Waterfront Park beginning at 6 p.m. First Friday, a monthly downtown block party, will be held from 5:30 to 9 p.m. in and around Newcastle Street in downtown Brunswick. Restaurants, stores, and galleries will entertain. At 9 p.m., fireworks will be set off over the East River. For details, visit discover-brunswick.com.
The Jekyll Island Authority will host a fireworks display over the ocean, beginning at 9 p.m. Attendees should secure a parking space at Great Dunes or Oceanview
Beach Park on Jekyll Island. The Jekyll Island parking fee will increase by $4 for all daily and weekly passes on July 4th only. For details, visit jekyllisland.com.
July 5
The Brunswick Harbor Market will be held from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Mary Ross Waterfront Park in downtown Brunswick. It is an open-air market with a variety of food, crafts, and specialty vendors. For information, visit discoverbrunswick.com.
July 7 to 11
Golden Isles Arts & Humanities will host Camp Create: Once Upon a Time for kids ages 8 to 10. Sessions will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Friday. The instructor will be Heather Heath. The cost is $250. For details, call 912-262-6934 or email artsed@goldenislesarts.org.
July 8
The St. Simons Literary Guild will host an Author Talk with Suzanne Hurley and Josh Dukes at 10:30 a.m. at the St. Simons Casino Theater, 530 Beachview Dr., St. Simons Island. The authors will discuss their book, Brunswick. The event is free for guild members and $10 for non-members. Seating is limited; reservations are encouraged. To register, visit LitGuildSSI.org.
July 21 to 25
Golden Isles Arts & Humanities will host Camp Create: Ten Minute Plays for kids ages 10 to 12. Sessions will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Friday. The instructor will be Heather Heath. The cost is $250. For details, call 912262-6934 or email artsed@goldenislesarts.org.
July 26
Golden Isles Arts & Humanities will host the Apex Theatre Studio’s production of “The 39 Steps” at 7:30 p.m. at the Ritz Theatre in downtown Brunswick.It is a Tony and Drama Desk Award-winning production. Tickets are $15 for GIAH members and $20 for nonmembers. They are available at goldenislesarts.org or by calling 912-262-6934.
July 27
The Coastal Georgia Historical Society will host its summer concert program, A Little Light Music, featuring the Pine Box Dwellers from 7 to 9 p.m. on the lawn of the St. Simons Island lighthouse. Tickets are $20 for adults; children under 12 and Keepers of the Light are admitted free of charge. Seasonal tickets are $60. No cash will be accepted, and tickets are non-refundable. Society staff encourage concert-goers to purchase tickets in advance in the Lighthouse Museum Store or on the society’s website, coastalgeorgiahistory.org.
July 28 to August 1
Golden Isles Arts & Humanities will host Camp Create: Once Upon a Time for kids aged 12 to 16. Sessions will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Friday. The instructor will be Heather Heath. The cost is $250. For details, call 912-262-6934 or email artsed@goldenislesarts.org.
august
August 1
First Friday, a monthly downtown block party, will be held from 5:30 to 8 p.m. in and around Newcastle Street in downtown Brunswick. Restaurants, stores, and galleries will entertain. For details, visit discover-brunswick.com.
August 2
The Brunswick Harbor Market will be held from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Mary Ross Waterfront Park in downtown Brunswick. It is an open-air market with a variety of food, craft, and specialty vendors. For information, visit discoverbrunswick.com.
The St. Simons Literary Guild will host an Author Talk with Tommy Tomlinson at 10:30 a.m. at the St. Simons Casino
Theater, 530 Beachview Dr., St. Simons Island. The authors will discuss their book, Dogland: Passion, Glory, and Lots of Slobber at the Westminster Dog Show. The event is free for guild members and $10 for non-members. Seating is limited; reservations are encouraged. To register, visit LitGuildSSI.org.
August 17
The Ultimate Elvis Concert, featuring Graceland’s 2023 Ultimate Elvis Champion Cote Deonath with local multiaward winning Elvis Tribute Artist Braxton Sykes opening and producing the event, will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Ritz Theatre in downtown Brunswick. For tickets, visit bcsentertainment.com.
August 31
The Coastal Georgia Historical Society will host its summer concert program, A Little Light Music, featuring the Sounds of Motown from 7 to 9 p.m. on the lawn of the St. Simons Island lighthouse. Tickets are $15 for adults; children under 12 and Keepers of the Light are admitted free of charge. No cash will be accepted, and tickets are non-refundable. Society staff encourage concert-goers to purchase tickets in advance in the Lighthouse Museum Store or on the society’s website, coastalgeorgiahistory.org.
THE ISLES IN THE American Revolution
n Coastal Georgia, our historical roots run deep. The ancient oaks and timeless seas have borne witness to countless monumental events throughout the centuries, including the founding of the nation itself.
Fort Frederica was established in 1736 by Gen. James Oglethorpe, more than two decades before the war for independence would turn the proverbial world upside down. While many who settled in the Isles in the Revolutionary period remained loyal to the crown, plenty of patriots were in the mix.
With such a direct legacy, it would be a fitting Just the Facts column for this issue. Read on to learn about this fascinating time in our history (including some Glynn County-specific info.):
1,050
40,000
In terms of size, 40,000 soldiers fought in the Battle of Long Island, making it the largest battle of the war.
231,000
231,000 men served in the Continental Army, though never more than 48,000 at any one time.
The Battle of Camden in Camden, S.C., proved to be the greatest blow for the Continental Army. It had 1,050 casualties. The British had only 314 killed or wounded.
6,000
The Continental Army included 6,000 Black soldiers. It remained America’s most integrated army until the Korean War.
43,000
The largest city in colonial times was Philadelphia, with 43,000 inhabitants. It was followed by New York with 25,000, Boston with 16,000, and Charleston, S.C. with 12,000.
1771
Brunswick was founded in 1771 and still features anglophile streets named London, Dartmouth, Gloucester, Prince, and George, 250 years after the British founded the town.
6,800
It’s believed that 6,800 Americans were killed in action, with 6,100 wounded, and upwards of 20,000 were taken prisoner.
17,000
Historians believe that at least an additional 17,000 deaths were the result of disease, including about 8,000 to 12,000 who died while prisoners of war.
8 MILLION
When the war broke out, Great Britain had 8 million residents in 1775. The 13 colonies had about 2.5 million, of which half a million were slaves.
1789
In 1789, President
George Washington named the Port of Brunswick one of five ports of entry into the fledgling United States.
500
Brunswick was believed to have about 500 residents living there during the war, as it was a relatively new city.
• The American Battlefield Trust’s data contributed to this article.
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DUE SOUTH
Ugly Irma
WWithout a doubt, there have been many lovely women named Irma. Indeed, Mama had an adored friend named Irma who lived to be almost 100 years old. Mama claimed she was one of the prettiest girls she had seen. Her eyes shimmered in a perfect shade of blue, always accented by Revlon’s famous shade of red known as Cherries in the Snow.
With just the right amount of blue formulated into “cherries,” it is rivaled only by designer Valentino’s red as the world’s most lusciously famous red. My father-in-law was the ad execu -
tive who, at one time, oversaw the extensive campaigns for Cherries in the Snow. He declared in his autobiography that, while the color was pretty, the man who ran the company, Charles Revson, wasn’t. Obnoxious. Unkind. Difficult.
Yet, since its formulation in 1953, Cherries in the Snow continues to hold tight to longtime consumers while piling up new ones. If you’re looking for a scrumptious red in lipstick, gloss, or nail shades, Cherries in the Snow is calling your name.
This story, however, is about an ugly Irma, a storm that took choke of Florida and Georgia in 2017, the likes of which I hope to never see again. Incredibly deep amounts of water rushed viciously over Route 17 then splashed their way up toward the mountains of North Georgia. I have quivered through varying degrees of earthquakes, from California to the East Coast, and
weathered two tornados, one of which I suffered while in a tanning bed during my young and stupid days.
But Irma? I wish never to lay my eyes upon the likes of her again. In 1936, a tornado killed almost 400 people in my small hometown, including at a pants factory where dozens were burned alive. Irma was the worst natural disaster I ever saw. Tink was in Canada, shooting a television series, safe from all alarm. Weather forecasters predicted that Irma would hit us around 12 noon. When she had not come a-callin’ by 1 p.m., there was reason for hope. I took to straightening the cans and bottles in the pantry, choosing to believe we would escape Irma’s ugliness. But at 2 p.m., I heard a thunderous boom. I snatched my raincoat and, be it stupid or brave, ran toward the barns on the back property. An oak tree, over a hundred years old, had fallen in the riding ring with one huge puff of wind, downing the first of many trees.
WORDS BY RONDA RICH
At 11 p.m., I opened the front door to let the dogs out but they were much smarter than I they stayed inside. A maple, planted 15 years earlier, became a corkscrew, twisting all the way in one direction then letting go to twist the other way. I did not believe it could survive, but Irma did not get the best of that tree. She did, however, take down 12 other trees, including two across the front drive and three across the back.
Two winters earlier, an ice storm claimed 10 trees. At one side of the boarded pasture fence, I dropped to my knees and cried with pain sliding down my face in huge drops.
Over the last 18 years, we have lost close to 30 trees. When Helene came most recently, I walked the floor all night, praying not to lose another tree. My prayers were answered.
To me, nothing is more beautiful than trees. As our riverbanks have begun to collapse from erosion over the past few years, it has been a miserable awakening with every horrible crunch. That morning of the ice storm, Tink had tried to console me.
“You don’t understand,” I moaned, the saltiness of tears touching my tongue, “I will never live long enough to see these trees grown this large again.”
Trying to assuage the damage, we brought in a few large trees with heavy equipment and planted more. Yet, I discovered something beautiful. Whenever God springs forth a tree from the earth, it grows faster and much sturdier than large trees planted by man.
Now, I tell Tink, “Let me bush hog the pasture so I can preserve the tiny trees. I don’t want any of them cut down.” Those tiny trees — maples, oaks, sycamores, and pines are growing rapidly. Some of them we chose to relocate to other places on the Rondarosa. Along one side of the riding ring are three trees that were put in with a backhoe. Fronting them are four trees that sprang up by themselves two years later — and have become much taller and fuller.
I’m starting to get over my anger with Irma. She’s prettier than I thought.
Ronda Rich
NATURE CONNECTION
Bikepacking Cumberland
A
After an intense couple days of hiking on Cumberland in late 2022, Sergi and I were having a conversation on the way back to the ferry dock that planted a seed.
“Dude, we need to bring our bikes out here … Hiking this far is too intense,” Sergi exclaimed.
“Let’s do it! We can go much farther, and we can pack all our gear on our bikes and take the load off our backs,” I said.
Just over two years later in January 2025,
Sergi and I were able to make the bikepacking trip work.
He has a nice mountain bike with fat tires. My bike is a State Bicycle gravel bike with 27.5-inch tires.
Would my bike be able to handle the sandy road?
It had just rained a few days before, and I hoped the rain packed the sand down nicely to ride smoothly.
We arrived the island around 10 or 10:30 a.m. and we cruised to Stafford Beach campsites, where we promptly erected our tents and organized our gear. A burst of intensity flowed through our veins.
Once our bikes were discarded of unneeded weight, Sergi and I accelerated from the campsite toward the main road. Tree roots along the roads made for uncomfortable bumps, and I was glad that I had padded cycling shorts underneath my pants. I always wear pants and long
socks on Cumberland because ticks (and bugs in general) can be a problem along the Georgia barrier islands.
In no time, we made it past Yankee Paradise, 7 miles or so from the ferry dock, and we blasted up the main road. Our cadence was quick. I was worried that we would run into very soft sand around this area, but all was clear. We were heading toward Christmas Creek. Our goal was to go as far as we could on bikes and see all that we could see. We passed Brickhill Bluff on the main road, and we reached the turn toward the First African Baptist Church, where we planned to have lunch.
We sat for lunch for a little bit, and we hopped back on the saddle passing through some interesting habitat looking for some wild animals. Sergi’s trained eye spotted some bobcat tracks on the road. I felt like we were going to see one. Headed east, we wondered that the clearing just to the north of us was, probably from an old plantation.
Eventually the clearing turned back to maritime forest canopies, and the road turned north. I let Sergi go ahead of me for a few minutes. I came around some dense oak foliage. Sergi stopped in the road looking back at me.
“Dude,” he yelled.
“What’s up?”
“A bobcat just ran across the road in front of me!”
“Man, that’s amazing!”
“It was so quick. I wish I could get a picture.”
“Yeah good luck! They are so elusive. I’m so glad you got to see it.”
We finally emerged onto the backside
WORDS AND PHOTOS BY SAM GHIOTO
of the great Cumberland dunes among the marsh overlooking Christmas Creek, where horses and other animals perhaps created a little walking trail for us to explore. We put our bikes down and walked around for a little bit. Getting here by foot would be way too costly energy-wise, and I was happy to make it out here and see it first-hand. No vessel needed. Just a bike, and it only took three hours. We rode back down, and explored the beach for a bit before heading back to camp for the night.
Biking Cumberland is an awesome thing to do. Day trips with a bike are a fantastic way to explore, but I would exercise caution about going to the north end if you’re only doing a day trip. I would recommend camping in the winter and biking to the north end with a buddy. There is so much to see, and it’s very easy to find yourselves alone amongst the beautiful cacophony of (mostly) undisturbed nature.
Some important tips I’ve learned when bikepacking Cumberland:
• You need tires as fat as you can get. (I had no issues until we reached the beach. The main road is in good condition. South end biking is not as intense as the north end.)
• Bring a small electric pump (I bought mine from the Bike Dude) and repair kit
• Electrolytes, water, and food are a must
• Padded shorts are a must
• Always have a rain plan
• Wear boots
• Bring headlamps and a light for your bike
BY DESIGN
Gardening tips for the sizzlin’ summer
PROVIDED CONTENT
GGardening, in general, can be challenging in the Southeast heat of the summer. But there are ways to keep the proverbial party going. That includes focusing on water requirements of lawns and plantings, deadheading flowers and being vigilant in checking for fungus and insect activity.
According to Henry Hart, co-owner of and manager at ACE Garden Center on St. Simons Island, this is the point in the year where gardeners have to walk bit of a tightrope.
“It becomes a delicate balance of keeping the lawn well-irrigated to prevent drought stress, but not so overly saturated that you promote fungus and weed growth,” he says.
“Watch your lawn around the peak of the heat of the day for signs of drought stress, which include browning and vertical folding of the grass blades. Also this is a good time to raise your mower blades and ensure you never cut a dry, droughtstressed lawn.”
Since fungus growth is a major concern during this time, Henry encourages homeowners to take active steps to combat it.
“To prevent a fungus outbreak which is especially prevalent in shaded lawn areas, water early — before daybreak — watering at night when the temperatures are cooler will only promote fungus growth,” he says.
“Some fungus such as Take-All can spread quickly so it’s a good idea to
take note of your lawn’s condition when cutting weekly.”
While doing that weekly check-in, keeping an eye on insect activity is another important item on the summer punch list. Henry says that an additional insecticide application could be needed in August if insect activity occurred in the late spring/early summer months. And, he adds, it’s key to know if some plants in your landscaping prove more susceptible than others.
“A common issue with Crape Myrtles during the summer months is aphid infestation which can cause sooty mold and can make the foliage unsightly. An insecticide can be used to control the aphids and the mold will eventually disappear. Take care to rake out any dropped leaves from around the base of the tree,” he says.
Like Henry, Dawn Hart, his co-owner and his mother, says that this same sense of care and attention is needed in terms of nutrition as well. Properly fertilizing plants can help keep them healthy and stave off diseases.
“Due to nutritional deficiency, Sago palms can also develop a disease called ‘frizzle top,’ which should be corrected with a palm fertilizer containing manganese,” Dawn says.
“Sagos are also susceptible from the scale insect, which can be white or brown and generally affix themselves on the underside of the foliage, as they will suck the nutrients out of the plant and cause sooty mold. They should be treated accordingly.”
Fertilization should still be practiced, especially if using water-soluble mixtures, which tend to leach out of the soil more quickly with increased watering in the summer — every three weeks is preferable.
Naturally, moisture is key with regard to flowering plants, shrubs, and trees in the summer months — however it is not a good practice to do any hand watering during the mid-day heat.
“It is difficult not to wet the foliage, which can burn when watered in the heat of the day,” she says.
“Also, mulching with one of the many bark mulches or pine straw is recommended to help shield the soil in your beds from drying out in the constant sun and sea breezes.”
Of course, creating the beds come with rules, too. Hart says that it is not ideal to build up mulch more than 3 inches around the base of shrub or tree trunks — protection around the drip zone of the plants is the important thing.
“While new plantings can be added — be mindful that even if you have an irrigation system in place, supplemental watering is always necessary for woody plants and trees to ensure the entire root ball is soaked two to three times a week … so generally, it’s not a good time to plant something new and go on a two-week vacation unless you can pay the neighbor’s kid to water for you,” she says.
Flowering plants and shrubs should be dead-headed to promote more blooms and some tip pruning of errant limbs or stems can be done to push new foliage growth. Selecting heat-hardy plants can also be incredibly helpful. Some of those that thrive well here include Hibiscus, Plumbago, Firebush, Cannas, Ixora, Drift Roses, Oleander, Yellow Bells, Cape Honeysuckle, Agapanthus, African Iris, Mandevilla and Dipladenia, Bouganvillea, Duranta, Salvias, Correopsis, Lantana, Coneflower, Shasta Daisy, Heathers, Blue Daze, Vinca, Coleus, Begonia, Angelonia, Bush Daisy (Euryops), Portulaca, Pentas, Licorice, Doreanthus or Delosperma, and Sedums.
“New plantings would benefit from fertilizer at planting with a slow release granular fertilizer for flowers or organic compost or a low nitrogen fertilizer for shrubs and trees,” she says.
“Keep in mind that container pots will dry out faster, especially terra cotta, which sweats — as your plantings mature you will probably be stepping up your watering more often from your spring regimen.”
Patience and vigliance will pay off and the Harts encourage gardeners to stay the course during the summer.
“Vigilance in watering, fertilizing and tip pruning (if plants get leggy over the summer) can reap big rewards for the health of your garden as summer heat stress gives way to cooler fall temps that will again be here before we know it,” Dawn says.
• ACE Garden Center is located at 2807 Demere Road, St. Simons Island. It is open from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday to Saturday. It is open from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday. The phone number is 912-634-0523.
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The Overlooked Epidemic: An eye on
neuropathy
PROVIDED CONTENT | PHOTOS BY
MICHAEL HALL
IIf you’ve ever experienced tingling, burning, or numbness in your hands or feet, you may be facing more than just a minor annoyance. These symptoms are often the early warning signs of peripheral neuropathy, a progressive and potentially debilitating condition that affects over 20 million Americans — and that number is growing.
At Wellman Family Healthcare, we’ve seen firsthand how neuropathy robs
people of their mobility, independence, and quality of life. What begins as discomfort can rapidly evolve into chronic pain, balance issues, muscle weakness, and even aggravating wounds or amputations. Yet despite its seriousness, many patients are left with nothing more than prescription creams, medications, or vague reassurances to “watch and wait.”
“Patients may experience a range of symptoms, including extreme sensations, numbness, muscle weakness, tingling, burning sensations, and difficulty with balance. Left untreated, neuropathy can worsen, leading to wounds that won’t heal, loss of limb function, or even amputation,” says Dr. Amber Wellman of Wellman Family Healthcare.
But neuropathy won’t wait. It progresses.
Neuropathy is caused by damage to the peripheral nerves, most commonly
in the feet, legs, and hands. It can result from a variety of issues — diabetes, poor circulation, chemotherapy, nutritional deficiencies, toxin exposure, and more. But no matter the cause, the impact is clear: disrupted communication between the brain and the body, and a steep decline in quality of life.
And here’s the truth that too many people don’t hear: traditional approaches simply aren’t enough.
That’s why our team at Wellman Family Healthcare has developed and refined an advanced neuropathy protocol that goes far beyond surface-level symptom management. We focus on real, measurable healing — by increasing circulation, reactivating damaged nerves, calming inflammation, and correcting nutritional imbalances. We utilize state-of-the-art, non-invasive technologies designed specifically to promote nerve regeneration and restore function.
“Our neuropathy protocol is a multifaceted approach designed to nurture the nervous system, increase circulation and oxygenation, and actively stimulate damaged nerves for healing and restoration,” says Dr. Wellman. “By revitalizing and reactivating these areas, we help patients regain sensation, reduce pain, and significantly improve their quality of life.”
Patients come to us after being told “nothing more can be done”— and they leave with hope, relief, and often, results they never thought possible.
Neuropathy is a complex condition that demands a comprehensive approach for real, lasting relief. Many patients have tried “traditional” chiropractic care or conventional medical treatments with little success, leaving them frustrated and still searching for answers.
At Wellman Family Healthcare, we take neuropathy treatment a step further
by addressing the root causes — not just the symptoms — through a multifaceted approach designed for long-term improvement.
Unlike standard care that relies on temporary symptom relief, our program incorporates a variety of targeted in-office treatments correcting underlying spinal issues that often contribute to neuropathy. But what truly sets us apart is our carefully designed home protocols — allowing patients to continue their healing outside the office, accelerating their recovery while reducing the need for frequent visits.
OUR NEUROPATHY TREATMENT PROTOCOL FOCUSES ON:
• Increasing Circulation — Enhancing blood flow to nourish damaged nerves and promote healing.
• Restoring Nerve Function — Stimulating and repairing nerve pathways for improved sensation and mobility.
• Correcting Spinal Alignment — Relieving pressure on nerves to restore optimal communication and function.
• Improving Nutritional Support — Addressing deficiencies that contribute to nerve degeneration and inflammation.
By addressing circulation, nerve function, spinal alignment, and nutrition, we target neuropathy at its source — not just its symptoms. Prescription medications may offer temporary relief, but they do not fix the problem or stop nerve damage from progressing. At Wellman Family Healthcare, we take a better approach — healing from the inside out to restore function, reduce discomfort, and help patients regain control of their health without the endless cycle of prescriptions.
If you’ve tried other treatments with little success, it’s time for a different approach — one that actually works. Never assume neuropathy is something you must live with. The earlier neuropathy is addressed, the better the outcomes.
At Wellman Family Healthcare, we specialize in what others often overlook. Call us today at 912-554-2002 to schedule a comprehensive neuropathy consultation.
Because when it comes to your nerves — doing nothing is never the answer.
• Wellman Family Healthcare is located at 124 Chapel Crossing Road, Brunswick. The number is 912-554-2002. Their website is wellmanfamilyhealthcare.com.
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Renovations can offer major returns for homeowners
WORDS BY ELIZABETH MCLAUGHLIN
RRenovations are the part of homeownership that will never go out of style. Sure, the kitchen, bathrooms, floors, and color palettes are usually a testament to what is trending in a particular moment; but the desire to renovate and update will always stand the test of time.
We saw bathrooms transition through the decades from the blues, pinks, and greens in the 1950s and 60s to the
bolder, more vibrant colors and prints of the 70s. Then, there was the all out glam of the 1980s, which popularized adding a Jacuzzi tub. Now, the freestanding tub lends itself to helping the homeowner create a more tranquil and sexy setting.
In 2020, the home improvement market really separated itself from previous years with a $35 billion increase from the 2019 statistics, according to FIXR.com. From 2021 to 2022, the market saw an increase of $64 billion. Some may attribute the vast increase to the pandemic, fueling homeowners’ desires to improve properties, but let’s not forget that mortgage interest rates were trending on the lower side, around 3 percent. These lower mortgage interest rates not only allowed the homeowner to afford more house, but it also gave them the leverage they needed to invest in their homes; thus, creating great equity. This
is also what we are seeing today and have been seeing these last several years locally. We are seeing the results of these investments enter the market and contribute to the increase in home values.
But where does one begin in the intimidating world of home renovations?
Homeowners often ask themselves — and us, the professionals — where will I get the most return from my renovation? Some of the answers might surprise you.
While the kitchen is thought to be the main focal point of the house, the return may not be as high as one might think. One of my favorite online resources to stay up to date and informed the consumer is The Journal of Light Construction. They not only provide nationwide estimates on the average cost vs. estimated value added, but they also break it down by regions and even by select cities. Now, I’m sure a new garage door or new front door are not typically at the top of the renovation project list, but what if your return on these two renovations could almost double what you put in? Does the possibility of getting 190-200 percent return on these exterior updates catch your attention?
Yes, the nice shiny updated kitchen probably catches your eye and adds to the overall first impression, but the return on investment can be considerably lower, trending anywhere from 30-70 percent, depending on the range of updates. The bathroom remodel cost vs. return is not far off from the kitchen, trending anywhere from 40-70 percent.
If a pricey kitchen or bathroom remodel isn’t on your renovation list, maybe consider adding to your outdoor living
space. Adding/expanding the deck can add value during your time in the house. The cost vs. value report estimates that it has the potential to bring the consumer a 60-80 percent return on investment. One way to take that a step further is by screening in the outdoor space. I have to admit, I was so stubbornly set against the idea of screening in my back porch area. I told myself it would take away from the view and natural sunlight. I was eating my words in the fall of 2024. Finally, I was fed up with the bugs and the great opportunity I was being robbed of to enjoy my back porch setting. I am now enjoying the luxury of opening my space from the living room to the back porch year-round and have seen a minor difference in the natural light coming in. This investment adds value immediately by allowing the consumer to reap intangible benefits as well as the potential to get an estimated 70-85 percent return on investment when the home sells.
Lastly, landscaping is another investment that not only affects a home buyers’ first impression, but also typically appreciates as it gets older. Homeowners often find themselves deliberating at the garden center between the cost effective smaller, less mature plants over the larger, more costly plants. Time is money and if you plan on living in the house for the foreseeable future, then your patience will more than likely pay off in the form of growth and maturity with the smaller more cost-effective plants. But if you trend on the side of craving instant gratification, then splurge for the larger mature plants.
At the end of the day, there are several factors to consider when doing home renovations; budget, displacement, timeframe, the enjoyment factor, and even the possibility of over improving. Don’t price your home out of the neighborhood with costly renovations. Do your homework. Check out what has recently sold. Every homeowner is different and what makes sense for one may not for the other. And it never hurts to consult your local Realtor about your market.
• Elizabeth McLaughlin is a real estate advisor at Engel & Völkers Golden Isles. Her office is located at 100 Redfern Village, St. Simons Island. The office number is 912-634-0595. For more information, visit elizabethmclaughlin.evrealestate.com.
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GAME CHANGERS
Mandy McNeese and Billy Porter
WORDS BY LINDSEY ADKISON | PHOTOS BY MICHAEL HALL
TThere’s an old adage that goes, “The longest journey begins with a single step.” For many people, that’s a metaphor for life and its challenges. But for ultra runners, Mandy McNeese and Billy Porter, it is a pretty literal description of their path to completing 100 and 50-mile races, respectively.
The two, both members of the Golden Isles Track Club, didn’t grow up as runners, but it’s taken a pivotal role in shaping their adult lives.
Read on to learn their stories:
Mandy McNeese
Like many women, McNeese found herself trying to get back into shape after having her second child. She was working with a trainer and would spend time getting in her cardio on a treadmill.
“I absolutely hated it,” she recalls with
a laugh. “Then, I figured out … I’m not going to let this beat me. So, how can I make this better? It evolved from running on the treadmill to running outside.”
Before long, the Brunswick native was training for her first race — a 15K (9 miles) — in 2014. It was a slow progression, but it landed in a full marathon (26.2 miles).
“I did about three marathons, and then I started thinking … ‘well, I still have a little more in the tank,’ let’s see what else I can do.’ So, I did my first 50K (31.2 miles), which was in Bluffton in 2017,” she says.
“It was pretty brutal. I knew the physical aspect of it, but not how to properly do the nutrition and hydrate, so I suffered for many hours after with cramps. It was a big learning curve.”
Not one to be deterred, McNeese took the lessons she learned and decided to move forward. And she set her sights on going even bigger.
“It evolved into wanting to do my first official ultra, which is a 100-miler. That was in 2019 to 2020, then COVID hit. So I didn’t do my first ultra until 2021, but then I was able to knock out three 100-milers in a year,” she says with a laugh. “I guess I had a lot of energy stored up.”
While that kind of distance seems mind-boggling to most, McNeese’s pristine training, nutrition, and hydration regimen made the impossible possible.
“My husband helps me with my nutrition
and makes sure I stay hydrated, not just with water but electrolytes as well. And he makes sure that I take care of my feet, so I’m not getting blisters,” she says.
Of course, in order to work up to that kind of major mileage, she also has to run really long distances. That means training five to six days a week and doing long runs back-to-back.
“Your long runs will be 20 to 26 miles on like a Saturday, then you’ll turn around and do another 12 to 13 miler the next day on fatigued legs,” she says.
While McNeese is in a class all her own when it comes to local ultra racers, finding camaraderie within the Golden Isles Track Club has gone a long way to helping her keep going.
“There aren’t that many ultra runners here. I only know of one other local person who has done a 100-miler, but I know of others in the Savannah area,” she says. “I found the track club through Game Changers, the running store in Redfern, which hosts group runs with the club on Monday nights. Then, I got talked into joining the club. Now, I’m the treasurer.”
While she enjoys joining the club for some of its weekly runs, McNeese also embraces the outreach opportunity it provides. Events like the July Fourth Sunshine Festival 5K and Fun Run allow the group to raise funds, which will later be disbursed to area schools’ track clubs.
“It’s a way to give back to the community and also show younger kids the importance of having a healthy lifestyle,” she says. “For me, running has always been like mental therapy … a time to work out problems, so it’s nice to share that there are healthy outlets for that.”
Billy Porter
Like McNeese, Billy Porter didn’t have any history with running when he signed up to do his first Fourth of July Sunshine Festival 5K in 2008. His employer, King and Prince Seafood, was encouraging team members to join in and paying their entry fee, so he figured, why not?
“I thought, ‘that would be a good way to meet people.’ But I had no experience with running. I was wearing khaki shorts and a T-shirt … all the stuff runners don’t run in because I didn’t know anything about it,” he recalls with a laugh.
It turned out, though, Porter’s body was pretty good at running. He completed his first race in 29 minutes, under the 10-minute mile mark. And, from that point on, he was hooked.
“The next one I did was a 5-mile beach run in Jacksonville. And then, just basically, I realized I was pretty good at this,” he says.
As many runners know, one race leads to another, and the mileage often tends to climb. Porter started working on trail runs, followed by a half marathon (13.1 miles). Before long, he was training for the full.
“When I realized I could actually run that far, I trained for my first marathon in 2013 in Jacksonville. Between two jobs, I was working at Home Depot part-time, which was kind of hard to get all that in, training-wise, so I was not really like working on speed a lot, but I was on my feet for 16 hours a day at one job and then, the second one at night,” he says.
The intense schedule did help him make sure his legs stayed strong, even though it cut down on his actual time pounding the pavement. Still, he continued to work at building endurance, setting his sights on training for a 50K.
“I built up to it because I was already in marathon shape. Then, before I turned 50, I decided that I would do 50 miles for my 50th birthday … just for fun. So I ran from the Jekyll Pier to the St. Simons Pier and back,” he says.
“I wanted to prove that I could do it. For the track club, we have our Facebook group chat, and they found out that I was doing it and they brought me water and cheered me on.”
It’s that kind of support that Porter finds so special about the group. He’s made some key friendships with his fellow members. And there’s one relationship that went beyond mere friendship.
“I met my wife, Tina, through the track club. We started dating in 2021 and got married at the race on the Fourth of July, so it’s easy to remember,” he teases. “We figured that we might as well, since the track club is like our family.”
Now, with his bride by his side, Porter is gearing up for his first 100-mile race. That will be in December in Florida.
“I’ve done two actual 50-mile races down in Middleburg, which is southwest of Jacksonville. And there’s a state park there called Jennings State Park in December, and the guy calls it the Festivus, like as in the Seinfeld episode,” Porter says.
“He’s offering a 30-hour limit. So basically, you can do 22 minutes a mile. I said I’ve never done it like that. That’s gonna be kind of hard. It can be done, people do it all the time, I’ve just never done it. So that’s the big thing for this year.”
• For more information about the Golden Isles Track Club, visit goldenislestrack. club.
July 4-5-6 August 2-3 September 20-21
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530 Beachview Dr. St. Simons Island, GA 31522 www.craftsinthevillage.com
Tribuzio’s Grill serves up local flavors on the greens
WORDS BY TAYLOR COOPER | PHOTOS BY TERRY DICKSON
TThe dining room at Tribuzio’s Grille hums with energy as golfers wander in from the fairways, sun-touched and ready for a drink or a meal. Business is brisk. That’s in part because nearby courses are closed for renovations, while part of the course outside Tribuzio’s is still partially open as a practice green, pushing hungry players toward this laid-back spot overlooking the greens on Captain Wylly Road.
“We’re a local restaurant — breakfast, lunch, and dinner,” says owner Rob Tribuzio. “We’re geared toward Wild Georgia Shrimp, which we get from
Anchored (Shrimp Co.)”
Rob Tribuzio is a restaurateur by trade, with roots in the region’s culinary scene. He got his start in the Golden Isles as part of the original team at Iguana’s Seafood on nearby St. Simons Island. When the opportunity arose to strike out on his own, he and his wife, Brittney, jumped at it.
They’re now sharing space on the first floor of the Jekyll Island Golf Club’s clubhouse, which gives guests a great view of the golf course green and gives golfers a nearby spot for lunch, a quick snack, or a drink before they head home.
The building once housed McCormick’s, a restaurant run by the Jekyll Island Authority before they stepped away from the food business. At the time, Brittney was managing the couple’s clothing store, Brittney’s Closet, and had a working relationship with the JIA — it gave her a chance to work alongside Rob.
She’s from the mountains; he’s from a
coast, albeit from farther north. Together, they’ve made Jekyll Island home. It’s a love story told in shrimp and salmon, laughter from the dining room, and the salty air that drifts in with each opening of the door.
Now, in addition to Tribuzio’s Grille, they run Sunrise Grill in Jekyll’s Beach Village. Both spots cater to the island’s steady flow of tourists, but it’s the locals and regular golfers who keep them grounded.
“We see a lot of familiar faces,” Brittney says. “I love talking to people. That mix of old friends and new visitors — that’s what makes it fun.”
They like getting the traveling customers, of course, but Rob says the restaurant is ultimately a local one. He and his wife, the owners, are local, as are their staff and much of the food they serve. Living on the coast, most of the restaurants around serve tourists, and they’re no exception. He wants the people of the Golden Isles to think of Tribuzio’s as a local place first.
The menu covers all the staples, starting with breakfast — eggs, bacon, biscuits and sausage gravy, Belgian waffles, omelets, etc. — to some more interesting items with a unique twist.
Rob is a big fan of Cajun cuisine, and that comes through in more than a few of their items. One is the Cajun crawfish biscuits and gravy. As the menu says, “It speaks for itself.”
The lunch menu also covers a wide array of different dishes and tastes, speaking to the skill of Tribuzio’s chefs and cooks. It runs the gamut from seafood to chicken, potato skins, pizza steak, nachos, cheese sticks, burgers whatever you can think of, and for almost any occasion. There’s even a section for vegetarians included.
Looking for a quick and refreshing meal in the summer heat, something to quickly fill up hungry kids, or some finger foods to munch while watching sports at the bar, Tribuzio’s has something for you.
Dinner is equally robust, featuring some of the same, along with a slew of pasta and desserts to top off the evening. That’s all along with a full bar and plenty of seating for even the largest groups.
There’s a lot going on with Jekyll Island. Several new businesses have opened recently, renovation and construction on most of the island’s courses should be done soon, if they’re not already (this piece was written in April), and the JIA is shifted into a more backseat, cheerleader position after almost a decade of overhauling the island’s hospitality and entertainment offerings.
Instead, what the Authority is focusing on is updating older attractions and providing better educational and recreation access to the island’s natural features.
Visitation to the island is still up, following the COVID-19 pandemic, and Rob and Brittney are focused on providing the best customer experience possible, building an even stronger clientele base by showing people some of the best of the Isles.
They don’t want locals to miss out, as the establishment is continually highly rated by visitors — beachgoers, golfers, and Jekyll residents.
Stop by for lunch or an afternoon at the bar. Tribuzio’s is at 322 Captain Wylly Road on Jekyll.
With the promise of the golf course outside their restaurant soon reopening, the Tribuzios are optimistic. For now, they’re focusing on what they do best: feeding the crowd with fresh, no-fuss coastal fare.
For this installment of The Dish, the couple shared a house favorite: Bourbon Street shrimp and salmon. It’s simple, fresh, and packed with local flavor — just like the island itself.
Bourbon Street shrimp and salmon
Ingredients
8 oz salmon filet
4 oz of pico
5 blackened shrimp
3 oz bourbon glaze
6 oz jasmine rice
6 oz broccoli
Directions
Blacken the shrimp and salmon to an internal temperature of 145 degrees. Either buy the pico de gallo, or make by chopping tomato, onion and serrano peppers and mixing with salt, cilantro and lime juice. Steam broccoli and boil rice. Lay a bed of rice on the plate on which to place salmon and shrimp. Add pico de gallo on top and surround with steamed broccoli. Top with Bulleit bourbon glaze.
Bourbon glaze
Ingredients
1cup Bulleit bourbon
2 cups of brown sugar
1 teaspoon ginger
¼ oz Worchestershire sauce
Directions
Cook bourbon over medium heat-high heat til boil for 1 minute. Reduce heat to medium low. Add remaining ingredients stirring continuously until all sugar is dissolved (about five minutes) then put in separate pan and cool in fridge about an hour.
Cannon’s Point
WORDS BY LINDSEY ADKISON
PHOTOS BY VOLO PROJECT AND ARIC SPARMANN
Gliding through the roundabout that leads from Frederica to Lawrence Road, there seems to be a palpable shift. The heavily populated neighborhoods fall away, and nature seems to reclaim its original territory.
Visible homes are few and far between, and horses even peek from between fence posts.
Approaching the end of Lawrence Road, the signs appear — Cannon’s Point Nature Preserve. At this turn, modernity entirely slips away. Moss and vines sway from overhead trees as the road seemingly winds its way back in time.
Pulling into the parking space outside the Georgia-Pacific Education Pavilion, guests are greeted by a silence that few experience in a fast-paced, non-stop world. Birds chirp, fish flip in the nearby Hampton River, and the wind whispers in the trees. But, there’s no familiar sound of traffic, televisions, or machinery.
And Stephanie Knox simply loves that. The stewardship director for the St. Simons Land Trust says Cannon’s Point Preserve, which the Land Trust acquired in 2012, offers visitors a peek into what the island was like thousands of years ago.
“I think when people come here, they get to see primeval Georgia, what this historically looked like, and what it should look like. We’re fortunate that we have as much protected land as we do,” Knox says.
That totals more than 640-acres on this historic peninsula, which is coated with countless fingerprints from indigenous people to Colonials, from prominent planters to the Sea Island Company. Untold individuals have contributed to the rich tapestry that has sprouted from the land.
“Cannon’s Point is a very unique peninsula. We have learned through archeological research that people have been utilizing it for at least 5,000 years,” Knox says.
“We know there were Native American villages that were here, and they were living here for the same reasons we all want to live here — the great resources … the marsh and our waterways like the Altamaha River. These maritime forests also provide a lot of resources as well.”
Through coordinated research with archaeologists, the land trust has discovered that the entire parcel is essentially a Native American shell midden — an area built upon shells,
pottery pieces, bones, tools, and other items discarded by tribe members starting around 2500 BCE.
“We don’t allow any unauthorized ground disturbing activities because we’re protecting the natural and cultural resources. But some of the pottery that has been found has been tempered with Spanish moss, which is interesting, so they utilized what was here,” Knox says.
“All the archaeologists that we’ve worked with now curate all of our artifacts with the Coastal Georgia Historical Society, and because they’re kept locally, we’re able to pull them out for events so people can see them.”
Knox says the ancient peoples who called Cannons Point home have come to be known as primarily as the Guale and Timucuans. Though, she was quick to add, these were the names given by European settlers rather than by the tribes themselves.
“There were a few other Native American tribes. We know there was a lot of trading. There have been things found here that have come from as far as North Carolina. We know through research they were coming from Florida, too,” she says.
“St. Simons was more of a meeting place. Archaeologists have found artifacts here, but they won’t find them on Jekyll, or they won’t find them on Sapelo. So it was a very happening place … kinda like it is today.”
Of course, things changed for the natives once the Europeans arrived. The Spanish were the first to come to St. Simons Island, founding two missions there.
San Buenaventura de Guadalquini was established in 1597 near the present-day lighthouse. It lasted until 1684 when pirates burned the mission and the surrounding community. The second was Santa Domingo de Asajo, located between Cannon’s Point and Hampton Point.
“There’s no evidence of a Spanish Mission here (at Cannon’s Point), but there is evidence of trading going on between them,” Knox says.
“Then, when Oglethorpe came in 1742 … that’s how the property got its namesake. It was named after Daniel Cannon, who was a carpenter at Fort Frederica. He was given a trustee grant, before king’s grants … it was a trustee grant, of about 300 acres. He and his sons lived here after Oglethorpe left and Fort Frederica fell.”
Eventually, the Cannon family moved to Charleston, but the property wasn’t vacant for long. Its next most notable resident was John Couper, who built a large plantation on site. It was called Cannon’s Point Plantation.
Summer
Style
“… Sea Island Cotton was his cash crop, as was everyone’s cash crop on this island,” Knox says.
“There were actually two plantations within the area here … well, now three, since we acquired the Oatland Hazel North track. Cannon’s Point on the north, Lawrence Plantation, and Oatland.”
In addition to the cotton, there were also pine fields, all of which were borne on the backs of slave labor. There are still ruins of some slave cabins and a chimney from a kitchen on site.
“The house itself burned down,” she says. “But before it did, tons of people came to visit John Couper, from Aaron Burr to Fanny Kemble.”
After the Coupers, the most significant family to acquire the property next was the Taylors.
“Five Taylor brothers lived down here and leased all the land in the peninsula for cattle and pig grazing,” she says. “The Taylors were the largest providers of beef and pork in Glynn County.”
Time continued to march, but Cannon’s Point seemed immune.
The Sea Island Company purchased the property for pine harvesting purposes. Hollywood even paid a visit, shooting scenes from “Conrack,” a 1974 film starring John Voight, at a tabby barn there.
While the past has always been very much present at Cannon’s Point, a little over 13 years ago, its future was set in stone.
That’s when the St. Simons Island Land Trust raised more than $25 million through a capital fundraising campaign to purchase the property for conservation.
“Today, Cannon’s Point is a wilderness preserve. We utilize and manage it as a platform for education and a model for conservation. There is a conservation easement held on it by the Nature Conservancy,” Knox explained.
“It is open to the public, free of charge, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.”
During those hours, guests are welcome to explore the 10 miles of hiking and bike trails. There’s ample opportunity for birdwatching, fishing, and enjoying the living shoreline.
“We have a non-motorized boat launch. We have a living shoreline where people can fish. We have a lot of research going on,” Knox says.
“There’s an education pavilion with trained docents who can tell you more about the property. And even though we’re only open those few days, we constantly have field trips and educational groups coming out, utilizing, and learning from the property.”
And they’re always happy to share. Knox says all the research produced is publicly available on the land trust’s website.
“We have five different experiments on maritime forests, including from Purdue and New Mexico State University. No one has to pay for it. It’s all free on our website,” she says.
Helping others make a deeper connection to the land, its history, and ecology is critical to the land trust’s mission. Knox says that the more the public understands the land, the more they will fall in love with it. After all, that’s what has happened historically.
“We’re very fortunate today that everybody who has lived on this property or owned it loved it,” she says.
“Georgia has 100 miles of coastline, but so much of it is only accessible by boat or by invitation. We want to give people the opportunity to actually see it, because if they don’t see it … they won’t care as much about preserving it.”
Ocean EXCURSION
Setting sail on an ecological tour
Athousand diamonds shimmered on the surface of the sea as the 45-foot, 49-passenger catamaran, the Emmeline, gently bobbed in the waves of the McKay River. Eager eyes scanned the horizon, and then they saw it. Excited arms and hands shot forward, fingers flexed in eager points.
“There they are,” one passenger exclaims.
“Dolphins,” echoes another.
Though this type of encounter is new to those
setting sail this particular morning, it’s a daily occurrence for those staffing the boat. But they still share that sense of initial wonder, and they relish sharing their knowledge about the ever-popular porpoises.
“Dolphins have learned different fishing techniques, just like humans learn how to hunt and grow crops differently,” says Capt. Sy Hubert.
“Dolphins have done the same thing. In different areas, you’ll have different techniques. Here in our local area, they do something called stranding.”
That, he continues, involves the dolphins swimming, chasing fish close to steep banks, and flipping them on shore with their snouts.
“Then, they’ll lie their body on the bank and grab the fish with their head on an incoming tide. Some, in other areas, use bubble nets. Some do a hydroplaning technique on the beach in really shallow waters. They’re all learned behaviors and they’re passed down generationally … just like with humans,” he says.
Drawing links and connections between wildlife and those on the boat visiting their habitat was a key element of this two-hour cruise.
Throughout the voyage, Hubert, along with guide and Anchor Excursions co-owner, Stephen Williams, took care to share both the natural and historical points of interest.
And, on both accounts, facts abounded.
For the moment, Hubert continued to share tidbits about dolphins as their dorsal fins skimmed through the water.
“When dolphins are in the womb, the umbilical cord is wrapped around their body. They’re about the size of a football when they’re born,” he says, holding up his hands as reference. “And you can tell those that are really new because they will still have this mark or this ring on their bodies from the umbilical cord. But it fades over time.”
As the boat drifted closer to shore, catching slivers of oyster beds below the waves, Williams offered insight into these helpful (and delectable) shellfish.
“The oysters that are constantly submerged here are delicious. If you see Cumberland Oysters on the menu, try them … when they’re in season,” he says.
“Of course, when they’re alive, they’re filtering the water, so we have very clean water here. And
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then, when they die, they’re still a part of the ecosystem. They help hold it together, which is why you’re not allowed to take them from the shores.”
Like oysters, fish were another frequent topic of conversation. Triple tail, Williams added, is an interesting breed because it comes to the Golden Isles to spawn.
“They spawn off of Jekyll. If you look in the water and see something that looks like a floating grocery store bag floating on the surface … it’s probably a triple tail,” he says.
“If you cast a piece of crab or a piece of shrimp a little bit beyond it, you can hook ‘em, and if it’s over 18 ½ inches, you can keep them. And they’re delicious … a really, really tasty fish.”
The catamaran cuts through the waves, and reggae music pours through the speakers and into the sunshine. It passes the Sea Island Lodge and the Seaside Golf Course. Soon, the pier appears, the St. Simons Lighthouse looming nearby.
“As you can see, we’re passing the pier and what is called Neptune Park, named for Neptune Smalls, who was a slave on the King family Plantation (called Retreat). The son, Lordy King, went off to fight for the Confederacy in the Civil War. Neptune, whom he’d grown up with and was very close to, went with him,” Williams says.
“Well, Lordy was unfortunately killed in the Battle of Fredericksburg. It’s said that Neptune Smalls crawled across the battlefield to retrieve his body and bring it home to be buried.”
Today, the oceanside park is named for Neptune Smalls, he told the group.
“Interestingly, one of his children was named Emmeline, so that’s a recurring theme,” Williams says
“I have always really loved history. It’s an explanation of where we have been and a lesson in the direction that we would like to go. I find it endlessly amazing to learn about the significance that our area has had upon not only the history of Georgia, but upon our entire country over the years.”
— Stephen Williams
with a laugh. “The original ferries from St. Simons to Brunswick … one was named the Emmeline and the other the Hessie. That was the only way to get back and forth until the causeway was built in the early 1920s. From the water, you can still see the yellow line that the carriages pulled up to board the ferry on the original dock.”
Today, this Emmeline continues a bit of that heritage too. When not offering one of her multiple tours, she often provides ferry service from St. Simons to Brunswick or Jekyll Island. During the holiday season, the boat shuttles passengers from St. Simons to see to see the Christmas lights in the Jekyll Island Historic District.
There are also sunset cruises and BYOB trips for adults, often accompanied by live music and sometimes onboard hibachi-grilled meals.
But from this particular cruise, it’s evident that the historic outings are certainly Williams’ passion. He never misses an opportunity to share a story or relay a fact. And it seems that the Colonial Era holds a particular interest. The Emmeline often coasts up to Fort Frederica, where Williams can tell a number of tales about the early settlers, though he can frequently find places for them on other trips.
“So if we were to continue north, we’d pass Fort Frederica,” he tells the passengers. “The town of Frederica was established, and General Oglethorpe arrived to fortify the town and create Fort Frederica. They had about 1,000 British soldiers, militia, and friendly native Americans.”
The Spanish, who were headquartered in present-day Florida, were constantly a threat.
“They were here earlier but had pulled back to St. Augustine. And then the border between Georgia and Florida was pretty much the same as it is today … the St. Mary’s River. The Spanish came back, and Oglethorpe decided to abandon Fort St. Simons on the South End and fortify Fort Frederica on the north,” he says.
“So the Spanish came, took over Fort St. Simons, and started marching north.”
Williams painted the picture of the Spanish, who held superior numbers, marching along Demere Road heading toward Frederica Road for an inevitable showdown.
“The British lured the Spanish into the marsh … which you can imagine with heavy muskets and gear, they sank up to their knees. That wasn’t a good position to be in,” he says.
“Oglethorpe, who was prone to embellishment in his dispatches to England, said, ‘the marshes were running red with Spanish blood.’ So it’s called the Battle of Bloody Marsh, even though only seven Spanish soldiers were killed.”
As the Emmeline rounded the bend, heading back to dock at Gascoigne, this particular day’s adventure was done. But there’s always another chance for Williams to share his love of the past.
“I have always really loved history. It’s an explanation of where we have been and a lesson in the direction that we would like to go. I find it endlessly amazing to learn about the significance that our area has had upon not only the history of Georgia, but upon our entire country over the years,” he says.
“So when combining our history with our rich ecology, nature becomes a continuation of that story as we think of what has shaped and created our way of life here in the Great Georgia Bight. Our history, our ecology, our culture … are all amazingly unique flavors that create our special little paradise.”
• To learn more about Anchor Excursions, visit anchor-excursions.com.
WORDS BY LINDSEY ADKISON | PHOTOS BY KYLE MORGAN AND THE JEKYLL ISLAND AUTHORITY
HISTORIC
Jekyll home stands on ancient land
Warm summer breezes weave through Spanish moss along a quiet corner of Jekyll Island. While it may not be as bustling as the nearby Millionaires’ Village, it’s a spot where history runs thousands of years deep, leaving layer upon layer of humanity’s stories.
On one side stands the shell of Horton House, initially constructed in 1743. On the opposite is the DuBignon Cemetery, where the remains of Jekyll Island’s former owners are interred (or maybe not?).
While these two locations represent the lasting links to the oldest European settlers on “Georgia’s jewel,” Indigenous Peoples called the land home long before the English or French arrived on these shores.
According to Andrea Marroquin, coordinator at the Mosaic Museum in the historic district, Native Americans had lived on Jekyll beginning in the Bronze Age.
“It was certainly a place that they occupied before the Europeans arrived. These would have been the ancestors of our historically known tribes,” she says.
This includes the Timucua, a once-thriving community in the coastal region, which would sadly be eradicated through their eventual contact with Europeans.
There is also evidence to show that the Mocama, a subgroup of the Timucua, were present there. Research has shown that they occupied the land from the Altamaha River in Georgia to St. Augustine, Florida. Then, there were the Guale people, who also lived in this same territory and formed communities on nearby St. Simons Island.
It’s believed these original Jekyll Islanders first appeared around 1500 B.C.E., nearly 3,500 years ago.
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Marroquin says there is ongoing archaeological research that continues to shed light on their lives.
“We’re in the process of doing some research from an excavation that was done in the 1990s to find out more about Native American life in this location. We are working with consultants who are helping us to analyze artifacts that are located on site to help us learn more,” she says.
While the natives built a bustling community, complete with hunting, fishing, and even trade with other area tribes, their lives would be upended by the arrival of the first European explorers — the French — in 1562. Though they didn’t settle on the island, it was a harbinger of things to come. Two centuries later, the English would arrive, leaving a lasting legacy on Jekyll.
In 1733, General James Oglethorpe set out from England on a mission from King George II. His order was to establish a new colony in America, named in honor of the king … Georgia.
In addition to honoring the monarch, it would provide an important buffer against the Spanish in Florida while offering Britain’s “worthy poor,” including debtors, a fresh start. It was also envisioned as a place of religious tolerance for those, like particular sects of Lutherans, who were facing persecution in Europe. Famously, the original charter for the colony included bans on slavery, alcohol, and lawyers — none of which would last for long.
Marroquin says that Jekyll, which Oglethorpe named for a financier friend in England, was a wild and untamed landscape in those days.
“Land was really in hot dispute during this time between the English, who settled here, along with the Spanish to the South, and Native Americans who had been occupying the territory on both sides. It was the Southernmost outpost of the colonial frontier,” she says.
To keep a handle on their newly acquired (if contentious) land, Oglethorpe tapped his loyal aide Major William Horton to assist in maintaining British order.
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“Major Horton came with General Oglethorpe on the second voyage, and he established himself as a real leader, in terms of protecting the colony against the Spanish, but also in providing food and sustenance for the colonists,” Marroquin says.
“He generally served as an ambassador amongst the different groups. He obtained a land grant for 500 acres in 1735, stating that he would improve the land with his indentured servants. He has servants here because there was no slavery in Georgia at this time.”
It was on this land that Horton built the first incarnation of Horton House. The Spanish burned that structure following the Battle of Bloody Marsh in 1742.
“The Spanish retreated across his property and destroyed all of his work and the house. He rebuilt after that, so by 1743, he had his tabby structure, which is what you can see today,” Marroquin says.
Records show the home, which was two stories, had a parlor with a fireplace on the lower level, along with a veranda. Upstairs, there were two bedrooms and a balcony which faced south. Like many things in Coastal Georgia, it was constructed of tabby, a material made of lime, sand, and oyster shells. Today, it remains one of the oldest standing tabby structures in the state.
“We think it was fairly substantial and spacious for the time. I’m sure there would have been probably other buildings on the property, as well,” she says. “He did a lot of entertaining there.”
Horton eventually brought his wife and two sons over from England. They established a thriving plantation, growing crops such as corn, barley, hay, indigo, grapes, oranges, and cotton. He shared much of his yield with the settlement at Fort Frederica on St. Simons Island.
“He was experimental and tried different things. He was the first person to brew beer in Georgia in 1747, which was supposed to be against the rules, but I guess he got around it,” Marroquin explains with a laugh. “He also raised cattle and sheep. During food shortages, the military on St. Simons relied on him for supplies to help feed them. He was given a lot of recognition for that. The people would have starved or abandoned the place without him.”
Horton continued to serve, stepping into Oglethorpe’s shoes in his absence as second in command. As time passed, he relinquished those duties and later became a local judge. Though by our standards, he didn’t experience much in terms of “twilight years.” Horton died in Savannah at just 40 years old.
www.porchandpatiostore.com
After his death, Horton House passed through several hands. But by 1800, the whole of the island was owned by family who would leave a lasting impression on its history — the DuBignons.
“The DuBignon family was French, and they owned the entire island. They continued to operate the island as a plantation and continued to live in Horton House until the Civil War,” she says.
The family, which were royalists during the French Revolution, had made its way to colonial America in the 1790s. Once they gained hold of Jekyll, they owned the property for a century, establishing a cemetery across the road from Horton House where several family members rest to this day … or do they?
An Atlas Obscura article noted that preservationists once found the gravestones of DuBignon family members Ann Amelia DuBignon, Joseph DuBignon, and Marie Felicite Riffault. They relocat -
ed the headstones and not the bodies.
But Marroquin says that the headstones have since been reunited with their appropriate graves.
“The gravestones had been moved, but now they’ve been returned to the appropriate places,” she says.
There also are two other headstones in the cemetery belonging to Hector DeLiyannis and George Harvey. The two Jekyll Island Club Hotel employees who drowned on March 12, 1912, in the Jekyll River.
The DuBignon reign on Jekyll came to an end in 1886 when the Jekyll Island Club Corporation purchased the island, ushering in the Millionaire’s Era.
For Marroquin, this rich foundation, which provides the basis for the island’s modern history, is a fascinating link to the country’s origins as a whole.
“This part of it is so interesting because it’s part of establishing who we are as a nation. These are our beginnings and who we are today. You had all of these different people who were encountering each other and fighting for what was important to them … all while creating a new world,” she says.
“There were so many people who contributed to this — the Native Americans, the English, the Spanish, and then the DuBingons, who were French. And of course, the African Americans who were here. There were a lot of cultural contributions over the years.”
• Horton House and the DuBignon Cemetery are both located on North Riverside Drive on Jekyll Island. To learn more about the stories surrounding this area and the people who lived there, visit the MOSAIC Museum, 100 Stable Road, Jekyll Island. It is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.
GOLDEN ISLES DENTAL ASSOCIATES
WORDS BY SAM GHIOTO | PHOTOS BY SAM GHIOTO, KYLE MORGAN AND ARIC SPARMANN
Trailblazers Water
A Legacy of Kayaking and Stewardship in the Golden Isles
Michael Gowen and Cindy Dennard, owners of SouthEast Adventure Outfitters, have offered kayak and boating tours the last 31 years. They weren’t the first people running tours on the coast, but they are among the originals, with an incredible hunger for sharing nature with others and being stewards of the Georgia Coast. They have seen many changes, including how the landscape has naturally shifted, how the desire for kayaking has changed, and the need for responsible and ethical ecotourism along the coast. Ever-increasing pressure on the environment and wildlife has resulted from the sheer amount of people on the water.
Here, I sit down with Michael and Cindy and ask them a few questions.
Q: Who were the first people offering kayak tours in the Golden Isles?
Michael Gowen (MG) : Having grown up boating and exploring the coast, it wasn’t until touring kayaks came along that the full potential of thoroughly exploring the waterways of Georgia’s intricate coast was realized. As early the mid 70s, eco tours were being organized by Wilderness Southeast in Savannah. Locally, in the early 90s there were tours offered on St. Simons by Barry’s Beach Service and David Allison.
Q: How did you come up with the idea to start doing them yourselves?
MG: The first time I saw a plastic touring kayak was in Athens. A roommate had a Perception Sea Lion that we would take out on the lakes up there. I immediately knew it was a great vehicle for exploring the coastal marshes.
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and leave the details to us. Whether you desire a spontaneous weekend getaway or a well planned trip around the world,
I thought of it as a mountain bike, boots, or a backpack for the watery coastal trails. Paul Mozo and I felt it was a way to share our beautiful coast, and SouthEast Adventure Outfitters was born in 1994. Cindy Dennard started guiding with us in 1995 and became a partner in 2001. With Robby managing the island shop since 2000, we’ve had a great run of employees, and thousands of visitors and locals alike have enjoyed the great outdoors of our beautiful area.
Q: What was it about kayaking that called you?
MG: It’s low maintenance, minimal impact, the equipment is long-lasting, allows access to hard-to-reach places, and can be applied to rivers and bodies of water throughout the world.
Cindy Dennard (CD): For me, a kayak opened infinite possibilities for exploration and transformed my understanding of what the Georgia Coast uniquely has to offer. I instantly fell in love with everything about it, but especially the opportunity for wild, natural adventures right here on my home coast.
Q: What is a memorable moment from those early years?
MG: Our first trip, the Forest People outdoor club from Alfred, New York, drove down for 24 hours for a spring break week camping on the Altamaha. We ordered gear and kayaks, and since the kayaks weren’t going to arrive on time, we drove to the port of Baltimore in a snowstorm and picked them up. We got back on a Tuesday, organized all our gear the next day, and the group showed up on Thursday to start a weeklong adventure.
Finally shoving off the bank to start was a great feeling, and the start of 30 years of adventures and meeting great folks.
CD: Back when we did more kayaking and camping trips, there would be a lot of women who slept in a tent for the first time. I loved being a part of facilitating that and making it fun. It can be really transformative and empowering.
Q: How has ecotourism evolved? What did it look like back then vs now?
MG : We offered multi-day trips to Cumberland, down the Altamaha, and out to Sapelo and Blackbeard regularly during our first 10 or 15 years. We’ve found that shorter trips of only a few hours are most popular and that the required camping gear, guides, and lack of groups willing to do longer trips have reduced our ability to plan them, and the demand seems less. There are also fewer first-time kayakers these days. We introduced many to their first kayak trip in our earlier years, whereas now, with its huge popularity, many have already tried it.
CD: I have spent some time mourning the loss of our robust multi-day programs, but I have come to appreciate the fact that people still take the time to immerse themselves in nature at all. It’s soothing and essential to keep our connection to the natural world in a real, hands-on way. It seems important to push against the narrative that everything has to get faster and more powerful to keep evolving. A kayak forces you to go a little slower and appreciate the subtle details of a marsh creek.
Ethical
Ecotourism
Today, we see a lot of outfitters and guides offering tours in the Golden Isles. There’s been an increasing demand on our waterways and the wildlife dependent on them for their survival. Cindy Dennard was part of the first cohort to attend the Coastal Awareness and Responsible Ecotour (CARE) Certification program, making SouthEast Adventure a CARE-certified ecotour outfitter. The CARE course is a fantastic way to learn about the Georgia Coast and its plethora of species, especially the threatened and endangered ones. It gives you a toolkit and an understanding of the coast that a guide can share directly with their customers. Learn more about the CARE course here: https://gacoast.uga. edu/care/
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“Coastal Georgia has a huge trail system. It’s just all wet.”
– Michael Gowen
Q: How would you describe ethical ecotourism, and why is it important to think about our environment ethically?
MG: I’d describe ethical tourism as a trip that takes into consideration the impact our presence might have on wildlife or the environment. We could get closer to feeding or resting birds, but rather than pushing them to fly, we can observe from a distance. We can actively report injured wildlife or strandings, report banded birds, and support the research around our marshes. We’ve always believed that for someone to care about the marshes, they need to experience them, and that’s best from the intimate view of a kayak.
Q: What is the CARE course, and why is it important for guides to take it?
CD : The CARE course is a miracle of cooperation and proactive partnerships. It was conceived by folks from UGA and Manomet.
It actually over-delivers what it promises
to any guide willing and interested in learning the most up-to-date information about the Georgia Coast. There is no better way to connect and keep up with the small but vibrant community sharing what we love, and a lot of the nonprofit and government agencies that work as stewards in a different, but essential, capacity.
Q: What are some of the coolest wildlife scenes you’ve seen over the years?
MG: I saw a whale breach in St. Andrews Sound years ago and watched a half dozen cruising along the beach on Little Cumberland, too. I must say that there is so much wildlife that it’s hard not to see something amazing on every trip.
CD: To name a few .... Swarms of Tree Swallows over dunes filled with Muhly Grass, dozens of little Diamondback Terrapin heads poking up in a marsh creek, the sounds of dolphins at night, fish and shrimp bodies glowing from phosphorescence under the water at
night, countless examples of creatures earnestly finding food, shelter, a mate — just like us.
Q: What’s your favorite nature spot past and present in the Golden Isles?
MG : Any place in the marsh near sunset watching a big tide come in over a sand flat, sending the fiddlers scurrying for holes or climbing the grass, soon followed by minnows, mullet, and finally hungry redfish snuffling for the fiddlers. The water was rapidly rising, and then laughing gulls swooping by plucking fiddlers from where they thought they were safe on the grass stalks above the water. And finally, sunset and easily poling the kayak right up to the now-accessible shoreline through the flooded grass.
CD: Gould’s Inlet has so many memories for me. I have paddled and swum it thousands of times over the years, and it never gets old. It is dynamic, beautiful, and wild despite being so accessible.
April always walks with softness in the Golden Isles. But on April 8, 1942, the silence of the shallow waters of St. Simons Island was shredded as a German torpedo ripped into the SS Oklahoma in a blaze of metal, smoke, and flames.
Moments later, the submarine U-123 shattered the side of the Esso Baton Rouge, another tanker ship situated nearby, which had also been silhouetted against the late-night glow of seaside homes. Twenty-two crewmen died in the attack. Their bodies were pulled from the wreckage and interred in Palmetto Cemetery on the mainland. (Some weren’t even identified until the late 1990s.)
But along with their deaths, so too died the sense of security offered by a war being fought in distant lands.
For those living on the coast on that fateful day, the memories remained jarring throughout their lives. Jack Lang recalled being physically rocked by the strike in his youth.
In a darkened theater, more than 80 years later, his eyes still brightly gleamed with memories as the film rolled on the concave screen.
“The whole town of Brunswick shook. It reverberated through the water, and it literally shook everything,” he tells audiences.
It roused more than sleeping families that night. It brought to life the fact that, even thousands of miles away, World War II could still pose a very real threat to cities along the U.S. East Coast. In fact, it was much more than a threat.
“Most people don’t know that German U-boat attacks claimed more lives along the East Coast than the attacks on Pearl Harbor,” says Coastal Georgia Historical Society historian Allison DuPuis.
But the local strike fueled an effort that sparked the home front push for victory. It would lead to the development of new local defense programs and the strengthening of existing military presence in the area. There was the Glynco Naval Base, which later
WORDS BY LINDSEY ADKISON
OF THE HOMEFRONT HEROES
A
look at the Coast at war
PHOTOS BY MICHAEL HALL, THE COASTAL GEORGIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY, AND THE FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT TRAINING CENTER
Brunswick Golden Isles Airport is your quick connection to the rest of the world with daily first-class round-trip flights to Atlanta. Park free, stroll the short covered walkwayto the terminal, breeze through security and grab a bite before your flight. It’s easy going.
Visit FlyGCAirports.com or call 800.221.1212.
became the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. There was also the J.A. Jones Shipyard, the scars of which can still be seen from atop the Sidney Lanier Bridge, and the RADAR training center (an arm of the Naval Air Station at St. Simons) located within the King and Prince Hotel. Today, its posh restaurant, ECHO , pays homage to this key piece of local history.
It also rallied local men, women, and children to do their parts as air wardens, Red Cross volunteers, factory workers, or even lookouts, with eyes to the sky guarding against the enemy.
Through the years, these stories have been collected by the Coastal Georgia Historical Society. And in 2016, the nonprofit opened the doors to its World War II Home Front Museum, located in the original Coast Guard building on East Beach.
Two historic structures offer patrons a unique and extremely localized view of World War II. There’s the larger building, the former Coast Guard Station proper, erected in 1936. It’s an expansive colonial revival building that today houses various interactive exhibitions of the Home Front Museum. In the back is the museum entrance, as guests begin in the Guard’s former boathouse.
“Originally, the water came up immediately to the station, but due to a number of things, environmental and human, the waterline moved. But this was the boathouse, so you can imagine how close the water was,” explains Dr. Whitney Stewart, director of collections and education for the historical society.
Stepping through the doors, one is ushered through a series of panels. The top half illustrates
a national and international timeline leading up to the war. On the bottom portion, local happenings unfold with high-quality images taken throughout the Isles. Rounding the corner, a Brunswick News paper dated December 8, 1941, blares an enormous headline, “Congress Declares War.”
Moving into the theater, a short film plays on a loop, telling stories (including Lang’s) about the war’s beginnings and the 1942 attack on the tanker ships. The 10-minute production features several local faces who experienced the events firsthand.
“Teachers ask us for this all the time because it gives us the big picture of the war, but also of the contributions of the Golden Isles,” Stewart says.
After the showing, guests move through the boathouse’s halls of various interactive displays. The first is a game called Friend or Foe. A computerized screen features various outlines of 1940s-era aircraft, with a panel identifying each one. Some are American, while others are German or Japanese. Patrons are tasked with quickly detemining which plane silhouettes are which.
“We combine interactive (experiences) with real artifacts, reproductions of photographs and posters to bring together all of these sensory elements,” Stewart explains, gesturing to the space. “For instance, if you were doing ‘plane spotting’ on the coast you’d be asked to keep an eye on the sky to see whether the planes were friend or foe.”
“It was an official position, you’d get an armband,” DuPuis says. “And there was no age limit. One of my favorite stories is about Kappy O’Connor, who was 7 or 8. She would go to the tower at Sea Island with her mother, because her dad worked there. They’d use this compass to see what direction the planes were going.”
Above the exhibition hangs that very wooden, hand-painted compass rose that was removed from Sea Island and installed in the museum.
The walls are also dotted with various authentic posters that residents would have been familiar with, many reminding them of the dangers lurking right off the beach — a fact the mandatory daily blackouts reinforced.
In one particularly ominous poster, a dark, helmeted figure with menacing eyes crouches behind the words, “He’s Watching You.”
Much of the messaging encourages citizens to be wary of others, keeping any troop movements completely secret with phrasing like “Loose Lips Sink Ships,” as covert operatives were a valid concern during this time.
Moving through the rest of the boathouse, guests can play games with rationing and potential wartime professions. During this time, minorities and women were given opportunities that had never been offered before.
“There were also thousands of people flooding into work at the shipyards and they had a real problem with housing,” Stewart says.
“A lot of families in Brunswick lent out rooms, and some workers would share rooms.”
It led to a practice called “hot bedding.”
“That’s when they would work opposite shifts, so one person would sleep while the other is at work, then the other would come home and get into bed while the other goes to work,” DuPuis explained.
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As 1940s-era music plays on an antique radio, patrons exit the boathouse and move into the main building, where there are even more interactive exhibits featuring airship bases, Liberty shipyards, and naval RADAR training locations.
“It’s hard to imagine that all of this was happening here,” Stewart says.
Rooms feature computurized games that illustrate each element. There are also personalized stories, often given in the residents’ own words, about their experiences. Inside the air station room, a phonelike system allows patrons to hear Jack Fahey share his recollections of being an airship pilot (also known as a blimp).
He even used his clout to walk his future wife, Barbara, home from Glynn Academy, hovering over the treeline in the blimp and using the bullhorn to chat with his sweetheart.
Other spaces offer similar personal treasures that connect the past and the present. It’s a key aspect of the museum that makes the experience so meaningful.
“We have stories of three sisters from Jesup who all worked on Liberty Ships. One of them became a welder and gained the highest level of welding certifications you could get,” DuPuis relays. “Her husband was a tail gunner on a flying fortress. He was shot down over Germany and spent more than two years in a German prison. When he came home, it was on a Liberty ship she had welded.”
These are the stories that put names and faces to a history, which is becoming a more distant memory each day. And keeping that flame alive is a mission that those behind the Home Front Museum take very seriously.
It’s a call they answer daily, just as the men, women, and children living in the Isles rose to their challenge eight decades ago.
For Stewart and DuPuis, shedding light on the stories that have gone untold for so long is incredibly rewarding.
“I think the most often thing we hear when people come through, whether they’re locals or visiting, is ‘I didn’t know.’ And when they walk away knowing … that feels like we’ve done a service,” Stewart says with a smile.
Gina D’Amico Interiors
WORDS BY MICHAEL FARRIS JR. | PHOTO BY MICHAEL HALL
ALIENATION
SSurrounded by bikes, lawn equipment, and other general garage fare sits a massive drum kit with enough cymbals to, well, shake a stick at. The drummer at the helm looks to the guitarist with his long, black hair draped over his baggy, black clothes as he churns out the opening notes on his pink Hello Kitty guitar (naturally). The singer leans into the mic and launches into a Green Day classic, “Don’t wanna be an American idiot…”
Alienation, a band comprised of middle and high schoolers, fervently plays music that precedes their own existence. Ben Ediss, one of the singers, jokingly quips that he was negative six years old when the song he just finished singing first hit airwaves. But this is a time-honored birthing ground for so many bands — cutting your teeth on songs before your time, fine-tuning them in your parents’ garage … and writing original tributes to Taco Bell’s nacho cheese fries. What they may
lack in age, they make up for with attitude, emitting a punk rock swagger and natural chemistry that exists within a tight-knit group of friends.
For Ben, performative talent is arguably in the genes with his dad serving as DJ and public address announcer for Savannah Bananas games, where, growing up, Ben would get up and dance around in the middle of the crowd. “I’ve always been an entertainer,” he shrugs. “I’ve always been an outgoing person, so being on that stage helps me express myself.” Ben originally came in to photograph the early stages of the band, but given his penchant for wide-ranging musical tastes and vocals, he quickly found himself as a frontman vocalist.
Sharing vocal duties with Ben is his childhood best friend Mae Vicent, who also inherits music ability from her father (a member of now-disbanded Christian heavy metal bands). She
serves as the shy and unassuming yin to Ben’s boisterous yang, but you wouldn’t know it from the confidence she brings to the microphone. She’s gone from belting out “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia” by Reba McEntire word for word as a toddler to following in the footsteps of one of her musical inspirations, Gwen Stefani, when she croons “Just a Girl” by No Doubt during performances.
On guitar is Tony Gallace, slinging the aforementioned Hello Kitty guitar (a surprisingly challenging acquisition) and picking out hard rock licks in between songs. He always knew he wanted to take up the guitar, and his love of music blossomed when he first started at age 11. Now, he gets the opportunity to apply his lessons from Randy Reynolds at SoGlo Guitar Gallery on local stages with his friends.
Last but not least is Clay Elze on drums, which his father, Jonathan,
says took years of “wearing us down” for them to finally buy him a kit, but once he got it, he instantly picked up on the fundamentals. Clay and his family are near-ubiquitous fixtures in the Brunswick community, and he draws inspiration from local talent like Scott Bachman (Squirt Gun, Gravity Bomb), Michael Alongi (Rider, M-Theory), and Gabriel Whitley (Will Mosely, Hot Banana Coffee).
Alienation has already found early success gigging in Brunswick, from playing at Brunswick and Jesup’s PorchFests last year and this May, respectively, to being crowned champions at a Battle of the Bands competition while raising $715 for Safe Harbor Center in the process.
And as they continue to sharpen their craft, they will enjoy the company of some of their biggest fans — their parents. Defying the Hollywood cliché of parents who challenge the musical tastes of their disaffected youths, these parents show up and show out for their kids, providing their instruments, shuttling them to practice and performances, and cheering the loudest at the conclusion of each song.
These may be the days of growing pains — of homework and test scores and forgetting to bring your amp to practice — but all the world’s a stage, and Alienation is ready to rock it with the loving support of their parents as their muse.
“These are good, respectful kids with good parents, and that’s what drew me in,” says Ben’s mother, Sarah. “What more could you ask for your teenager?”
THE BIG WIG DINNER HELD AT REID’S APOTHECARY
Dr. Jason Umfress, one of the 12 local Champions for Children for 2025, recently held a microevent at Reid’s Apothecary in downtown Brunswick. It was part of his campaign for the area fundraiser which benefits Safe Harbor Children’s Center. Attendees wore creative wigs as part of the event. To learn more about Safe Harbor, visit safeharborcenterinc.org.
1. Chris Triplett, from left, and Keith and Mary Helan Turner | 2 . Emily Harrison, left, and Blaire Loudermilk | 3 . Drew Mailloux, left, and Jessica DeVincent | 4 . On the front row are Matt Brockman, from left, Jackie Pova, D avie Lowe, Chris Triplett, and Jay Anderson. In back are Jason Umfress, left, and Colt Coward | 5 . Josh Dukes, left, and Juan Perez Valdes | 6. Cheyenne and Kam Throckmorton | 7. Emily Harrison, left, and Jason Umfress | 8 . Adele Tyson, left, and Audrey Gibbons
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Cara
CHAMPIONS FOR CHILDREN HOST FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN
Champions for Children, a fundraiser for Safe Harbor Children’s Center in Brunswick, raised $510,000. Chaired for the third year by Kate Dart, Bentley Kaufman, and Lizzie Piazza, the eight-week campaign saw 17 local leaders raise funds through individual donations and micro-events. The funds will benefit the center which supports children through residential programs, outreach services, and a new maternity care community called The Village. For details, visit safeharborcenterinc.org.
| 2 . Carrie Lewis Lorentz,
Owens, and
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| 6.
and Meg
| 8. Saiska Caraballo, from left, Chelsea Parker, Deja Lott, Dr. Sherzine McKenzie, and Ryan Ennis
1. Bo and Sarah Parker with Catfish the horse
left, and Jennifer Wilcoxon
Dr. Phillip and Alexandra Carlyle
. Rainey Gregg, left, and Katie Pool
5 .Bentley Kaufman, from left, Kate Dart, and Whitney Herndon
Holly Thaw, left,
Robinson
7. Emerson Pickins, from left,
Lynn
Liza Johnson
THE STAR FOUNDATION HOSTS STARGAZING
The STAR Foundation of Coastal Georgia, which offers job readiness courses to adults, recently hosted its annual fundraiser STARgazing. The event was held at Village Creek Landing on St. Simons Island. It featured music by Owen Plant, a Low Country boil, and a silent auction. All of the funds helped support the cause. For more information, visit starofcoastalga.org.
1. Ann Chadwick, left, and Sherrie Beecher | 2 . Beth Lane, left, and Chandra Kendall | 3 . Donna Davis, left, and Christy Carter | 4 . Adele Tyson, left, and Audrey Gibbons | 5 . Jayne Mathews, left, and Tashania Davis | 6. Robyn and Mark McManus | 7. Lanisha Whitten, left, and Kimsey Bolinger | 8. Kelley Dare, from left, McKenzie Padgett, Kacee Reagan, and Me redith Flagstad
FREDERICA ACADEMY HOSTS DERBY DAY
Frederica Academy recently hosted its annual Derby Day in celebration of the 151st running of the Kentucky Derby held at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. The fundraiser, held at the Retreat Clubhouse on St. Simons Island, included silent and live auctions, food, drinks and a telecast of the race. For details, visit fredericaacademy.org.
1. Debi Miller, from left, Gary Miller, Debbie Hutcherson, and Stella Bailey | 2 . Ham Sale, left, and John Drew Whittingslow | 3 . JP and Lydia Thornton | 4 . Kait Monczynski, from left, Katie Sharpe, and Krista Gause | 5 . Sofie De Sola and Harrison Benefield | 6. Kirby and Autumn Ingram | 7. Marissa Mercer, left, and Allyson Roberts | 8. Morgan and Oliver Green | 9. Andy and Amy Broderick, from left, and David and Ashley Crosby-Holland | 10. Christi Gibson, from left, Mandy McCaskill, Joanna Hopper, and Virginia Schlegel 5.
9. 10.
Photos by Brooke Baskin
CASA GLYNN’S ANNUAL FASHION SHOW
CASA Glynn’s Fashion Show was recently held at the Cloister on Sea Island. The annual springtime soirée featured styles from a number of area boutiques modeled by locals. The funds raised benefit the program, which provides representation for children within the foster care system. For details, visit casaglynn.org.
11.
1. Annie Carroll, left, and Camille Hughes | 2. Cheyenne Rozier, left, and Morgan Whaley | 3. Kathy Hubert, left, and Tracy Saussy
4. Pam Williams, left, and Shelby Deal | 5. Shemeka Frazier Sorrells, from left, Dr. Kyle Fox, and Tresena Bowe
6. Olympia Poulakis, left, and Kay Miller | 7. Michele Jamieson, left, and Merilea Creighton | 8. Kendall Glisson, from left, Sara Glisson, Lorena Harris, Georgia Kellogg, and Gigi Capes | 9. Whitney Long, left, and Kam Throckmorton | 10. Tracy Golden, from left, Meg Corry, and Lizzie Piazza | 11. Hillary Heard, Autumn Ingram, Mary Katelyn Bland, Cassie Jessi man, and Erica Torras
8.
Making Life’s Moments Possible
With so much to see and do in the Golden Isles, it’s important to maintain a healthy, active lifestyle. Southeast Georgia Health System has served residents and visitors of the Golden Isles since 1888. Along with our Southeast Georgia Physician Associates providers, we offer the same leading-edge health care services and technologies found in major cities, right here in our coastal community. And, as an employer, we empower our team members to live full, balanced lives so they can enjoy everything the Golden Isles has to offer.
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