Pooler Magazine July August 2015

July/August 2015

ONE OF POOLER’S FINEST CHRISTOPHER DOTSON

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CONTENTS July/August 2015

features

12 One Chris Dotson of Pooler’s Finest 18 Balancing Kathy Smith Act

24 Senior Nell Anderson Spotlight 30 New Alan Weathers Hampstead Band -

12

Above and Beyond

35 The Recreation Spotlight: Conleys departments

11

Publisher’s Letter

41

Let’s Do Business

43

Dining Guide

24

18

specials

47

Business To Business

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CONTRIBUTORS Casie Wilson

Casie Wilson is an Effingham County native and aspiring journalist. She’s a team player, and her passion for people and their stories is a driving force in her writing and studies. An honors student at the University of Georgia, Casie is pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism, a minor in Sociology and a certificate in Global Health. She has contributed to UGA’s independent student newspaper, The Red & Black, as a Variety writer and specialized in community events and lifestyle features. In her spare time she enjoys spending time with her young nieces and drinking lots of coffee.

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FOLLOW US Katrice Williams She is a married mother of two: Nio-14 and Mya-12.

She graduated from Georgia Southern University in 1998 with a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree and consistently maintained a great literary acumen and a big interest in writing. She moved to the Atlanta Metropolitan Area to pursue business career endeavors. A few years later, her husband, Tony, received a job offer in our local area, and the family eventually moved to Pooler. After spending a fulfilling amount of time as an at-home mom, she decided to pursue an area of personal attraction—writing. In her spare time, Katrice enjoys the 3F’s: family, food, and fun!! She’s also fond of occasionally writing a bit of good poetry.

on Facebook. Check-out our Facebook page and keep up with the exciting things happening in Pooler.You’ll find us at Pooler Magazine.

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Shannon Robinson is a free-spirited freelancer that collects hobbies and has a story for every conversation. She joins our publication in an effort to further develop her writing techniques.

Natalie Turner is a life long Effingham resident. She has a great love of photography. Taking photos of family and friends sparked Natalie’s desire to become a professional photographer. Sine the, her passion has grown to child and newborn photography. She is a wife and mother of two. She volunteers her time weekly to a local food bank. Natie is also a Avon representative.

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WRITE US

Write to us and tell us what you think.

Pooler Magazine welcomes all letters to the publisher. Please send all letters via email to Jeff Whitten at jeff@idpmagazines.com, or mail letters to P.O. Box 1742, Rincon, GA 31326. Letters to the publisher must have a phone number and name of contact. Phone numbers will not be published.

ARTICLE SUBMISSIONS

Pooler Magazine welcomes story ideas from our readers. If you have a story idea, or photo essay you would like to share, please submit ideas and material by emailing Jeff Whitten at jeff@ idpmagazines.com Stories or ideas for stories must be submitted by email. Only feature stories and photo essays about people, places or things in Pooler.

www.poolermagazine.com DiAnna Jenkins

Lane Leopard

10 May/June 2015 | www.PoolerMagazine.com

Lea Allen

Jeff Whitten

PUBLISHER’S Thoughts

Meet Our New Addition Julie Hales owner/publisher julie@idpmagazines.com Jeff Whitten editor jeff@idpmagazines.com Lane Leopard graphic design lane@idpmagazines.com Lea Allen administrative assistant/circulation lea@idpmagazines.com DiAnna Jenkins account executive dianna@idpmagazines.com

Pooler Magazine is proudly produced by:

108 International Drive P.O. Box 1742 Rincon, GA 3126 (912) 826-2760

CIRCULATION: Pooler Magazine is publlished bi-monthly (six issues a year), printing 10,000 copies and distributed to over 180 locations.

Reproduction in whole or in part in any manner without the written permission of the publisher is strictly prohibited.

We have some exciting news to share. Independence Day Publishing, Inc has added a new editor to our team.

I am so pleased to announce the addition of a new editor to our staff. This year has been a year of change and growth for us. We are in the process of even more new exciting things happening in the next several months.

Jeff Whitten has joined our family at Independence Day Publishing, assuming the responsibility of Editor for all publications, Effingham Magazine, Pooler Magazine, Beaufort Lifestyle and Chatham Isles Living.

We are very excited about the addition of Jeff to our IDP family. With the recent growth of our business, it makes perfect sense to have someone in this position. Jeff’s background and work expertise will bring many new ideas and a unique facet to Julie Hales, PUBLISHER the company. With our plans for additional expansion, the timing is perfect to bring Jeff on board. I couldn’t be more pleased with my decision.

After working two decades in newspapers as a sportswriter, reporter and editor, Jeff is excited to be working with our team to continue to create the best community magazines in the Coastal Empire and Lowcountry.

Jeff’s career began in Effingham County at the Effingham Herald after his graduation with a journalism degree from Georgia Southern in 1995. His career continued at newspapers in Moultrie, Hinesville and Richmond Hill. He has won nearly two dozen Georgia Press Association awards, along with many other industry awards.

Jeff is an Army veteran and a South Carolina native whose roots in the Upstate date back to the 1780s. Jeff and his wife Beverly, a Georgia native, are longtime residents of Effingham County. His hobbies include reading, working in his yard and running distance races.

I am very excited about our future, and feel certain that Jeff will be a valuable asset to our company and in helping us achieve the goals we have set before us. So, join me in welcoming him to our staff. If you see him on the streets in Pooler, shake his hand and share a story idea with him.

ABOUT THE COVER Chris Dotson is definitely one of Pooler’s finest. This young police officer is not only good at his job, he is a great role model for the Pooler community. Born and raised here, Chris tells us about his life in Pooler and the love he has for God, his family and profession.

www.PoolerMagazine.com | July/August 2015

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POOLER’S FINEST

Pooler NativeVance Smith: CHRISTOPHER DOTSON

Life after Serves City On The Force“The Voice” He Grew Up Admiring

Story by JEFF WHITTEN Photos by NATALIE TURNER

12 July/August 2015 | www.PoolerMagazine.com

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rowing up, Christopher Dotson never lacked for hustle or energy or work ethic, which means his story could have turned out completely different and it would still be a fine story.

You know, local kid born and raised in Pooler grows up and stays at home. He becomes a part of the fabric of the community while raising a family, building a successful business and making a good life for himself and others.

Early on, it maybe even looked like Dotson’s story would turn out that way. He built his own thriving landscaping business while still a kid, and later, as he attended Savannah Tech, Dotson got on with FedEx Ground, and by the time he was done was working part time and going to class and still became a manager.

Dotson probably could have made a career out of it, climbed the corporate ladder and who knows where he might have wound up, had it been that important to him.

“I was good at it,” Dotson says. “But it wasn’t what I wanted to do.”

Instead, Dotson did what he really wanted to do, which was first put himself through the Police Academy at Savannah Tech.

And then Dotson got hired as a police officer at Georgia Southern University, before finally getting the chance to join the Pooler Police Department, the place he’d long wanted to be.

“I enjoyed (serving at Georgia Southern), but it wasn’t where my heart was,” said Dotson, who spent eighteen months as an officer with the Statesboro school and years before and during that trying to get on with PPD. Then, in 2011, he was hired by Pooler Police Chief Mark Revenew -- a move Dotson said might have been made out of exasperation with this kid who wouldn’t stop asking to join up.

“I truly think Chief Revenew got sick of seeing my name come across his desk,” Dotson said.

Or maybe it was more a case of a smart police chief recognizing that Dotson was so bound and determined to become a police officer, he’d just have to make a good one. It turned out the chief was right: In December, Dotson was named the department’s 2014 Police Officer of the Year, an award given out annually by the Pooler Chamber of Commerce and Visitor’s Center to honor Pooler’s top cop.

“Chris is exactly what we look for when hiring an officer,” Revenew said. “First of all he grew up in Pooler, and wants to give back to his community through his service. Since Chris joined the department he has always treated everyone respectfully and fairly. But he takes his responsibility to making Pooler a better place very seriously.”

What’s more, Dotson’s small frame - he’s about 5-foot-7 - isn’t a shortcoming in a line of work where size can be an asset, but heart matters most.

“Despite his modest stature, he is always quick to respond to a problem and the first one to jump into a fracas or a chaotic situation,” Revenew said. “I’ve seen him arrest a violent offender much bigger than him who struck him, kicked him several times, and messed up his uniform, and he shrugged it off and finished his shift like nothing happened.”

Equally important, Dotson seems to be all in, the kind of officer you’d want advertising your police force. A role model, if you will.

“He is every Chief’s ideal officer in that he comes to work every day with a pleasant disposition and aggressively patrols the city trying to determine how to make his community a better place each and every day,” said Revenew, a former patrol officer himself.

Yet it’s not really work to Dotson, who is 28 and as fired up today to get out there and police Pooler as he was the day he was hired.

“I feel like God has called me to this profession,” said Dotson, who is devoutly religious. “So when I come in I am on the job for Him first. Not all people can say they are fulfilling their calling.”

If there’s a certain nobility to that statement, there’s also this oft-quoted gem, which Dotson says applies to him as well. “As a great teacher once said, ‘love what you do and you’ll never work a day in your life.’ That kind of sums it up. Even during tragedies, knowing I was able to treat people courteously and respectfully gives me a strong sense of satisfaction at the end of the day.”

Growing Up In Pooler The bio might go something like this, if Advanced Patrol Officer Chris Dotson had one.

For starters, he grew up in Garden Acres, from proud roots.

“My dad was an HVAC technician and my mother was a full time homemaker and a part-time house cleaner. They put both my brother and I in private schools so that we could obtain the best education possible,” he said. “They both worked extremely hard and that helped shape my work ethic.”

By the time he was “12 or 13” Dotson said he had a small landscape business going. “It grew to be fairly large by the time I was 16, and I was doing business in bulk with a local house builder and other businessmen and landlords.”

Still, Dotson wanted more stable income when he started taking classes at Savannah Tech, hence the decision to get a part time job and the time spent with FedEx Ground, which helped pay his way through the police academy and, well, you know the rest of that part of Dotson’s story, and how he decided what he really wanted to do was be a police officer in Pooler.

Here’s where that desire came from: “As a young person in Garden Acres, I saw the police who came through the neighborhood and saw them as role models. I had several bicycles stolen, and a young female officer took one of those reports,” Dotson recalls. “She actually lived a few houses down from me on an adjacent street, so she was familiar with who I was. She, along with a couple of other officers, got together and bought me a new bicycle.”

That not so random act of kindness made its impact on Dotson.

“That was my first sense of seeing a police officer as a part of the community and the public service that went along with it. Our families became friends and she was an integral part of what gave me perspective of the police.”

Over time, Dotson began to interact with area police officers and “they further imbedded that sense of community, and what they did for work seemed exciting and fulfilling.”

From such a small beginning sprang a love affair between a man and his chosen profession, one that includes mentors such as Det. Jason Parrish, who was Dotson’s training officer, Lt. Karen Zantow, Dotson first shift supervisor, and Revenew, who is not only police chief but also taught Dotson at St. Leo’s, where Dotson recently finished up his Bachelor’s in criminal justice.

All together, they’ve helped mold a good police officer. Dotson sees himself as a public servant with “the ability to make a tangible difference locally in the community,” he said.

Police, like firefighters and paramedics and emergency medical technicians, often see people in distress. It can take the wind out your sails as easily as it can make you want to help. It makes Dotson want to help “Often, I am seeing people in their worst state,” he said. “And often times their concerns are the biggest problem in their life at that time. Things like domestic violence situations, and drugs and alcohol can cripple families and children. So when I arrest an offender from a violent domestic situation, I know, at least for a www.PoolerMagazine.com | July/August 2015

13

while, that that family will have peace from the issue.”

Now a veteran officer, Dotson has responded to hundreds, if not thousands, of calls. Some stand out, among them the time he caught an identity thief from out of town at Copper Village. Another time, Dotson helped put a pimp out of business and free two women from a bad situation.

“The identity thief had more than 60 identifications, stolen mail, even a stolen water meter,” Dotson said. “Then, not long after that, I got a kidnapping call. Two women, one being juvenile, were being sexually trafficked at a local hotel by a pimp. They ran away to a construction site and called police. I had seen this guy in town twice before and I knew something wasn’t right, but I didn’t quite have legal grounds to arrest him and he wasn’t going to help me. Third time is the charm. The detectives came out and and helped piece the case together, and putting the handcuffs on him and watching the women being able to live a free life with choices again was rewarding.”

“I feel like God has called me to this profession,” said Dotson, who is devoutly religious. “So when I come in I am on the job for Him first. Not all people can say they are fulfilling their calling.”

Family Man If you’ve read this far, then it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Dotson is a family man who married his high school sweetheart.

“I am married to the love of my life, Jacqueline, and she and I have a beautiful 19-month-old daughter, Catherine.”

Jacqueline grew up in Gleason Heights, just across the railroad tracks from Garden Acres, and the two met in high school, started dating and married in 2010. She is a community based special-ed teacher for preschool intervention, working with inner-city Savannah special needs pre-school kids either in their homes or in daycares, and both Dotson and his wife attend Gateway Community Church.

“My faith in Jesus Christ and my family are important to me,” Dotson said. “At the end of life, nothing else really is as important as that.”

But there’s always the job, which seems as much an avocation as it is a vocation for Dotson, who hopes to “rise through the ranks and spend some time in investigations,” then “be a part of what leads the department into the next generation of professional officers while continuing the small town atmosphere.”

Now that he’s on the force, Dotson said he’d advise future officers to study. Study life and go to college. Knowledge is key.

“Law enforcement is becoming more and more a competitive, professional career,” he said. “People expect when they call for

14 July/August 2015 | www.PoolerMagazine.com

the police they will receive an educted officer with common sense.”

At the same time, Dotson thinks some folks tend to paint all police officers with the same broad brush, especially when law enforcement officers make news for abusing their power or worse.

“My main pet peeve is that people perceive that we are power hungry, enjoy the use of force and are robots,” he said. “Let’s face it, as long as we have humans doing the job, there will be bad apples and mistakes made. However, when you compare law enforcement to other career fields, even doctors, police are statsically far less likely to be unethical. We are people, we go home to families, too.”

Dotson thinks more communication, along with education and the power of relationships, are key to bridging gaps between the public and those sworn to protect it. He’s a believer in community oriented policing, and sees an ever-growing community out there to serve.

“Man, has Pooler changed,” Dotson said. “When I grew up it was Lovezolla’s Pizza and the Gate station. Pooler’s growth has brought opportunities for many families, and we may have more people, stores and streets, but the heart of Pooler hasn’t changed. It still has that small town charm it always has. There’s no place like home, and I’m proud to be from here, and proud to be here.”

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18 July/August 2015 | www.PoolerMagazine.com

BALANCING ACT

Kathy Smith Balances Business, Family, Fun, While Serving Her Community

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Story by JEFF WHITTEN • Photos by NATALIE TURNER

ot surprisingly, Kathy Smith is a successful businesswoman. It’s one of the reasons she’s a good fit as president of the Board of Directors of the Pooler Chamber of Commerce and Visitor’s Bureau, an organization aimed at promoting the city as both tourist destination and a good place to do business.

Nor, perhaps, should it come as any great surprise that Smith was named the Chamber’s 2014 Ambassador of the Year after she spent her first two years as a member helping drum up support and new members - for the organization that supports economic development through “networking, teamwork and innovative thinking,” according to its bylaws.

Smith, you see, takes the Chamber to heart.

Upon joining the group three years ago, Smith began “to realize the importance of membership as well as support of the Chamber,” she said, noting that once she understood what the Chamber did, becoming a Chamber ambassador just seemed the thing to do. “I feel that the networking opportunities are endless, and I wanted the chance to meet other members and introduce myself to businesses, letting them now how beneficial membership is. I focused on getting more members and sponsorships in support of ‘my’ Pooler Chamber. I take it to heart and treat other businesses as if they were family.”

From the start, she was all in. Smith served on the Chamber’s Board of Directors for a year, and was elected to her first term as president this year after two years as ambassador.

Then, Smith found all the hard work as ambassador paid off when she was named the Chamber’s 2014 Ambassador of the year, an award she was “honored” to receive and one that serves as testament to the two years she spent bringing new members into the organization.

All of which perhaps wouldn’t mean as much were it not for the shared goal between the city of Pooler and the Chamber of Commerce, a goal which perhaps can be summed up as continued economic vitality and quality growth.

“Through advertisement and word of mouth along with growth, Pooler has now become a destination city,” Smith said. “Pooler continues to grow. The addition of Surf Lagoon, Tanger Outlet, Imax, along with the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, and so many other attractions has put Pooler on the map.”

With more folks, there’s more of a drive to get the Pooler brand out there as well while also giving back and giving residents events in which to be involved.

“The Chamber is hosting more events for Pooler such as our Hearts for Heroes Gala in February, Breakfast with Santa in November and Pooler in the Park next spring or summer,” Smith said, noting as president “I am part of a tremendous and professional board. My role is to ensure the Chamber continues to move forward and follows our bylaws, and I am proud to be on the board and so honored to be serving as president. I feel it is my role to spread the word on the growth of Pooler and the Pooler

chamber.”

And so she does. Every chance she gets.

For starters, Smith says the Chamber is “honored and proud to have Pam Southard as our executive director.”

“Pam plays an important leadership role for the chamber.

She assumed the responsibility with a great deal of pride and works closely with the board. She also works closely with Linda Saytanides, officer coordinator, to ensure the smooth day-to-day operation of the chamber. Her door is always open.” That’s always a plus in a place that treats business as a pleasure and can use its success as its best advertisement.

“The best way to describe Pooler to someone who doesn’t know about it is to state the facts,” Smith said. “Pooler is one of the fastest growing cities in Georgia. We are not only the home of Fortune 500 companies, but also restaurants, new hotels and businesses that not only offer employment to the community, but also provide opportunities for shopping, dining and leisure to residents and visitors alike.”

Remember that old slogan, the one that rhymed? It’s Cooler in Pooler.

“Yes, ‘It’s Cooler in Pooler,’” Smith said. “And that’s more meaningful and true now than ever before.”

Everyone needs to have something else to do, something to feed to the heart and nourish the soul. For Smith, through such benefits as the Chambers’ Hearts for Heroes, she also finds time to do good things, and endeavors to help support such organizations as Wounded Warriors, the Red Cross and, in 2015, the Coastal Children Advocacy’s Center, a nonprofit that works tirelessly to serve children who’ve been victimized by those who would do them harm.

“CCAC provides a safe, confidential, child friendly site for free investigative and therapeutic services to victims of child abuse,” Smith said. “They are the voice of the tiniest victims. We honor the courage of the smallest among us, those who have been harmed by sexual abuse, physical abuse and exploitation, and who gain strength through the services, expertise and support through CCAC.” There’s also Lindsey’s Place, a nonprofit providing special needs kids and young adults with both residential and day outings. The camp was founded in 2008 in Savannah and is one of the first of its kind in the South. “Lindsey’s Place is also very important to me,” Smith said.

Indeed.

“When the organization was first founded I was honored to sit on the board for Lindsey’s Place,” Smith said. “One of the first things was fundraising to be able to purchase the land that would be called ‘Lindsey’s Place.’”

And, there’s time for relaxation.

“I enjoy traveling, going to the pool with family and friends, and spending time with my family,” Smith said. “I also love to fish. I like both salt water and fresh water fishing the same. I love www.PoolerMagazine.com | July/August 2015

19

fish. I like both salt water and fresh water fishing the same. I love fishing down on the pier at Tybee, and I go to Florida and Myrtle Beach to fish. If you have to look for me, I’ve gone fishing.”

Like most good habits, this one started early in life for Smith, who said she was 9 when her dad would take her and her two siblings fishing.

“Dad always had to bait our hooks and take our fish off,” she said. “Then he wised up, said ‘if you are going to fish, you’re going to bait your hook and take off your fish.’”

It was apparently like turning a kid loose in a candy store. “That’s when we no longer had to wait on Dad,” Smith recalled. “I could bait and take the fish off faster and get my pole back in the water.”

There was a favorite family fishing spot, too - Beard’s Bluff in Glennville. It sits on a bend of the Altamaha River and Smith remembers fishing “under the cypress trees with the water moccasins hanging on the limbs above us,” she said, because “that’s where the fish were at.”

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“Dad always said if you don’t mess with the snakes they don’t mess with you, and as a child I believed that until one day one fell in the boat,” she said. “You can only imagine what happened next.”

These days, fishing seems a more tranquil pursuit, though there apparently have been times when Smith’s mother has dumped the crickets out to get her daughter to call it a day. But there’s a solace in the connection between rod and reel, water and woman.

Smith called it peace of mind.

“All your troubles, all your thoughts just disappear,” she said, and it’s clear the girl who learned to bait her own hook early in life doesn’t need anyone to rig out a rod and reel now.

“I can rig anything from bream busters to open faced spinners,” Smith said. “My mom, my sister and I go out of town for a week at the time now just to fish. We get to the water early and fish all day.”

It’s all part of a well balanced, well lived life.

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24 July/August 2015 | www.PoolerMagazine.com

Nell Anderson:

Pooler Icon, Granny Nell

F

Story by JEFF WHITTEN Photos by NATALIE MCALISTER

irst, a little from the public record, because not everyone gets a day officially named in their honor, but Nell Anderson did. It happened more than a dozen years ago when then-Mayor Buddy Carter read a proclamation at City Hall making July 30, 2002 “Nell Anderson Day” in the city of Pooler.

That’s pretty high cotton, no matter who you are.

Nell, now 86, and also known by many as Granny Nell, keeps a memento of that day, a yellowing newspaper clipping with a photo of Carter - now a U.S. Congressman - handing her a framed copy of the proclamation read at the city council meeting in honor of her retirement. The official Nell Anderson Day is long gone, of course, that particular 24-hour period all but lost except perhaps in dusty newspaper archives, city council minutes, rarely searched corners of the internet and the wandering recesses of memory.

But Nell, bless her, is still very much here, still a vital part of the Pooler Senior Citizens Center where she spends time at least two, sometimes three times a week because the place means so much to her, still drives her almost-brand-new Dodge Journey from the house to the center where she’s seen and done so much.

“I’ve seen a lot of changes,” Nell said. “I’ve been through every director that Pooler ever had for senior citizens. We’ve had good ones and bad ones, but we’ve got the best one now.”

That best one would be Susan Edwards, whom Nell clearly thinks the world of.

“She’s just so good to everybody. She loves old people, and you’ve got to, to work in a place like this,” Nell said, then runs through a list of the foibles of her generation. and sums it up thusly: “Some people,” she said. “Ain’t got nothing to do but (bleep) and complain.”

Funny thing is, when Nell says that, it doesn’t sound mean.

It just sounds like Nell. And if you spend enough time and ask enough questions, you meet the Nell who wouldn’t know politically correct if it came up and introduced itself.

“Nell is the nicest person you could ever want to meet, but she will say what she is going to say,” said her friend, Mary Facen.

“She’s going to tell you what she thinks, and she doesn’t care if you like it or not.”

Indeed. For example, Nell has strong feelings about the way the elderly are treated in the U.S., sees a society that’s lost something it once had. Something important.

“The young people today have no respect for older people anymore,” Nell said, as a conversation turned to changes in society over the years. “Most of them don’t, not all of them, but most of them. The parents spared the rod and spoiled the child, that’s what happened. I gave mine spankings when they needed it, and don’t regret it. I did what I thought was right, but back then, anybody who was six months older than us, we had respect for. It was mister or missus, yes m’am, no m’am. Now it’s ‘yeah,’ ‘no,’ ‘what,’ ‘where,’ there’s really no respect for anybody.”

And then there are all these personal possessions. Our society seems awash in everything from smart phones to $100 jogging

shoes, but there was a time when people had few luxuries. Nell knows this firsthand.

“They’re so used to having things, they don’t think they have anything. We seniors can look around, we know how lucky they are,” said Nell, who doesn’t have an email address and doesn’t want one. “I don’t even know how to turn on a computer, and I’ve no desire to learn. No desire to mess with internet stuff like that Facebook. I don’t want to learn any more than I already know. I know enough.”

Instead, Nell’s old school. She likes the novels of Debbie Macumber and Luanne Rice and is currently re-reading the Wagons West series by Dana Fuller Ross.

“I like the history in it,” Nell said. “It’s good. There’s a lot of action in it and you don’t get bored.”

Nell is also an avid angler and loves to fish, and her favorite meal is fried fish with grits and hushpuppies, but she’s also fond of fried chicken. None of that baked fish or chicken for Nell, please. Besides, Nell’s lived a long life eating fried food. Why change now?

Being 86, Nell’s seen a lot, lived through a lot. Ask her if there’s anybody from that past she’d like to meet and maybe talk to, and she doesn’t have to think long.

“Kennedy,” she said, referring to President John F. Kennedy.

“I don’t know why. I thought he was good looking, and I just liked him.”

Nell also likes Rep. Carter, votes for him every time he runs for something. “I think he’s a good Christian man. You can’t say that about all of them.”

She’s also likes country music - liked Garth Brooks until he made a lot of money and retired - and is a fan of TV shows such as “Family Feud,” “Bonanza,” “Gunsmoke” and old western movies, and some cooking shows. Nell also swims in the pool, puts up vegetables for family members, goes to church and spends quality time in her recliner when she gets a chance.

“It sleeps good,” she said, talking about the recliner.

Nell retired from her job as the Senior Center driver in 2003, and for a while she led her fellow senior citizens in aerobics.

“We’d do line dances, and we’d do the warmups and the cool downs,” Nell said, but hip replacement surgery in 2013 ended that, so Nell trained her replacements and now comes mainly to socialize with friends and help keep the place moving forward.

She does that mostly through her work as president of the Senior Booster Club, which does fundraisers like its annual Bake Sale around Thanksgiving to help pay for extras for the club while also covering dues for some members who can’t afford it.

It’s a big, happy, senior family.

“We seniors are from the old school,” Nell said. “We love one another and are good to one another, and I think all of us who come here respect one another. Sometimes you’d like to bop some of them one or two times, but you can’t do that either. Pooler won’t let you.”

Pooler also won’t allow penny pokeno games, which were shut www.PoolerMagazine.com | July/August 2015

25

down years back because the powers that be thought that was gambling. This according to Nell, who used to enjoy penny pokeno and now likes bingo, though you get the feeling she believes a penny or two pot would spice things up a bit. As for when pokeno stopped, well, that was that.

“They raided us,” Nell said. “So we quit playing. It wasn’t no fun without the pennies.”

And here’s a thought: Nell should be considered an expert witness on seniors, being one herself. But she knows them too because even before she was a senior citizen herself she worked as the center’s aid, transportation and travel coordinator -- which apparently meant mostly she drove them places for the city of Pooler.

Her take?

“It takes a person with a lot of patience to work with seniors,” she said. “We’ve got some good seniors here. We’ve also got some that are nuts, too. I’m telling you, they’re about two French fries off of a happy meal.”

Care to name names?

“Noooo.”

It only seems like Granny Nell has lived in Pooler forever.

She actually came here in 1949, a 21-year-old who started life in Dublin and then moved with her family to Savannah, where her father worked in the shipyard during World War II. Nell doesn’t have fond memories of those times in Savannah, or if she does she keeps them to herself.

Her memories of Pooler as it was when she found it are golden.

“There were no paved streets. The only paved road was Highway 80,” Nell said. “Everybody knew everybody.”

Back then, Nell lived on South Skinner Avenue. “The whole square there - there’s houses on it now - was nothing but a pecan orchard back then. We used to plant cantaloupes and watermelons, then sit out to watch people drive by, slow down, stop ... and get out to get them a watermelon.”

But Pooler did have a movie theater, and a grocery store -- a Red and White, says Nell -- and a filling station. She had kids and a family and all that but around 1987 while working in a fried chicken place Nell got a call from an aunt who said she might want to look into a job with the city driving a van for senior citizens. Nell said why not.

“I never drove a van but thought I could drive it, and I started part time.”

It was more than a job, it was an adventure. “I took seniors everywhere,” Nell said. “Orlando, South Carolina, Myrtle Beach, Dollywood. We used to travel a lot, they sure loved to go.”

And they still do. “We need to get out and be together,” she added. “Old people don’t need to be sitting at home all the time.”

No chance of that with Nell. “I can’t go as much as I used to, but I still go on certain things,” she said.

But not on Mondays. Mondays are for Canasta at Nell’s. The game follows a supper and it’s become a ritual for the five senior women who attend -- among them Mary Facen, who moved south with her husband Henry after spending a career as a social worker in New York.

It seems safe to say that Mary is taken with Nell, who introduced herself to Mary by saying nobody liked her because of her penchant for telling it the way she thinks it needs to be told.

“She’s a mess, such a card, but she’s also very honest about what she’s feeling and she’s going to say it,” said Mary, who also noted that Nell is protective of her friends, and they of her. “It’s a big family here, and she’s a big part of it.”

Someone once said someday everyone will be famous for 15 minutes, or something like that, or so the story goes.

Nell’s fame may not be as widespread, but it’s been more last-

26 July/August 2015 | www.PoolerMagazine.com

ing than 15 minutes. Perhaps it springs from her service as a kind of village grandmother when Pooler was still just a small town with big ideas. All those nights and weekends she spent at concession stands at the rec department gym started her on the road to being called Granny Nell. Which fits so perfect it’s perfect.

“I was over there so long that all the kids coming up called me Granny Nell,” she said. “And I’m still Granny Nell to some. Of course now they’re on the fire department and they come and do our blood pressure checks and they’ve got kids of their own. And they’re still calling me Granny Nell.”

That’s ok with her. Remember the old motto, or perhaps it’s not so old, that proclaimed something like “everything is cooler in Pooler.” Nell said that’s true. Everything is cooler in Pooler.

“Yep. I like Pooler. When I first moved here it was like a neighborhood. It was a small group of us, no more than maybe 400 or 500 maybe, and in no time at all you knew everybody here,” she said.

These days Pooler’s grown a lot, but the Senior Center remains a neighborhood all its own. After all, age is a common bond, a sisterhood and brotherhood that binds people together into family.

“We all know everybody here, and we just enjoy being together,” Nell said.

www.PoolerMagazine.com | July/August 2015

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Above and Beyond New Hampstead Band is Growing With The Times

A

Story by CASIE WILSON Photos by NATALIE MCALISTER

hush falls over the stadium crowd as a few dozen student musicians take the field late on a muggy September afternoon. The little band, donned in simple dark t-shirts tucked into black pants, seems out of place among the much bigger groups that line the stands. But where they lack the flashy uniforms typical of high school marching bands, New Hampstead makes up for it with sheer confidence.

Over the past year, New Hampstead High School’s band has skyrocketed above and beyond expectations in skill and performances, overcoming obstacles that young, new bands face with a sense of pride and novelty.

Since greenhorn director Alan Weathers joined the program in March of 2013, the band has gone through some changes. They adopted a fight song― the Fighting Irish Victory March of Notre Dame fame― and plenty of other tunes to play in the stands. “Low Rider” has proven to be a crowd favorite.

Alan said that with the school system’s help, New Hampstead was able to overcome basic expenses that hinder some band programs.

“The Savannah-Chatham school system covers the cost of repairs and things, which is really cool and a lot different than other band programs,” he said. “A lot of directors have to raise the cost of repairs on their own and through band boosters. We don’t have to worry about that, so most of what we focus on is cost of travel.”

And travel they did.

The New Hampstead band appeared in four marching competitions in 2014, including the Southeast Bulloch Band Blast, the Coastal Empire Classic, the East Georgia Marching Championships and the Marching Mustang Invitational. Competing in Class A, a division reserved for the smallest bands in the area, New Hampstead beat out numerous older, more established groups for the title of Best in Class in all three competitions the title was available.

“All of this was in our first year, without uniforms or a color guard, with a first-year director and a band almost completely made of freshmen,” Alan said. “That’s almost unheard of.”

He will gladly rattle off the band’s multiple titles and accomplishments to anyone who asks, and with good reason. In a competitive marching band circuit like southeastern Georgia’s, where tradition is key and bigger is better, New Hampstead’s string of successes so early in their existence is nothing short of extraordinary.

Along with the multiple Best in Class titles, New Hampstead also received some much-appreciated feedback.

“Most of the comments obviously told us to get uniforms,” Alan said. “We got a lot of constructive criticism about our show design. That’s kind of expected for a guy who’s not used to placing kids on the field, so I’ve had to educate myself in how to expand

myself in that area. Besides that, we got a lot of compliments on the strength of our sound. We may be a small band, but we sounded a lot bigger than what we were.”

He suggests the secret to their sound may be simpler than one would think.

“I’m really big on breathing and playing with proper air support,” he said, “and I believe that marching band translates to a concert setting beautifully if you approach it right.”

This past year’s marching band consisted of 32 musicians, with 23 on the field and nine in the percussion ensemble on the sideline known as the pit. Despite their small size, the band delivered powerhouse performances of their show titled “Heartbreak.” The band brought down the house with catchy songs of remorse and reunion, from Green Day’s ballad “When September Ends” to Tavin Campbell’s “Eye to Eye” from “A Goofy Movie,” and from Bon Jovi’s “Shot through the Heart” to a remake of “Cinema” by Skrillex― “with the dubstep drop and everything,” Alan is eager to add.

And for this coming season?

“This year, we’re doing a ‘Fright Night’ show,” Alan explained.

“The opener is going to have the themes from the movies ‘Psycho’ and ‘Halloween’ in it― you know, spooky, scary stuff.”

The second song is going to have music from Tim Burton’s “A Nightmare Before Christmas,” followed by a ballad inspired by the theme of the old horror film “Candyman.” Finally, the band will bring it home with a mash-up of “Superstition” by Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”

Although the fall semester of the New Hampstead High School band is dominated by marching competitions and halftime shows, with the spring comes a focus on concert performances. For Large Group Performance Evaluations, the major concert of the year and main source of unbiased feedback for most high school bands, they played “Fidelity March” by Karl L. King, “Shenandoah” arranged by Robert Sheldon, and a faster tune by Brian Balmages called “Electricity.”

“With a smaller, younger band in a concert setting, things are usually more intense,” Alan said. “We didn’t do quite as well as we had hoped, but we got some very constructive comments for next time.”

Alan is no stranger to southeastern Georgia’s performing arts community. After graduating Southeast Bulloch High School, he earned his bachelor’s degree in music education from Georgia Southern University. He taught part-time at Pope High School for a while and even worked with Teal Sound Drum and Bugle Corps writing percussion music. Despite his experience, directing a high school band is still proving to be a learning experience for him.

“I’ve been doing as much footwork as I can, considering it’s my www.PoolerMagazine.com | May/June 2015

31

“With Pooler blowing up the way that it is, there’s plenty of people coming in who will need a school like New Hampstead and a band to represent this growing community,” Alan said. “I think New Hampstead can be Pooler’s band.” first year and I’m still learning what does and doesn’t work,” he said.

Of course, Alan is quick to admit that none of this would be possible without help. He keeps in touch with local directors as much as he can, both for advice and to pass along information about the program to the parents of potential musicians.

“Their biggest challenge is being a new program,” said Lee Ewing, director of bands at Windsor Forest High School. “You have to convince students that they are starting a tradition instead of just joining one. Some students buy into that, and some students have a hard time swallowing that pill. I think he’s done a great job showing them that they are beginning something great, rather than just doing it to fill space and time.”

Alan can testify that starting a tradition rarely ever comes with a step-by-step guide, and never comes without challenges.

“At first, no one knew how a band program works,” he said.

“We were going to band competitions, and the parents would be expecting it to be like the movie ‘Drumline,’ and that’s not how it works, you know? It’s a struggle and an uphill battle, but now that we have a band booster program and parents that know what’s going on, it should be easier.”

“Alan has done some really fine things, especially out on the marching field,” Lee said. “He’s got the students believing that

32 July/August 2015 | www.PoolerMagazine.com

what they’re doing is the right thing and that they’re good at what they do. And because of that, they’ve shown some great achievements over the past year.”

However, Alan insists that the students are solely responsible for the band’s success.

“Honestly, the kids have done all the work,” he said. “All I do is sit and yell at them about all that went wrong. They’re the ones who brush it off and say, ‘Alright guys, let’s make this better.’

They’re the ones who win the trophies. They’re proud of this season, and they’re very proud to be a part of this band.”

Alan has sent out 46 band handbooks this summer and expects a bigger turnout for this marching season. With a lot of students expected to return, he hope to come out of the door swinging for this season and start competing with some of the bigger bands.

In the future, New Hampstead hopes to start up a golf tournament fundraiser, hire a full band staff and make an even bigger name for themselves in the performance community of southeast Georgia.

“With Pooler blowing up the way that it is, there’s plenty of people coming in who will need a school like New Hampstead and a band to represent this growing community,” Alan said. “I think New Hampstead can be Pooler’s band.”

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THE CONLEYS:

Love and Basketball ollywood sometimes mirrors real life. Sometimes it’s the other way around, and real life inspires Hollywood. And sometimes the one doesn’t have anything to do with the other, it just seems that way.

In this case, if you’ve seen Love and Basketball, then you’ll know where this story is kind of headed, because both Roderick Conley and Nikki Kerr Conley grew up loving basketball and then fell in love and got married.

But forget the handful of differences between plot and real life. And so what if the location is Georgia and not Los Angeles? Roderick and Nikki say the movie is them, that they’re the real-life Love and Basketball, and who’s to argue?

Now if you haven’t seen the movie, that reference obviously doesn’t work. That doesn’t make the real-life story, the Conleys’ story, less worth the telling. It’s still a great story, still a love story about two Atlanta kids who grow up and go to high school about 10 miles apart -- Nikki to Druid Hills, where she’s a basketball star who goes on to play at Fort Valley State University and later get a Masters’ at the University of South Carolina -- and Roderick to Shamrock, where he also becomes a basketball standout and goes on to play at Fort Valley after a stop at a community college first, then a transfer to Piedmont College, where he graduates.

Yet unlike the movie, where the main characters grow up near each other and have a love hate, ultra-competitive relationship that ends in marriage and the final credits, the 6-foot-7-inch Roderick and 5-feet-2 inch Nikki didn’t know one another until they were both at Fort Valley and already young adults.

But once they met, that was it. A one-family coaching tree was born, among other things.

Nowadays, he’s Chief Appraiser for Chatham County and, after more than a decade as a teacher in Atlanta Public Schools, she works for the Georgia National Guard helping make sure the right health resources are made available to those soldiers who need them most, and they have a son, Roderick -- he’s 10 -- and an 8-year-old daughter, Nia, both of whom are sports minded.

If that’s not enough to keep a family on the go, there’s this: Nikki and Roderick are volunteer coaches for the Pooler Recreation Department. In fact, you rarely get one Conley without the other Conley somewhere nearby.

“You get me, you get her. You get her, you get me,” Roderick says. “We’re a package deal.”

“When I’m the coach, he’s an assistant coach and he’s like the team dad. When he’s head coach, I’m an assistant coach and a team mom,” Nikki notes. But like the main characters in Love and Basketball, Roderick and Nikki remain ultra-competitive, because most top-level athletes and coaches are just that, so whether it’s in training for the Peachtree Road Race 10K in Atlanta on July 4 or in the giving of their

time to coach kids in the community, they want to succeed and they want their teams to succeed.

“Hard work will beat talent any day,” Nikki says, and Roderick agrees. They can talk at length about the things coaches tend to talk about: fundamentals, for example, but they also find that coaching kids has to be about having fun, both for the kids and the coaches.

“Coaching is an absolute pleasure,” Roderick says. “Sometimes I think we have more fun than the kids.”

Actually, the Conleys had so much fun after coaching their last basketball team together, a 10U boys All-Star team that almost won a district Georgia Recreation and Parks Association title -- they decided to keep on trucking and the pair got with other volunteer coaches and started running weekend basketball clinics on Saturdays at the Pooler Rec Gym. Months after basketball season, the clinics remain popular, they say, and around 50 children showed up at the most recent one.

“We were in the gym the whole weekend, that’s what we do,” Nikki said.

And kids aren’t the only ones going to camps in this story.

A few years back Nikki signed the Conleys up for an adult sports camp at Smith College in Massachusetts. It was a surprise to Roderick, but he had a blast.

“We played all the different kinds of sports,” Roderick said.

“Golf, badminton, tennis, we rode bikes, jogged, did it all.”

And as an aside, at 14, Nikki represented Dekalb County in badminton at the Georgia Games, and won.

As much fun as they’re having, the Conleys also are serious about play. Nikki said the two of them “so fundamentally believe in children being active we have a nonprofit called Health Quest Solutions, and the premise behind it is to help parents pay some of their children’s recreation activity fees, because they can be expensive.”

Nikki, who’s actually met Oprah Winfrey, just so you know, and was among a handful picked from thousands of Oprah fans to travel with the star to Australia, created the organization in 2005 and there’s a webiste -- www. healthquestsolutions.org -- that explains what the group is all about. So far, it’s helped about a dozen or so parents keep their kids involved in sports, but there’s always more who can use the help, as can the nonprofit itself, which depends on donations.

Nearly every penny of the money raised goes toward the kids.

Full time jobs, part time coaches, a nonprofit and being full time parents may sound like a lot. It is. But after spending most of their lives in metro-Atlanta, the Conleys have found Pooler and the Coastal Empire is a great place to be busy, though initially there was some culture shock.

“It took some getting used to,” Roderick said. “I wasn’t used to all the wetlands at first, and people would try to scare me off with alligator stories. The landscape here is absolutely different, and when we first got down here they were just

POOLER RECREATION SPOTLIGHT

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Story by JEFF WHITTEN • Photos by NATALIE MCALISTER

36 July/August 2015 | www.PoolerMagazine.com

starting to do all the development down the Parkway. But now we love it, and we rarely leave this area.”

His wife agreed.

“You can not beat the convenience and people have been most kind,” she said. “This is our home now.”

They also like the way Pooler Recreation Department works.

“I think they do a great job,” Roderick said. “Some rec departments want all the control at the top, and they try to steer kids to different coaches ... this is probably the most unbiased recreation department I’ve ever seen.”

And that fairness is obviously important to the Conleys, who believe in providing positive influences in childrens lives, just as others were positive influences in theirs. For Nikki, there are two, elementary school teacher Teresa Allen and college basketball coach Lonnie Bartley of FVSU. Allen introduced her to a plethora of sports while Nikki was in grade school, and she still loves playing each; Bartley made her work harder than she’d ever worked before. “From him I really learned what it took to be a champion, how much harder you had to work. I really thought when I went to college that I knew it all, and I didn’t. I never trained or worked so hard in my life until I got there. I learned this is what it takes to be a winner, that is what it takes to be a champion. I didn’t know it before I got there, but I learned it then, I really did.”

Roderick lists his prep coach at Shamrock, Jerome Lee, who is now at his wife’s high school alma mater of Druid Hills, of all things.

“I was a tweener, and back then the philosophy was to give the seniors opportunities to play regardless of talent,” said Roderick, who’s been tall -- he’s 6-foot-7 -- since middle school. “He said ‘I believe you have the talent and I’m going to work with you,’ and then assisted me past high school, and after I left juco and left

P

Fort Valley and went to Piedmont. He came to games when he was able, he made sure I got in school, and when I started coaching in high school, I was coaching with him, and I saw that it wasn’t just me he was doing it for, he was doing that for everybody. It’s all about family. His wife took us in, they took care of us and they cared about us. If I received that, I’ve got to give it back to someone else.”

And so the Conleys do that, giving back every time they step on a court or baseball diamond or take Pooler kids and mold them into teams that can compete with any in the area. It’s part calling, part fun, part basketball, part whatever other sport they might be coaching at the moment. But it’s all love.

P R E L OO

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www.PoolerMagazine.com | May/June 2015

37

CLEANER AIR For The City Of POOLER

Pooler city council members passed a smoke free air ordinance which took effect in January. Nearly 83 percent of Pooler voters said yes to the ordinance in a November 2014 referendum.

T

Story by JEFF WHITTEN

ake a deep breath. Notice anything missing? If the air you breathe in Pooler seems to be a little cleaner these days, you’re not imagining things.

That’s because after nearly 83 percent of the city’s approximately 4,000 registered voters said yes to such a measure last November, the city council adopted Pooler’s first comprehensive “Smoke-Free Air” ordinance, which took effect in January.

For Pooler Mayor Mike Lamb and council members Stevie Wall, Bruce Allen, Rebecca Benton, Mike Royal, Shannon Black and David Burke, it was important to protect the health not only of the city’s residents, but also that of visitors and those who work in Pooler. Yet in a free society, it was also important to give Pooler residents an opportunity to decide the issue.

“We knew the city of Savannah had already passed a smoke free ordinance,” Lamb said. “But they did it through city council rather than with a referendum. We decided we were interested in doing the same thing in our city, but we’d rather hear from the people, so we had the referendum because we felt it was the best way to do something like this.”

38 July/August 2015 | www.PoolerMagazine.com

There was a chance voters might have said no to any effort to eliminate smoking in public places in Pooler, but it turned out residents were overwhelmingly in favor of the ban, which includes everything from lighting up cigarettes and cigars to pipes and those e-cigarettes that create a vapor.

Six months in, the ordinance hasn’t drawn many complaints at all. It’s also won the city accolades from groups such as BreatheEasy Savannah and the state itself, which enacted its own smoke free ordinance in 2005 and the Georgia Department of Public Health’s Georgia Tobacco Use Prevention Program has supported the new ordinance.

So what does the city’s becoming a smoke-free city actually mean for Pooler residents and those who work or play in the city?

The ordinance eliminates smoking in all workplaces while also prohibiting smoking within 10 feet or a reasonable distance from businesses’ outside entrances, near windows that can be opened and ventilation systems. It’s aim is ensuring tobacco smoke doesn’t enter areas when places of business are open, or occupied by people.

Pooler city council members, from left: Mike Royal, Shannon Black, Rebecca Benton, David Burke, Mayor Mike Lamb, Bruce Allen and Stevie Wall.

More specifically, the ordinance prohibits smoking in such public places as libraries, bars, bingo facilities, child care and adult day care facilities, schools and other educational facilities, both public and private, elevators, health care facilities, hotels and motels, lobbies, hallways and other common areas in apartment buildings, trailer parks, retirment facilities, nursing homes and other resident facilities with multiple units.

It also bans smoking in polling places, aboard public transportation -- that includes taxicabs and buses -- and in ticket, boarding and waiting areas of public transportation facilities, including bus, train, trolley and airport facilities. The ordinance prohibits smoking in restaurants, restrooms, lobbies, reception areas, hallways and other common-use areas. It outlaws smoking in retail stores, shopping malls, service lines, sports venues, movie theaters, auditoriums and other indoor places where performances, lectures or plays are staged.

Smoking is also banned in all outdoor arenas and stadiums and is prohibited within 10 feet or a reasonable distance from bleachers and grandstands used by spectators, and it’s now illegal to

smoke within 10 feet or a reasonable distance from playgrounds and parks.

There are some still some areas in Pooler where smokers can light up. Among them are private residences so long as they’re not being used as a child care, adult day care or health care facility, and motels and hotels may designate up to 20 percent of their rooms as smoking rooms.

But by and large, smoking in places where second-hand smoke can impact others is a thing of the past in Pooler, and violators of the ordinance can face fines or loss of permits or licenses.

This law reduces exposure to secondhand smoke and its associated risks. Eliminating smoking in public places will reduce the number of tobacco related illnesses and deaths, which number more than 11,000 each year in Georgia alone.

It also provides cleaner and safer environments for us to live, work and play.

Please join us in clearing the air...to live a longer, healthier life.

www.PoolerMagazine.com | July/August 2015

39

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Pooler Magazine Is Distributed To Over 180 Locations.

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For Questions Or Information On Distribution Points, Please Call Lea at (912)826-2760 or (843)602-1467

46 July/August 2015 | www.PoolerMagazine.com

BUSINESS TO BUSINESS

P

ooler residents now have another good reason to entrust their health care to the exceptional team at Memorial Health University Physicians -- Memorial Medical Associates at Pooler. Her name is Elena Pimanova, M.D., and she has traveled quite a distance to join the caring, dedicated and experienced staff at MMA. Born in Russia, Dr. Pimanova hails from a family of physicians. There, aspiring doctors go to medical school straight out of high school, and that’s what the young Elena did, attending the prestigious Minsk Medical University in Belarus and graduating in 1991.

But then, practicing medicine in the Pimanova household was a family affair. It didn’t take long for Elena to realize she wanted to do the same.

“My mom was a military physician in Russia, and every time she took me to the base hospital there, I got to help her with the patients,” Dr. Pimanova said. “So, all my childhood, that’s what I really wanted to do, and then after I graduated from high school I knew I like to work with people and I like to help people, so I will go to medical school.’”

After graduation, Dr. Pimanova practiced in her native country before emigrating to the U.S. with her family in 2003. Her husband works for Gulfstream; their daughter, now 24, lives in Miami. Dr. Pimanova began her residency at Memorial Medical Associates in Savannah in 2011 and began seeing patients full time in Pooler in January.

When she’s not practicing medicine at MMA in Pooler, where Dr. Pimanova specializes in internal (adult) medicine, she relaxes with family, friends and her two cats and spends time exercising. Her exercise regime currently includes 5-mile walks daily, after work. She also enjoys time at the beach and time spent shopping, and Dr. Pimanova is excited about working and living in Pooler.

“It’s close to home, it’s such a new area and there are a lot of young people here,” she said. “We enjoy it here very much.”

Dr. Pimanova is board certified in internal medicine, and her practice involves routine primary and preventive care to treatment for a number of illnesses and chronic diseases, such as hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol. Dr. Pimanova is affiliated with the American College of Physicians. Her interests are preventive medicine, patient education and geriatric health.

“In Russia, when I graduated from medical school the choices were internal medicine, OB-GYN and pediatrics,” she said. “I decided then I wanted to work with adults and work with older people, because I like to help them.”

Dr. Pimanova is part of a team of physicians that includes Wilfredo Dolor, M.D., John Moore, M.D., Stephen Malone, M.D., Thomas J. Hogan Jr., M.D., Peggy Byck, M.D., and Nicole Momberg Cohen, M.D., who treat patients in the Savannah office.

Dr. Pimanova sees patients ages 18 and older from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. Monday through Friday at Memorial Medical Associates at Pooler, 101 West Mulberry Boulevard across from Cheddar’s on Benton Boulevard. The new location provides convenience for residents of both Pooler and West Chatham, eliminating the need to spend time in traffic driving into Savannah.

For more information or to schedule an appointment call 912-350-6000. Registered MyChart users can schedule appointments online at mychart.memorialhealth.com.

40 July/August 2015 | www.PoolerMagazine.com

Elena Pimanova, M.D.

I

Susan Mobley, M.D.

n August, Susan Mobley, M.D., begins full-time practice at Memorial Health University Physicians -- Provident OB/GYN Associates in Pooler, joining Dina Linfoot, M.D., William Osborne, M.D., and Darren Preuninger, M.D. It’s just the latest step in a journey that started neither long ago nor far away for Dr. Mobley. She was born in Savannah and attended Savannah Country Day, then did her undergraduate work at the University of Georgia, finishing up in 2005. Dr. Mobley went on to Mercer University School of Medicine, graduating in 2011 and returning home to do her residency at Memorial University Medical Center.

Medicine may come naturally to Dr. Mobley, who comes from a family of doctors. Her father is Savannah psychiatrist Dr. Michael Mobley, her mother Debbie is a physician assistant and was actually the very first PA in Savannah, and her sister Elizabeth is practicing urology in Austin, Texas.

“I’m sure I became interested in medicine because my dad is a physician and my mom is a physician assistant.

As I grew up in a household where taking care of patients was always of utmost importance, going into the field of medicine was just a natural choice,” said Dr. Mobley, who specializes in obstetrics and gynecology. She took the long view when it came time to choosing a field in which to practice.

“I chose my specialty of OB-GYN because I liked the idea of taking care of women throughout their lifetime,” Dr. Mobley said. “I want to be able to develop long-term relationships with my patients as they have their families as my obstetrical patient and then transition through the different phases of life including menopause when they have to deal with different gynecologic issues. I hope to help them stay healthy throughout.”

Staying close to home also was a natural choice for Dr. Mobley, who has three dogs, perhaps in part because this UGA alumnae is not just a fan of four-legged dogs. She’s also loves the Dawgs who call the Southeastern Conference home, and outside Athens there’s no better place to be once football season starts.

“I’m an avid UGA fan and love my Bulldogs. If it’s a fall Saturday it’s a guarantee that I will be found watching UGA football,” she said, and it’s clear Dr. Mobley believes in an active, healthy lifestyle. “I also enjoy cycling and try to ride 75-plus miles a week. I enjoy golf and hope to find more time to play now that I have finished my residency.”

Dr. Mobley believes she’s fortunate to begin her practice at Provident OB/GYN Associates, which offers comprehensive obstetrics and gynecology services through a network of offices in Okatie, South Carolina, Richmond Hill, Rincon, Savannah and the Pooler office at 101 West Mulberry Boulevard, across from Cheddars on Benton Boulevard. The new location provides convenience for residents of both Pooler and West Chatham, eliminating the need to spend time in traffic driving into Savannah.

“I love southeast Georgia and am grateful I will be able to continue my career in such a beautiful area with such great patients,” she said.

www.PoolerMagazine.com | July/August 2015

49

J

ulie Hales is the owner and publisher of this magazine.

She is our leader. She is the woman who has the final say over our pens and photographs.

Passion and hard work combined, the person we at the magazine find Julie to be, is a determined woman not afraid to get her hands dirty. Julie is energetic and extremely hardworking.

However, those things having been said, she is also funny and charming and a pleasure to have as our publisher because she truly cares and is eminently fair.

Classically, Julie fell in love with journalism in high school when she was on the newspaper staff at Effingham County High School. She served as the Sports Editor her senior year, writing several award winning articles. That experience paved the way for launching herself into the world of publishing.

After graduating from high school, Julie attended Armstrong State College in Savannah. After five semesters, Julie sought greener pastures. With her ingrained self-assurance and enterprising quest to do what she loved, Julie left college for a job that promised to quench her appetite for print she had been missing.

For the next thirteen years, she worked for a manufacturing company in Savannah. There, her tasks were many; she began by writing instruction manuals for the equipment they manufactured. She handled the layout for the books, brochures and marketing pieces. She even ran an offset press since the company did their printing in house. Eventually, inside sales of the equipment was added to her list of duties, and later a promotion to office manager was awarded. Little did Julie know at the time, sales would become her next passion.

In 1996, Julie found the perfect opportunity to forge her two passions. She went to work for the Effingham Herald, owned by Morris Newspaper Corporation. She started out as an advertising sales rep and was later promoted to Advertising Manager, and then to Advertising Director.

Morris Newspaper Corporation is a mogul in the print industry who owned over 150 publications in the United States and the Ca-

50 July/August 2015 | www.PoolerMagazine.com

ribbean during Julie’s tenure with them. MNC held annual sales competitions. Julie says, “I was very fortunate to be a success in the newspaper business. In the last six of my ten years with MNC, I won their National Sales Title. In 2004, I was named Georgia Press Association Salesperson of the Year. In 2005, I was the first inductee into the Morris Newspaper Corporation Advertising Hall of Fame” Julie sits back and chuckles as she adds, “And in 2006, I quit!”

In March of 2006, Julie started her own publishing company, Independence Day Publishing, Inc. She has been asked many times, “Why Independence Day Publishing?” Julie’s face lights up and a big grin appears as she answers, “The name of the business just spoke for who I was and what I believed in at the time, my independence from corporate America. And, my desire to be able to publish positive community features.”

Effingham Magazine launched in November of 2006, in the community where Julie was raised. Her second publication, Pooler Magazine, followed immediately in December of 2006. Not slowing down to breathe, her third publication, Richmond Hill Magazine, started one month later, in January of 2007. When asked why three magazines in three months, she laughs and says, “Call me crazy!”

Three years later, Julie took on yet another challenge. She began her fourth publication, and did it in another state. Beaufort Lifestyle launched in October of 2009.

Recently, in March of this year, Chatham Isles Living was launched. This magazine covers Talahi, Oatland, Whitemarsh, Wilmington and Tybee islands.

As Julie looks ahead to the future of Pooler Magazine, she knows there are many changes to come. That is just the nature of the business. But, she knows one change she will never make.

“This magazine will always stay community minded…..that is the mold we have made for this company. Each of our publications run on that same basis…..and Pooler Magazine will be no different, “ Julie states.

E

ven after nearly three decades in the area real estate business, ERA Southcoast Associate Broker Judy Nease Ganem loves her job. And that, Ganem says, is what sets her apart and makes her the right choice for prospective homebuyers.

“I love assisting people in the purchase of their home or finding the right spot to start the business they have dreamed of,” Ganem said. “I truly do love my job and am willing to go the extra mile to make dreams come true.”

Ganem has spent 28 years in traditional and new home sales in Chatham, Effingham and Bryan counties. She’s got a wall full of industry awards and is a multiple winner of the Savannah Board of REALTORS Realtor of the Year, and has every relevant designation a Realtor can earn.

At the same time, Ganem is a wife, a mother and a grandmother. She’s married to her husband Paul and they have two daughters, Darla Nease Hammond and Kristin Nease Goodwin, and three “wonderful” grandchildren, Hunter, Abigail and Matthew, and sons-in-law Mike and Joel.

That’s important, because it gives Ganem insight into what makes a house a home, and people a family. It helps her relate to her clients. And it helps her adapt to the needs of homebuyers who can’t always do things on a 9-to-5 schedule.

“My kids laugh at me sometimes because I told them I was going to get into real estate sales so I would have a flexible schedule,” Ganem said. “That’s not always the case. It is unusual hours, but it can be flexible. Most clients are willing to adjust appoints when you need to, and we do the same to them.”

As a result, Ganem works when her clients need her. “Lots of people can only look on weekends. And I am available by email, text or phone,” she said. “It’s important to try and work with client’s schedules. We’re not a 9-to-5, Monday through Friday society anymore.”

What’s more Ganem’s able to use the latest tools of the trade to help people find the right location for their home, then find the right home to suit their needs. It goes hand in hand with her 28 years of experience in the real estate industry, nine in new home sales, to give prospective buyers something few other agents can

offer.

ERA Southcoast Real Estate has offices in Savannah, Rincon, Richmond Hill, Hinesville and Vidalia, which means no matter where in the Coastal Empire and South Georgia you’re looking, Ganem can help you find your perfect home.

“Choosing the right agent in these critical and changing times is important,” she said. “With my experience, coupled with the tools provided through the ERA Global Network, I can help make your real estate dreams a reality!”

Ganem’s office is located at 10500 Abercorn Street, Suite I, Savannah, GA, 31419 and is open seven days a week to better serve clients. Her office phone is 912-927-1088, her direct line is 912-596-8113 and her email is jganem5@comcast.net

www.PoolerMagazine.com | July/August 2015

51

E

NT Associates of Savannah has been serving the otolaryngology needs of Savannah and its surrounding areas since Dr. Zoller started the practice in 1977. In the 38 years of the practice, we have been fortunate to treat generations of families. Our practice has expanded over the years and we now provide convenient services in our two Savannah offices, Richmond Hill, Rincon, Statesboro, Bluffton, SC and are proud of our new office in Pooler. It’s larger than our previous Pooler Office and conveniently located in the Godley Station Professional Park at 1000 Towne Center Boulevard.

We offer comprehensive medical and surgical treatment for problems of the ear, nose, and throat, including sinusitis and allergies, hearing loss and ear disease, thyroid and parathyroid disease, sleep apnea, and pediatric ENT conditions. Several procedures, including balloon sinuplasty, CT Imaging, and thyroid ultrasound, are performed as an in-office procedure. Our board certified doctors are privileged at all three area hospitals, as well as in our accredited surgical center on Abercorn Street. Our surgical center is a cost effective and convenient option for many out-patient surgeries.

Audiology and Hearing Aid Services is an integral part of our hearing health care team and was founded in 1984. Our four board certified doctors of audiology use the latest technology to provide a variety of services for hearing loss, tinnitus, and dizziness in most office locations, including The Landings office in Savannah.

52 July/August 2015 | www.PoolerMagazine.com

Please call to make your appointment.

We look forward to meeting you.

ENT Associates of Savannah 912-351-3030 • www.entsavannah.com Audiology and Hearing Aid Services 912-351-3038 • www.ahassavannah.com

B

y any measure, Lorenzo and Marilyn McDonald have impressive individual

resumes.

After a successful sales career with a national company that suddenly ended in 2001, Lorenzo has spent the last 14 years in real estate and has won just about every accolade in the book, including national top five rankings in both 2012 and 2012 from the National Association of Home Builders’ National Sales and Marketing Council. Marilyn served in the military during Desert Storm -- she’s a disabled veteran -- went on to earn her degree at Armstrong Atlantic State University, then got into education and ulimately rose to the rank of principal in the Savannah-Chatham County School System.

Now, this husband-and-wife team have teamed up to form what they’re calling The American Dream Team of Rawls Realty, serving fast-growing Pooler and the greater Savannah area. They want to help not only homebuyers in the market now, but those who’re looking at finding a home down the road. It takes a high level of professionalism, but also sensitivity and experience.

“We’re from Savannah and we’ve lived in Pooler since 2001,” Lorenzo said. “And one thing about being from here, and living here, and always having been a part of this area, is that we understand it. We understand the market, we know what’s going on in the market. But what we do isn’t just about selling someone a home. It’s about educating buyers on the process. We believe Realtors should be more than just Realtors. We’re not sales people selling a product, we’re trying to find ways to help people realize a dream.”

Back to the resumes for a moment. After starting as an agent with Fred WIlliams Homebuilder, Inc., in 2001, Lorenzo became a licensed Realtor in Georgia in 2006 and is an NAHB Certified New Home Sales Specialist. He belongs to the National Association of Realtors, the Georgia Association of Realtors, the NAHB and Savannah Area Realtors. He’s been a member of SAR’s Distinguished Sales Society. Accolades include being a seven-time Sale’s Person of the Year for Fred Williams’ New Home Sales, Inc., the Home Builder Association of Greater Savannah’s 2009 Sales Person of the Year and its runner up in 2010 and the only local Realtor in Savannah to earn national top five status from the NAHB -- something Lorenzo has done twice.

He credits much of that success to Williams, whom he considers a mentor and “one of the smartest people I know,” and Bishop James Rodges of Jonesville Baptist Church.

But again, that’s only half the story.

Marilyn began her real estate career in 2013 with Keller Williams Realty Westside, Coastal Area Partners and in less than two years has become one of the area’s up-and-coming real estate agents and a member of Rawls Realty.

It’s followed her realizing her first dream job, which was to become a principal. Marilyn spent 16 months as principal at Shuman Elementary and helped the school make gains across the board. Yet it’s a position she reluctantly gave up at the instistence of Lorenzo after they realized the endless stream of 12-16 hour days were negatively impacting her health.

Marilyn still has plans of starting her own school, not hard to believe for a woman who started in education as a teacher in elementary and middle school and then, after more than 7 years in the classroom got into administration. Before taking over Shuman Elementary, she served as an assistant principal at Hesse K-8, Garrison School of Visual and Performing Arts, Georgetown K-8, May Howard Elementary and Garrison Elementary, and Marilyn has advanced degrees and endorsements from both Armstrong and Nova Southeastern.

And, she too is a member of NAR, GAR, SAR and the National Association of Real Estate Brokers. And she, too, is serious about this partnership between she and her husband which will, they believe, help others reach dreams of their own through what the McDonald’s call a “tailored experience” for each potential homebuyer.

“In education we talk a lot about ‘each one teach one,’” Marilyn said. “With us, as a team, we’re all about educating home buyers and home sellers, so in the end they should come out of the process knowing more than they did when they began it, and it’s our hope they’ll then be able to teach someone else.”

Whether it’s helping first-time buyers or pervious home owners looking to buy new construction, pre-owned homes or foreclosures, or home sellers, the American Dream Team can help through every step of the process. You can reach Lorenzo at 912596-8803 and Marilyn at 912-272-2492.

www.PoolerMagazine.com | July/August 2015

53

THE KEY TO YOUR LENDING NEEDS

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