Profile 2024

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WEDNESDAY,

FEBRUARY

28,

2024

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THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE BAINBRIDGE THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE BAINBRIDGE

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This year, The Post-Searchlight went with the theme "There's No Place Like Home" for our annual profile edition.

Follow us through Bainbridge for stories of exemplary brains, heart, and courage. We hope you will enjoy these stories and get to know some of the remarkable individuals in our community.

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Sydnee Burke Local Sydnee Burke studies at Mercer University’s School of Medicine, hoping to provide healthcare to the underserved counties of rural Georgia.

Matthew Hilliard Matthew Hilliard, a chemical engineer at Danimer Scientific, seeks to be challenged, looking to refine the company’s production.

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Doctor-to-be: Sydnee Burke’s goal to bring healthcare to rural GA

BY ETHAN REDDISH News Editor There are few other professions as noble, or as demanding, as that of a doctor.

Helping the sick naturally requires both a strong mind and drive, both for the nature of the work, as well as the years of studying necessary for it.

Local Sydnee Burke possesses both, as she is currently pursuing a career in medicine, specifically rural healthcare, at Mercer University. Having grown up in rural Georgia, Burke said, “I have seen firsthand the need for rural physicians through the lens of a patient and as a student shadowing providers in rural areas.”

Burke always had a desire to both help, as well as teach, people in her community.

“When I was very young, if you had asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would have told you a teacher just like my mom,” she said. “I admired her deeply for her drive to help others learn and succeed and for her dedication to being an educator. Though I decided I did not want to be a teacher in the classroom, I felt I was instead called to be an educator in clinics and hospitals, giving back to my community by caring for the people within it.”

Burke would go on to shadow physicians in college, solidifying this as her career path, with a focus on family medicine and obstetrics/gynecology.

“Family medicine appeals to me because I believe in the importance of providing comprehensive, multi-generational care while also developing long-term relationships with patients and their families,” she stated. “However, with that being said I am also extremely passionate about women’s health,” she added, stating she wanted to provide “evidence-based care” to women from prenatal care to childbirth, as well as focusing on general reproductive health.

Whether family medicine or ob/gyn will be her practice is still up in the air at the moment: “The decision of which specialty

I choose to practice will become clearer to me during my third year of medical school when I begin clinical rotations.”

Touching back on her desire to serve rural Georgia, Burke discussed how underserved many rural communities are, with nine counties lacking any physician at all, and many more lacking certain kinds, such as pediatricians or ob/gyn.

“Beyond the lack of physicians, rural areas of Georgia are also home to higher rates of chronic disease, limited access to healthcare facilities, poverty, limited health education, and uninsured individuals,” she said. “As someone attending a medical school that strives to produce more primary care physicians that will return to serve the numerous rural areas of Georgia, I am learning how best to be an advocate for patients from rural areas while also learning how I can become the most attentive rural physician I can be.”

Burke recently received the Nathan Deal scholarship, a highly selective scholarship that focuses on those with “deep ties to rural Georgia”, as well as those that may serve underserved areas. In fact, that’s a requirement of the scholarship; in exchange for covering tuition to Mercer University’s School of Medicine, scholarship recipients are expected to return to a rural county in Georgia and practice primary care for at least four years.

Burke is currently just in her first year of medical school, with three left, followed by three to four years in a residency program.

“Though I still have a long road ahead of me, I have been enjoying every minute of school and look forward to the years ahead,” she said. “I am truly grateful to Bainbridge and my family for their unwavering support throughout my journey. It brings me so much comfort to know that no matter how difficult my journey in medicine will be, I will always have a community that supports me and believes in me.”

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Looking for a challenge: Matthew Hilliard works hard to refine and improve at Danimer Scientific

BY ETHAN REDDISH News Editor Bainbridge is home to several large manufacturing businesses most residents know by name; A-1 Industries and Taurus being some of the foremost. Another business most are well aware of is Danimer Scientific. Originally founded in Bainbridge in 2004, the company’s main claim to fame is its work in bioplastics, touting its PHA biopolymer used in biodegradable products. With the seemingly ever-growing push for more environmentally friendly products, Danimer’s polymers have been the subject of some industry hype. The processes necessary for manufacturing these materials require skilled chemical engineers to produce them.

Matthew Hilliard is one of these chemical engineers, managing Danimer’s commercial demonstration plant.

“I wanted to be an engineer from a pretty early age,” Hilliard said. “I’d say middle school to high school, I kind of had the seed planted.” He stated that he enjoys being challenged, with chemistry being the most challenging course he had in high school.

“When I was in high school I was like, ‘I wanna be a chemical engineer,’” he recalled. “Like I said, I didn’t really know exactly what chemical engineers did at the time, but it was something that I wanted to do.”

Originally from Pelham, Georgia, Hilliard attended Georgia College in Milledgville, where his love of math and science ultimately led to him graduating with three Bachelor’s degrees, those being chemistry, math and physics.

After graduating from Georgia College, he would go on to acquire a PHD from Auburn University. His dissertation was focused on biofuels, before shifting his postdoctoral research to methane recovery. It was this work that would lead Hilliard, who had never heard of Danimer before, to the company.

“One of the byproducts was a bioplastic,

or a biopolymer,” he said, “and through that research and through that work, became familiar with what Danimer was doing.” Hilliard would join Danimer in 2021.

“I was very excited to hear about opportunities at Danimer,” he said. “I also am very excited about the product that we make, it’s something that I have a passion for.”

Danimer’s production process revolves around fermenting and extracting the fat byproduct (PHA) from bacteria that have been fed canola oil. This biopolymer is then used in the production of biodegradable products.

“What I do specifically at Danimer, here in Bainbridge we’re the R&D facility,” Hilliard said, “again, process optimization, process design. I actually manage a team of engineers and technicians that run fermentation processes, as well as what we call ‘downstream processes’, which is where we actually isolate and purify the PHA.” The whole process takes roughly seven days to complete. Hilliard’s role in process optimization involves developing new processes to reduce the cost of production, while also making the product “more consistent and cleaner”.

“I think it’s a very exciting time for Danimer, but also for Bainbridge,” Hilliard said. “Growing up here and coming to Bainbridge quite a bit, we always enjoyed coming to Bainbridge, but it was kind of like most South Georgia rural towns. But now that we’re seeing a lot of exciting movement, with Taurus coming…

Danimer growing and expanding and having a headquarters here, I think it’s really exciting. I think there’s a lot coming in the near future to be excited about.”

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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2024 • 7

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Dee Humphry Dee Humphry uses his own experience with addiction to help people in the Bainbridge community fight theirs.

Johnny Payne Johnny Payne has spent decades working with children, ultimately leading to his ministry at the Bainbridge Friendship House.

Viviana Cooper Viviana Cooper dedicates her time to Operation Christmas Child, motivated by her own experience of receiving a box when she was a child.

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Dee Humphrey: Helping Bainbridge beat dependency

BY NOAH WATSON Sports Writer

When Dee Humphrey drank his first beer at 15 years old, he had no idea it would lead him to rock bottom. He didn’t know his first hit of marijuana would evolve into harder drugs and, eventually, a drug addiction he struggled to shake.

But, without those hardships, he would have never given his life to Christ and put himself in a position to change lives.

Humphrey leads the Celebrate Recovery (CR) ministry at Southwest Baptist church. CR is a faith-based addiction recovery program that assists people with dependencies of all kinds to stay clean.

“God never meant for us to be bound up in addiction,” Humphrey said. “He never meant for us to be lost and undone, and, you know, feeling unwanted, not loved.

That’s one of the things we try to do here is love on people, encourage people, and we try to help people understand that it’s ok to love yourself.”

More than 100 people struggling with addictions (CR uses the term “dependencies”) fill Southwest Baptist Church every Tuesday night. They come for CR and to surround themselves with a community of people who are going through the same things as they are.

The ministry deals with all kinds of dependencies: drugs, alcohol, sex, gambling, food, financial, depression, etc. The ministry is judgment-free, and Humphrey said he welcomes everyone with open arms.

“That’s what God’s called me to do,” Humphrey said. “I know that’s why I’m here.”

Humphrey brought CR to Bainbridge in 2006 with his wife, sister, and brother-inlaw. He chose to start it after getting clean of his own addiction.

Humphrey struggled with a 9-year drug addiction. He said it started when he drank his first beer in high school.

He began using marijuana and then graduated to harder, party drugs in college. His recreational drug use turned into an addiction, and at 26 years old, Humphrey hit rock bottom.

“I was married, and I finally figured it out,” Humphry said. “My wife was like, ‘I’m done. I’m not staying here. You can’t keep a job. This is horrible.’”

That moment spurred Humphrey to make a change. He put himself into a drug addiction treatment program at Greenleaf

Behavioral Health Hospital in Valdosta, GA. The program lasted 30 days, and Humphrey knew he needed more help.

He went to a treatment facility in Tallahassee, then to Penfield Christian Homes in Union Point, GA. He got to the faith-based rehab center in August of 2006, and it was at Penfield that Humphrey realized he could overcome his addiction.

“I had a salvation experience there,” Humphrey said. “When I went to Penfield, I gave my life to the Lord… That was the push for me. I surrendered my life to the Lord started getting serious about reading the Bible, daily devotion, prayer. I started getting serious about truly who God was, and little things started changing.”

Humphrey graduated from Penfield two months later in October, and moved back to Bainbridge, where he had lived before.

“Coming back home,” Humphrey said.

“That process of like, not feeling safe here almost, I had to figure out, I was like, ‘I’ve got to create a group. I need a place I can go where I can feel safe, not judged, where I can talk to other people like-minded.’

That’s when we started CR.” The ministry started at Fellowship Baptist Church In October 2006. Lisa Reyes, a member of the church, attended CR at Fellowship. She went on behalf of her husband at the time, who was struggling with addiction.

Humphrey, through the program, worked with her and was able to help get her husband clean and stay clean for at least 10 years until they eventually split.

Reyes said she hopes he’s still clean but could not say if he is or not.

“I feel like [Humphrey] is my brother,” Reyes said. “He has been there and watched what has went on in my life from day one, and he’s always been encouraging… he’s been there financially if I needed something, you know, at my low point. He’s seen me go through my divorce. He’s just been there for whatever.”

Reyes has stayed involved with the ministry since then and now leads a small group and is a part of the worship band.

Humphrey moved CR to Southwest Baptist in the mid-late 2010s. Current CR member Linda Duran-Moulton said she “stumbled” into the ministry in 2019 when she was struggling with alcohol and drug dependencies.

Duran-Moulton said Humphrey has been a defining factor in her journey to stay clean. She has relapsed while in CR but said Humphrey has never stopped

supporting her.

“When I didn’t know if God was going to put the pieces back together, I leaned on [Humphrey’s] faith,” Duran Moulton said. “He never gave up. Anytime I would go in there and pick up another blue chip, and blue chips are symbolic of relapse or starting over, he would just applaud and be happy and praise God with a big smile on his face- like, you know, just like God would do.”

Bainbridge resident Trenton Jackson had been through a nearly 10-year battle with addiction before finding Humphrey and CR in 2022. Jackson’s dependency started with drugs when he was 15. In two years, he had gotten hooked on hard drugs and almost lost his life multiple times. At 17, he went into a drug-induced psychosis wandering the streets of Augusta, GA, shirtless with a bible in his hands.

He went to a crisis center after that incident to attempt to get clean. He then joined the Army, where he relapsed. He left the army after a few years and lived homeless in North Georgia.

“I ended up living in a tent in the mountains up in Jasper and Ellijay,” Jackson said. “I did that for about six

months, living in a tent, and finally decided I was done talking to myself in the tent and doing all that crazy stuff.”

Jackson worked a job until he made enough money to put a down payment on a car. He then drove down to South Georgia, where he spent two years at a halfway house before moving to Bainbridge. A mutual friend of his and Humphrey’s connected the two, and Jackson was at the very next CR meeting.

“They put me in contact with Dee,” Jackson said. “He was like, ‘Look, I’m going to be here, CR is Tuesday night at 7 o’clock, I expect to see you.’ they put that accountability in my life as soon as I got here.”

Humphrey appointed Jackson to a small group leader role after he joined. Jackson said Humphrey was a role model for him.

“I heard that he was a very Godly man and that he strives for righteousness,” Jackson said. “He lived up to that expectation… The CR here in Bainbridge has really set my path in motion. Because, I mean, I was going to church still before I came here, and I really enjoyed the presence of the Lord, but I never strived for what the Lord wanted for me.”

Dee Humphrey- Provided Photo

DEPENDENT TO ASSISTANT: Dee Humphrey battled a 9-year drug dependency before starting Celebrate Recovery in 2006

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“A phenomenal program”: Johnny Payne’s ministry with the Friendship House of Jesus

BY ETHAN REDDISH News Editor Giving up one’s time, to the point of dedicating year’s of one’s life, to serve their community requires a good deal of heart. It takes true passion to give so much of oneself to others. One organization in Bainbridge where one gives their time back to help the community is the Friendship House of Jesus. Having been founded in 1996, the Friendship House provides after-school ministry services to the local youth.

Johnny Payne, the current program director at the Friendship House, has always had a heart to serve his community, especially kids.

“I’ve been dealing with kids for the last 30 years,” he said. Payne has previously worked at other similar groups and schools in Vidalia, Baxley and Tallahassee; while he was working in Tallahassee, he lived in Bainbridge. It was then that he became aware of the Friendship House, as he met Josh Paske, the organization’s current

development director.

“I ran into Josh Paske, and he and I connected,” Payne said. “I saw this building actually being constructed, didn’t know what it was about, and I started inquiring.”

With a degree in music, Payne uses this as part of his ministry at Friendship House.

“I use music as a tool to teach them scripture,” he said. “Any scripture that we learn, I create songs regarding that scripture and they learn the songs, so they learn the scripture.”

The Friendship House even has a small recording studio present, with which they’ve recorded a couple of CDs of Payne’s Scripture-based music.

Payne often finds himself with quite the crowd as well, with anywhere between 110 to 120 kids at the Friendship House on a daily basis. This is a rebounding numbers after the COVID pandemic, during which time attendance was as low as just 25 kids. The program is not just limited to after school either, also offering a summer

program, complete with beach trips for the kids.

When asked, Payne described his ministry here as “phenomenal.”

“I’ve been here about 15 years, and I know the lives of the kids that we’ve touched has just been super-transforming,” he said. “Not only do we get the opportunity to impart God’s word into the kid’s lives, but as a result, we can touch the parents as well. The kids are taking what we teach them home, and it’s reverberating in the home.”

Payne hasn’t forgotten many of the kids that have come and gone through the Friendship House over the years. “We get kids who, some… they kind of make bad choices. But on the other hand, you get kids who will come through this program who have excelled, kids who’ve gotten their Bachelor’s Degree, Master’s Degree, even Doctorate Degree.”

The children likewise haven’t forgotten Payne, and have returned the kindness shown on occasion. One particular instance came after Payne was

hospitalized from a motorcycle accident.

“I broke ten ribs. Naturally, my degree’s in music, so I bruised my lungs extremely bad… hard for me to breathe, hard for me to talk, hard for me to sing,” he said. “But the love that I was shown form the kids, that was motivation for me to keep living, to keep moving… to try to sing again, to try to play again.”

Despite the dedication Payne shows to his ministry at the Friendship House, he feels the program may go overlooked by the community.

“Surprisingly, as long as this program has been here in this city, a lot of people don’t even know it exists,” he said. “I would encourage individuals to come visit. Come visit, see what’s happening here, see the possible impact you could make by partnering with us.”

“It’s a phenomenal program, it’s impacting kids,” Payne said in conclusion.

“We’re strengthening broken families through God’s Word, and the kids are a vital part of that.”

13 • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2024

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Viviana Cooper: Operation Christmas Child comes full circle

BY NOAH WATSON Sports Writer

In the border town of Nuevo Loredo, Mexico, a 10-year-old Viviana Cooper watched two vans pull into the parking lot of her church. They parked, and the passengers hopped out and walked to the double-door trunks at the back of the vehicles.

“They opened the back doors of the vans,” Cooper said. “It was full of gifts.

Like, I had never seen so many gifts together in my whole life.”

They brought Cooper and a group of children from her town into the church and gave each child a box.

“They had a countdown,” Cooper said. “‘One. Two. Three.’ And everyone started opening their boxes. It was just so much joy.”

Toys, school supplies and personal care items filled the boxes, and each box was made for each child. It was the late 1980s or early 1990s, a few years before 1993 when Operation Christmas Child began.

“When I got my box, it was not Operation Christmas Child,” Cooper said.

“But it was at the beginning of [Operation Christmas Child], because, back then,

it was like different churches would get boxes together to send out.”

Operation Christmas Child is a ministry that sends boxes of gifts to children in impoverished and underdeveloped countries around the world. Fast forward 30 years, and Cooper now leads an Operation Christmas Child ministry at Grace Church in Bainbridge.

“I know exactly how it feels to get a box,” Cooper said. “And to be in some part of the world where you think nobody cares about you, and then, all of a sudden, you get a gift from a complete stranger, and you feel, like, that God cares about you… It gives joy to my heart that I’m impacting other children’s lives, and that they get to know about Jesus, and that they get to know about how God loves them.”

Every October, Cooper starts campaigning for the ministry to Grace Church. “Buyers” spend the month purchasing supplies they need to fill boxes for boys and girls aged 2-14. Volunteers gather for a “Packing Party” on the second Sunday in November, where they pack each box with supplies and get them ready to be delivered worldwide.

In 2023, Grace Church packed more than 2000 boxes in less than an hour at its

Vivana Cooper- Provided Photo

COOPER PACKERS: Viviana and her family were of the near 100 volunteers at the 2023 Packing Party. Pictured (left to right): Gia Cooper, Gynelle Cooper,Viviana Cooper,Tony Cooper, Joshua Cooper, Jonathan Cooper

Packing Party.

“It’s hard not to [get emotional],” Cooper said about being at the packing parties. “We put together all these boxes, and then you just think about the fact that every single box represents a child, someone around the world that is going to get these toys that you are touching, that you are putting in the box.”

Cooper said her experience of receiving a box as a child motivates her to lead the ministry today.

“Many, many, many kids in the world have never heard the words ‘I love you,’” Cooper said. “This is a tangible way they can hear ‘I love you…’ There’s so much darkness in the world, this is the first time they feel actual love.”

Viviana Cooper- Provided Photo

BAINBRIDGE BOXES: Viviana and her Packing Party crew filled more than 2000 Operation Christmas Child boxes in less than an hour at the 2023 event

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Cloud Kirbo When Cloud Kirbo was diagnosed with Krabbe disease, he and his family would need not just courage, but support from the community, for the fight ahead.

Ja’Mauri Williams Ja’Mauri Williams was born without hands, but he hasn’t let that stop him from living his life to the fullest.

Brian Klementowich Brian Klementowich fought a 12 year battle with drug addiciton. Now, he’s seven years clean and manages one of Bainbridge’s biggest industrial plants.

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Faced with the odds: The Kirbo family’s battle with disease, and the community that helped

BY ETHAN REDDISH News Editor There are many situations one can face that require courage to overcome, many imposing and sometimes life-threatening challenges that some are unfortunate enough to have to face. Disease is one such challenge, and one Sloane and Carlyle Kirbo became all too familiar with, when their son Cloud was diagnosed with Krabbe disease in 2019.

Krabbe disease, an inherited genetic disorder, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, involves “harmful amounts of lipids (fatty materials such as oils and waxes) build up in various cells and tissues in the body and destroy brain cells.” The disease can have an onset as early as infancy, but may go undetected and only set in at a later age. Cloud was one of these late-onset cases.

“His was late-onset, so for the first three years, totally normal, met all milestones, he was totally okay,” Sloane said. “The problem is, the sooner it gets caught and you get transplanted, the better.”

Cloud unfortunately found his sight, motor and speech skills severely impacted by the disease. After seeking counsel from several doctors and professionals on this rare condition, the Kirbos realized Cloud would need a stem cell transplant.

While there is currently no cure for Krabbe disease, this transplant is the most effective treatment for halting its progression.

“Basically they wiped away his immune system,” Carlyle said, “‘killed as many cells as they could, so it wouldn’t reject the new cells.”

However, Krabbe disease was not the only problem the family had to be afraid of. Unsurprisingly, the treatments Cloud received were incredibly expensive, costing roughly $700,000 total.

Fortunately, this was not a problem they would have to face alone. The couple made efforts to raise the money needed, and the Bainbridge community rallied to help them. Donated proceeds from Uncle Bill’s Pizza, barbecue plate sales, and even a coyote hunt were just some of the ways the community sought to raise the necessary funds.

Cloud would ultimately receive his transplant in September of 2019, with the family traveling to Pittsburgh for the operation. All the while, signs reading “Pray for Cloud” went up around Bainbridge.

“We flew home,” Sloane recalled, “and my father-in-law picked us up from the airport, and he drove all throughout downtown, and everybody’s yards were full of Cloud’s signs… and we missed all of that. We had all the stuff on Facebook, we had all of our parents and family updating us, but to come home and see all of that, it still gives me goosebumps.” She added, “You can’t appreciate it until you see it.”

The family made it back to Bainbridge just before the COVID pandemic and ensuing shut-down, and have been very cautious since then about potentially exposing Cloud to anything.

Cloud, now seven years old, is homeschooled, and regularly visits Cairo for physical and speech therapy, and according to Sloan, enjoys his time with the therapists. “He loves those people, and they love him. They have such a special relationship,” she said.

Despite the harsh hand Cloud was dealt by the disease, he doesn’t let it get to him.

“He’s never complained, he’s never asked why,” Carlyle said. “It’s amazing, he’s been so brave with it all.”

The family is now hoping to enter Cloud into a clinical trial involving a shortened form of chemotherapy, as well as gene therapy.

“They’ve had some really positive results,” Carlyle said, “where kids have made a drastic improvement.”

“While it’s not a cure,” Sloane added, “we’re hoping that it’s a bridge to that.”

What the Kirbo family went through is something that takes tremendous fortitude and courage, as well as support, the latter of which they received in spades from the community.

“I think that if there was a way for us to properly thank everybody, we would,” Sloane said, “but there’s no way we could thank everybody who did stuff for us… But if there’s one thing we could say to them, we would say ‘Thank you’, we appreciate them… because honestly, without this community, we wouldn’t have this extra time with him that we do.”

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Ja’Mauri Williams: Living life through limitaitons

BY NOAH WATSON Sports Writer Bainbridge High School senior Ja’Mauri Williams is like any other high school student. He drives to school, does his work, participates in athletics and plays video games with his friends in his free time. The only difference: Williams was born without hands.

Despite his disability — which will be referred to as his “difference” in this piece — Williams leads a life almost identically to anyone with hands.

“People say disabled, but I just say born different,” said Colby Williams, Ja’Mauri’s mother.

Ja’Mauri suffered from Amniotic Band Syndrome, a fetal condition that prevents development, in his mother’s womb.

Fibrous strands of the amniotic sac (the lining inside the uterus that contains a fetus) got tangled around Ja’Mauri’s arms during development, restricting them and disrupting their growth.

His arms developed to about his elbows before Amniotic Band Syndrome set in, leaving deformed bone and tissue in place of where his forearms and hands would have grown.

“If I could give him something,” Colby said. “I would give him my hands. If I could give him my arms, I would give him that.”

Once he was born, Colby was told Ja’Mauri would need assistance his entire life and that living with his difference would be incredibly difficult. She said that

hasn’t been the case, and Ja’Mauri proved it early on.

“Everybody talked about how he wasn’t going to be able to do this and how he wasn’t going to be able to do that and how he would need my help for the rest of his life,” Colby said. “He don’t need my help…

He has always been independent, he started everything early. He held his bottle at, like, four months.”

Ja’Mauri wasn’t treated differently growing up. Colby said she wasn’t recommended any physical therapy or special assistance for her son, and she raised him like she would any other child.

“If you start treating a child handicapped, they’re going to be handicapped,” Colby said. “We just didn’t treat him no different.”

Growing up with his difference was difficult, but Ja’Mauri said he’s learned independence through his equal treatment.

“At first, it was hard for me,” Ja’Mauri said. “But ain’t nobody going to be here for me my entire life, so I’ve got to figure out how to do everything.”

Ja’Mauri has found a way to adapt to things he needs and wants to do. He can do routine things such as tying his shoes and getting ready in the morning, but he also drives his own car and plays sports. He got the opportunity to play basketball for the Bainbridge Bearcats this year.

Ja’Mauri has been a manager in the Bainbridge basketball program since 7th grade. He dressed out for a few games last year to participate in warmups, but never

got any playing time. This year, Bearcats’ head coach Kelvin Cochran said it was time for Ja’Mauri to see the court.

“In games that we’re winning, I try to get him in,” Cochran said. “But I hold him to the same standards as everyone else. In practice, if he messes up, he gets the same punishment.”

Cochran said he is personally inspired

by Ja’Mauri. Cochran lost his right eye playing “rock baseball” when he was a teenager, and said watching Ja’Mauri motivates him to push through his disability.

“He’s an inspiration to me,” Cochran said. “When I look at what [Ja’Mauri] does on a daily basis… I can’t even look at my situation, like, with [Ja’Mauri], you can’t help but be inspired by this man.”

Ja’Mauri got into a handful of games this year, and made one of his favorite memories from the season in an away game against Colquitt County.

Cochran got Ja’Mauri on the court late in the fourth quarter against the Packers.

The Bearcats played funnel offense to get the ball to him and to put as many shots up as he could before the final buzzer.

With just seconds left in the game, Ja’Mauri got his chance. A Bearcat player grabbed an offensive rebound and passed the ball to Ja’Mauri near half-court. He caught the pass, took one dribble, and heaved a shot from the logo. The ball soared through the air, and then — Swish.

“Before he passed me the ball, I looked at the clock, it was like 13 seconds left,” Ja’Mauri said. I was waving my hands, waving my hands. He threw me the ball, and I just threw it up. I didn’t know if it was going in, I just threw it up, I had to get one more off. It went in, and I told him like, ‘I do this man.’”

Someone in the crowd recorded a video of the shot and posted it online. The video went viral, and Instagram account @ Overtime — which has over 10 million followers — reposted it on the platform.

The video has amassed more than 400 thousand likes as of Feb 24th, 2024.

“It feels great,” Ja’Mauri said about going viral. “That’s God, man. I just feel good about it. Gotta keep going, though.”

The Basketball season is over now, and Ja’Mauri looks towards running track in the spring and graduation after that. He plans to attend college and study to be a physical trainer. Colby said the thought of sending him off to college is bittersweet.

“I’m pretty sure everybody’s terrified when their child leaves home,” Colby said.

“I just want him to get the experience, and know that it ain’t easy out here.”

Looking back, Colby said she’s most proud of the man Ja’Mauri has become.

“There are so many other kids that are out here, loose, running wild,” Colby said.

“My child ain’t ever been locked up. My child ain’t got no record of nothing. No disciplinary problems, nothing. With or without arms or hands or however you want to put it… I got a good boy, my boy did damn good.”

Brian Klementowich: From rock bottom to the top of the mountain

BY NOAH WATSON Sports Writer Twelve years ago, Brian Klementowich was brought to his knees by drug addiction, sitting in a jail cell, arrested for illegally possessing a bottle of prescription medication.

Now, he lives seven years clean of addiction and assumes the Production Supervisor / Plant Manager role at the Bainbridge A-1 Industries plant.

“People talk about, ‘How do you measure success? Is it the man that has everything,’” Klementowich said. “Well, if it’s measured in distance, I got quite a lot of people beat.”

Klementowich’s addiction started 19 years ago in the Marine Corps when he was 17. Klementowich did well early and was Meritoriously promoted after Boot Camp and Combat Training, reaching a Lance Corporal distinction. But he got involved with drugs soon after Combat Training and was eventually separated from the Military.

He moved back home with his family in Jacksonville, North Carolina, and spent a handful of years trying to “find his way,” bouncing from job to job until he was arrested in 2012.

“I got caught with a bottle of pills that I wasn’t supposed to have,” Klementowich said. “I wound up in prison for two and a half years.”

He was forced to stay clean in prison, and said he learned a lot about respect and patience there. But prison didn’t cure his addiction, and Klementowich’s situation plummeted when he got out in 2014.

“I did go back to drugs, and I actually went to harder drugs,” Klementowich said. “It got really bad… homelessness, heroin addiction, all of that, and I just got to the point where I couldn’t live that way no more. They call that rock bottom.”

That’s when a family friend recommended Plant A Seed Ministries, A faith-based rehabilitation center in

Fort Pierce, FL. Klamentowich’s family drove him to the Florida institution, and he started a new chapter in his journey to sobriety.

“My parents dragged me down there and dropped me off on the side of the road at this church,” Klementowich said. “There, I met the guy that I attribute my entire life to today. He saved my life. Without a doubt, I would not be here today without Albert Pigozzi.”

Pastor Albert Pigozzi is a Certified Recovery Peer Specialist and leads Plant A Seed Ministries. Klementowich said Plant A Seed was the most influential piece of getting clean. It was at Plant A Seed that Klementowich got involved with A-1 Industries.

A-1 has a plant in Fort Pierce, and Klelmentowich and three others went to interview for jobs there. That’s when Klementowich met Bob Lamb, another person he said was instrumental in getting him to where he is now.

“We went and interviewed, and [Lamb] was the guy that interviewed me,” Klementowich said. “I was the first one through, and I told him, ‘Look, I’m not going to lie. I have a terrible past, I’m just looking for a job. I promise you, if you give me a chance, I’ll come in here, and I’ll work my ass off, and I won’t make you regret it.”

Lamb gave him a chance.

“I had a lot of mentors along the way in my recovery and in my life,” Klementowich said. “He was absolutely the biggest contributing factor to my career as far as mentors go.”

Klementowich took the job but fell on hard times and found himself homeless soon after. He told Lamb his situation at work the next day, and Lamb put him up for three weeks in a hotel out of his own pocket.

Klementowich was unable to find a place to live by the end of the three weeks and was forced to move back to North Carolina for a second time. He was there

for six months before getting “homesick” for Florida and the community he had built in Fort Pierce. So, he hopped on a bus and made the trek back to the Sunshine State.

He went back to A-1, and Lamb rehired Klementowich on the spot. He then spent six years working and growing at A-1 before being considered for a move to the Bainbridge plant that was being built at the time.

“Even knowing the dirty details of my past,” Klementowich said. “[A-1] never prevented me from progressing and climbing the ladder in this company.”

From March to June of 2022, Klementowich traveled between Florida and Bainbridge to test the waters at the new plant. In July, they offered him a position.

“I was questioning it,” Klementowich said. “Down south, I had my sober community and the people and the life that I had built that had helped me get and maintain my sobriety… I knew that I was going to have to commit fully or not at all.”

Klementowich eventually decided to come to Bainbridge and made the move

the very next day.

“If it didn’t fit in the car, I sold it,” Klementowich said. “I sold the king-size bed, the TV… I packed up the car and got on the road and drove up here and was at work the next day.”

Klementowich has been in Bainbridge ever since and has been able to maintain his sobriety. He said his mother is one of the most significant factors in that.

“The thing that always comes to my mind is my mother’s peace,” Klementowich said. “I traumatized her, and I destroyed her for years. So many days, she didn’t know if the phone call she got was going to be, ‘Hey, your son’s dead,’ a knock on the door was going to be the cops… that was one of the biggest things that kept me going was knowing that she could sleep at night.”

He said another major factor is his relationship with Jesus Christ. He gave his life to Christ at Plant A Seed Ministries and said it has made a night and day difference in his life.

“That brings me joy in places where I never knew I could have it before,” Klementowich said. “I just found peace.”

Brian Klementowich- Provided Photo

FAMILY: Brian Klementowich (left) poses with A-1 family at the 2023 Chamber Awards

20 • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2024

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