Each experience has led Starlin to appreciate life even more. “Every day is special, so we enjoy it with our Lord, with our family, and with our friends,” she says. For Ginger Starlin, this includes enjoying oil painting, yoga, and cooking. Every Friday she and her sister and best friend, Mary Kathryn Davis, have lunch and share family events.
‘vehicle’ used by Magnolia Manor to sell bonds to make $10 million improvements to their campus in Americus.” It is that pride in her community that drives her to help whenever possible. “If it will benefit Americus, I will do it,” she says. “Americus is my family.” Sumter County, at large, has benefited from her work and her Type A personality. When she and others learned that Congress was not
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Sumter county Living
going to approve funding to add the Jimmy Carter Boyhood Farm to the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site, she paid her own way to Washington, D.C. and spent three days “walking the halls of Congress, lobbying” to get the farm added back to the budget. The trip was successful. “My husband will tell you I can be very stubborn,” she laughs. This resolve to do the right thing led Starlin and another State Farm Agent, Sharon DeMott, to load up a truck with food and bottled water and drive to Petal, Mississippi to help following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. “Most just needed hand-holding and reassurance that it would be okay,” she says. “My mama taught me, ‘Ginger, you better do the right thing, even if you’re not the most popular person in the room. Always do the right thing.’” For all of her professional accomplishments, Starlin says she is most proud of her children, Ander and Brooks, and how they have “developed into loving Christian spouses and parents.” Ander owns Red Hills Outdoors in Americus and his wife, Kellie, is a Special Education teacher. Brooks is a sixth grade teacher in Forsyth County, and her husband, Scott, is a police officer. But it was lessons learned when Starlin’s children were younger that have put many things in perspective for her. Both children have struggled with health issues. Brooks has polycystic kidney disease and Ander was diagnosed with leukemia 16 years ago, surviving two stem cell transplants. “You throw convenience out the window when you deal with cancer,” she says. The family spent many months at the MD Anderson Center in Houston, Texas, where Ander got the help he needed to survive. Through this experience, Ginger and Calvin have gone on to help others who have needed help, arranging for Angel Flight transportation to the center, or connecting them in other ways. “You have to make something positive