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Wednesday
November 5, 2014
Life
Hawking provides
complex equation
for Redmayne, 6B
Generations
Eddie Redmayne
Also inside
Advice, 3B
TV schedule, 6B
Comics, 7B
B
CLASSIFIED ADS, 8B
The Brunswick News
By BETHANY LEGGETT
The Brunswick News
COMMUNITY
CALENDAR
Today
• Brunswick-Glynn County
Library, 208 Gloucester St.,
Brunswick: Movie, as part of
Musicians and Dramas in the
World of Music Movie Month,
will be shown at 2 p.m. For
movie title: 580-4939.
• St. Simons Island Public
Library, 530 Beachview Drive,
St. Simons Island: Writers’
Workshop from 2 to 4 p.m. in
Room 114.
Thursday, Nov. 6
• College of Coastal Georgia: National Roll Call Day
2014 will be at 11 a.m. at the
flagpole on the Alaimo Plaza,
Brunswick campus. The ceremony will include Veterans
Academic Learning Opportunities and Resources (VALOR)
reading the names of more
than 100 American soldiers
who died during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation
Iraqi Freedom. Gen. Robert
Magnus, U.S.M.C. retired, will
be the guest speaker.
• St. Simons Island Library,
530 Beachview Drive, St.
Simons Island: “Click Clack
Moo: Cows That Type”
story time with Miss Evy at
10:30 a.m. for preschoolers
and young home-schooled
children.
Friday, Nov. 7
• Alzheimer’s of Glynn/
Brunswick: Memorial candle
lighting at 4 p.m. at AGB
House, 2803 Sherwood Drive,
Brunswick. There will be music
and refreshments.
• Brunswick-Glynn County
Library, 208 Gloucester St.,
Brunswick: Baby story time
at 10:30 a.m. for ages 24
months and younger will help
parents and caregivers share
meaningful developmental
time with their babies through
books, songs and rhymes.
Details: 267-1212.
• Downtown Development
Authority: First Friday will begin at 5 p.m., with shops and
restaurants along Newcastle
Street remaining open late.
A craft table with an assortment of seasonal crafts will
be available at the dowtown
library.
Saturday, Nov. 8
• Brunswick-Glynn County Library, 208 Gloucester
St., Brunswick: Georgia
Department of Transportation-approved AARP six-hour,
driver safety class at 9 a.m.
costs $15 for AARP members
and $20 for nonmembers.
Completion of the course may
lower insurance. Details: 2671212.
• Coastal Cavaliers: Playdate with Cavalier owners and
dogs at 10 a.m. at Frederica
Park, 2201 Lawrence Road,
St. Simons Island. Other
breeds invited. Details: 912264-2449 or 770-630-8545.
• Robert S. Abbott Race
Unity Institute: Unity in Diversity Luncheon at 1 p.m. at The
Olive Garden, 600 Glynn Isle,
Brunswick. Phil Morrison will
perform.
Sunday, Nov. 9
• Coastal Business Institute: Fall graduation at 5 p.m.
at Old City Hall, 1229 Newcastle St., Brunswick. Public is
invited to attend.
• Coastal Georgia Genealogical Society: Meeting at
2 p.m. in the fire station of the
St. Simon’s Airport, 1929 Demere Road, St Simons Island.
Elliott Corbett of the Family
History Center will speak. The
meeting is free and open to
the public.
Monday, Nov. 10
• St. James Lutheran
Church, 2229 Starling St.,
Brunswick: Narcotics Anonymous support group will meet
at 7 p.m. Details: 399-6825.
Tuesday, Nov. 11
• Compassionate Friends
of the Golden Isles: A support
group for families having lost
a child will meet from 6 to 8
p.m. at 3501 Norwich St.,
Brunswick.
• Overeaters Anonymous:
Newcomer meeting will be at
7 p.m. in the conference room
at St. Simons by the Sea
hospital, 2927 Demere Road,
St. Simons Island.
F
or more than 80 years, one
youth organization has
been bringing high school
girls together for social and civic
causes across the Golden Isles.
Pirates of the Spanish Main is
made up of about 60 members
from Brunswick High School,
Glynn Academy and Frederica
Academy. Often described as
a high school sorority, the club
has a mission — to promote the
Golden Isles, aid the community
and welcome dignitaries — and
focuses on both social and civic
opportunities for students before
they head off to college.
Generations of pirates have
formed the bonds of friendship
since Howard Cofin irst formed
the social club for high school
girls in 1931. Originally a small
number of girls were selected
to greet dignitaries visiting the
area, but through the years, the
focus has shifted to community
service.
Capt. Taylor Slayton has completed more than 300 hours of
community service since she
joined the group, from walking on a team for Relay for Life
to helping babysit at St. Simons
Community Church. In fact, each
member of the club has a certain
required number of community service hours to complete by
deadlines throughout the year.
“We try to keep many things
traditional in how things are set
up. Pirates was started so long
ago with the values and purposes to promote our area, which
we still do. But we have really
focused on community service
in the last few years,” said the
senior at Glynn Academy. “Most
people in the community who
grew up here know about Pirates
but most forget what we really
are about, and that’s to help improve our area.”
Teens are selected through a
process, similar to college sorority rush week, in the spring of
each year. And similar to collegiate organizations, the girls pay
Maintaining
a legacy
Pirates of the Spanish Main continues commitment
to Golden Isles through community service, leadership
Provided photo
Pirates of the Spanish Main members gather together for a group photo in August.
dues, $10 per month, and are required to perform a set number of
community service hours. That’s
in addition to hosting two dances
and an annual spaghetti dinner.
They meet weekly on Wednesdays at St. William Catholic
Church on St. Simons Island for
about an hour to plan, coordinate
and discuss upcoming events.
Terms used by members play
off the nautical themes of the
organization’s name. When the
group is asked to greet politicians, business leaders and oth-
ers, they plan “a raid,” including
a recent raid to greet Newt Gingrich and another for the opening
of the Market at Sea Island.
The 11-member leadership
team is called Helm, with a captain as president. Initiates are
“rats” who are paired with a big
sister in the group called “the
masters,” but members say the
relationship between the new recruits and the older members is
a strong, positive bond despite
what terms are used.
“For us, the names are just fun-
ny and part of the club’s history.
What’s really important is how
we feel about each other,” Taylor
said.
Emily Brown, one of two adult
sponsors of the organization, was
a Pirate when she attended Glynn
Academy. She is a third generation in her family to be part of the
group, having heard stories from
her grandmother and her mother
about their Pirate days.
“Pirates has changed a lot
through the years. My time in
Pirates was nothing like my
mother’s or grandmother’s. The
group was much smaller years
ago. Now we dot a lot of community service, and we don’t haze
the girls or anything like that,”
Brown said.
After graduating high school
in 2010, Brown attended the University of Georgia, where she
joined the Delta Upsilon chapter
of Kappa Kappa Gamma. She
said aspects of Pirates prepared
her for the college Panhellenic
scene.
“Having a close-knit group of
sorority sisters is important. You
have activities to plan and you
have to learn responsibility, too,”
she said. “I still keep up with my
friends from Pirates, especially
with Facebook, and my mother and my grandmother kept up
with their friends from Pirates,
too. There’s a strong alumnae
network here, and hopefully we
can get an association together in
the future.”
For Melissa Stroud, co-sponsor
with Brown, watching her daughters Larkin, who is on Helm, and
Emily Ann participate is just another thing she can be proud of.
“The girls in Pirates are such
hard workers. They have a lot of
responsibility, and they do a lot
more than I think people realize,” she said. “Yes, they are in
high school and they have fun
with social events, but they give
back to the community in so
many ways.”
She said seeing girls in their
jerseys representing the club
while out and about in the community makes her smile.
“When you look at the big picture, you know that it’s what the
girls are doing every week in the
community that will leave an impact here,” Stroud said.
For Larkin Stroud, her job
on Helm was to coordinate this
year’s spaghetti dinner, a fundraiser for the club. She said the
experience gave her skills that
she hasn’t had the opportunity
to try before such as hiring people to help out and coordinating
Please see PIRATES, 3B
Candy campaign lets kids help out others
Group of dentists form a united front for candy buy-back program to beneit United Way
By BRITTANY TATE
Participants
The Brunswick News
It’s not rare a occurrence to see children
giving back to their communities or helping out fellow residents in need, and Dr.
John Weaver knows this.
For the past several years, Weaver Orthodontics has hosted a candy buy-back
program the weekday after Halloween
to promote good oral health and to get
children to send off their candy to troops
overseas — a positive difference, he says,
that can be felt in the lives of those around
them.
This year, however, promoting good
oral health is about to get a new meaning.
From now until Nov. 19, Weaver Orthodontics and 14 other dentist ofices will
be participating in the “Ultimate Candy
Challenge” buy-back program to not only
advocate for dental awareness, but to also
beneit the United Way of Coastal Georgia.
“In the past at Weaver Orthodontics, we
have always chosen a local charity or family in need, but this year we have extended
it out to the (Glynn County) Dental Society,” Weaver said.
“Some of these kids are unaware of
those who are in need, not that they live
very fortunate lives. Many don’t know
what the United Way does. This is a way
for them to pay it forward in a way by giving their candy back, which is going to a
charity and helping out others,” he said.
The candy will go overseas to the armed
forces through Operation Shoebox.
As in years past, for every bucket
donated individuals will receive a
rafle ticket for an ofice-speciic
prize. In turn, each participating
dentist will donate $5 to the United Way. Monetary donations in
Submitted photo
Dr. Jeff Capes transforms
for the candy buy-back
program, that will
benefit United
Way.
Participating offices include:
• Dr. Jeff Capes
• Dr. Dean Boyer
• Dr. Brandon Clements
• Dr. Darryl Daniel
• Dr. Suzanne Haley
• Dr. Jason Hooper
• Dr. Scott Morrison
• Dr. Zach Powell
• Dr. Glenn Sasser
• Dr. Tom Sayer
• Dr. Tom Smith
• Dr. Paul Thompson
• Dr. John Weaver
• Dr. Michael Wommack
• Dr. Hank Yeargan
place of the candy will also be accepted.
With 15 dentists involved in this year’s
event, Weaver said they have each pledged
to raise $1,000 each to hopefully donate
$15,000 to United Way by Nov. 19.
It’s something Dr. Jeff Capes, an oral
surgeon at Coastal Oral Surgery, campaign chairman for the United Way for
2014-15 and a spearhead behind this
year’s buy-back program, sees as an opportunity for residents to get a bird’s-eye
view of what all the organization does for
the community.
“My primary goal is to get what the
United Way does out to the community
and open their eyes to what all it supports,”
Capes said of the nonproit organization
that supports 22 partner agencies and 30
programs within the community.
“When you ask most people about it, they don’t know of
all it does. Most think of it as a
thermometer on the side of the
road that creeps up. It’s an after-school program, it helps families live healthier lives, and it
provides a safe place for families
in crises. I believe in what it does
for the community and it’s
parallel with my
beliefs and values,” he added.
Beyond helping out the nonproit organization
with money, Capes
believes it also
gives children who
are donating candy
Submitted photo
Dr. John Weaver lounges on a large pile of candy during a previous year’s candy buyback initiative.
a new perspective on what it means to lend
a hand to their neighbors.
“We all want to feel like we’re a part of
something and that we have made a difference. By kids participating, they really get
that sense of making an impact right here
at home,” Capes said.
The differences youth will make, Capes
says, are threefold: being generally healthy
by giving up gobs of candy, giving back to
the men and women in the armed forces
that serve and protect our country, and
making a small difference on a local scale.
Dana Haza is appreciative of what the
candy buy-back represents.
“Our community will beneit from the
treats. Whether it’s an Almond Joy or
a Milky Way, candy has the potential to
change lives by supporting our 22 partner
agencies and the amazing work they do
every day,” said Haza, president and CEO
of United Way of Coastal Georgia.
Getting children to participate in helping needy kids and families locally by giving away their candy is just another great
way of showing just how important it is to
be charitable.
“The ability to make a difference is ageless, and by young people wanting to help
and support their neighbor, they can be a
part of helping their community,” Haza
Community Life reports on the life of your community
said.
“The generosity of people donating will
help reach our goal of $1.2 million.”
The United Way’s fundraising campaign
ends on Jan. 31, and so far it has collected
31 percent of its goal.
While Haza, Capes and Weaver agree
that it’s important to give back, they also
know how imperative it is for children to
be generally healthy.
“It gives us a chance to explain the importance of dental awareness because
health starts at the top and the top is our
mouth. The healthier the mouth is, the
healthier you’ll be,” Capes said.
Weaver adds: “It’s not just about the
United Way. It’s also about coming together to promote good dental health. This is a
multi-layered event that has brought unity
among the dental community ... (and) it’s a
fun way to raise dental awareness and give
back to the community.”
The funds received from the buy-back
will go to the campaign and allocation
committee, which will disperse monies
to the 22 agencies in Glynn and McIntosh
counties.
• Reporter Brittany Tate writes about
lifestyle topics. Contact her at btate@
thebrunswicknews.com, on Facebook or
at 265-8320, ext. 317.