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Celebrations set for July Fourth
Events start Wednesday with Army band in Pembroke
FortMcAllisterWheel Barrow
A family participates in an old-fashioned wheel barrow race at Fort McAllister Historic State Park. Events like this and much more will take place Monday at the park for July Fourth. (Provided)

July Fourth celebrations are slated in Pembroke and Richmond Hill and at Fort McAllister State Park and Fort Stewart, so get the red white and blue ready for ringing in Independence Day.

The city of Pembroke celebrated early by hosting the 3rd Infantry Division Band from Fort Stewart Wednesday at First Baptist Church. The program was to begin with opening remarks from 1st District Congressman Jack Kingston, R-Ga.

Next up, the city of Richmond Hill will host its July Fourth celebration Saturday in J.F. Gregory Park. The festivities of “Richmond Hill Salutes the Red, White and Blue” will begin at 5 p.m. and conclude at 10 p.m. after the fireworks display.

The event will feature live music by the Paris Luna band on the amphitheater stage, and a variety of food and drink choices will be available. The event will take place rain or shine, and admission to the entertainment and celebration is free.

On Monday, Fort McAllister State Historic Park will host an Independence Day program from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The program will include cannon and musket firings, old-fashioned games like sack races, egg tosses, wheel barrow races and Civil War-style baseball.

Be sure to pack a lunch, but save room for ice-cold watermelon because there will also be a seed spitting contest. The cost of the event is $5 for adults and $3.50 for children.
At Fort Stewart’s celebration, “Worth Fighting For,” active-duty soldiers and their families can enjoy a wide variety of events.

The weekend begins Friday with a golf scramble at Taylors Creek Golf Course and also includes a cannon salute Sunday.
Monday on Fort Stewart will boast most of the activities, including food, kids’ activities, Grammy-winning performers in concert and fireworks. Kids’ activities include the popular Disc-Connected K9’s Frisbee dog show and Sam’s Path Petting Zoo. Other family activities include a turbo slide, trampoline jump, mechanical bull, balloon artist and much more.

Then at 6 p.m.Monday, American Idol winner Fantasia Barrino will open for the Zac Brown Band, who will take the stage at 7:30 p.m. Following the concert will be a fireworks display.

As a reminder, leave all pets and coolers at home for the day. Cameras, video cameras tents and beach umbrellas are prohibited at the concert. For more information and a schedule of Fort Stewart events, visit www.stewartmwr.com.

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Later yall, its been fun
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This is among the last pieces I’ll ever write for the Bryan County News.

Friday is my last day with the paper, and come June 1 I’m headed back to my native Michigan.

I moved here in 2015 from the Great Lake State due to my wife’s job. It’s amicable, but she has since moved on to a different life in a different state, and it’s time for me to do the same.

My son Thomas, an RHHS grad as of Saturday, also is headed back to Michigan to play basketball for a small school near Ann Arbor called Concordia University. My daughter, Erin, is in law school at University of Toledo. She had already begun her college volleyball career at Lourdes University in Ohio when we moved down here and had no desire to leave the Midwest.

With both of them and the rest of my family up north, there’s no reason for me to stay here. I haven’t missed winter one bit, but I’m sure I won’t miss the sand gnats, either.

Shortly after we arrived here in 2015, I got a job in communications with a certain art school in Savannah for a few short months. It was both personally and professionally toxic and I’ll leave it at that.

In March 2016 I signed on with the Bryan County News as assistant editor and I’ve loved every minute of it. My “first” newspaper career, in the late 80s and early 90s, was great. But when I left it to work in politics and later with a free-market think tank, I never pictured myself as an ink-stained wretch again.

Like they say, never say never.

During my time here at the News, I’ve covered everything that came along. That’s one big difference between working for a weekly as opposed to a daily paper. Reporters at a daily paper have a “beat” to cover. At a weekly paper like this, you cover … life. Sports, features, government meetings, crime, fundraisers, parades, festivals, successes, failures and everything in between. Oh, and hurricanes. Two of them. I’ll take a winter blizzard over that any day.

Along the way I’ve met a lot of great people. Volunteers, business owners, pastors, students, athletes, teachers, coaches, co-workers, first responders, veterans, soldiers and yes, even some politicians.

And I learned that the same adrenalin rush from covering “breaking news” that I experienced right out of college is still just as exciting nearly 30 years later.

With as much as I’ve written about the population increase and traffic problems, at least for a few short minutes my departure means there will be one less vehicle clogging up local roads. At least until I pass three or four moving vans headed this way as I get on northbound I-95.

The hub-bub over growth here can be humorous, unintentional and ironic all at once. We often get comments on our Facebook page that go something like this: “I’ve lived here for (usually less than five years) and the growth is out of control! We need a moratorium on new construction.”

It’s like people who move into phase I of “Walden Woods” subdivision after all the trees are cleared out and then complain about trees being cut down for phase II.

Bryan County will always hold a special place in my heart and I definitely plan on visiting again someday. My hope is that my boss, Jeff Whitten (one of the best I’ve ever had), will let me continue to be part of the Pembroke Mafia Football League from afar. If the Corleone family could expand to Vegas, there’s no reason the PMFL can’t expand to Michigan.

But the main reason I want to return someday is about that traffic issue. After all, I’ll need to see it with my own eyes before I’ll believe that Highway 144 actually got widened.

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