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United Way hoping for $75,000 in 2013
uw power rangers 2
Above: United Way of Bryan County Director Kristi Cox, center, strikes a pose as the Red Power Ranger during the kickoff to the groups 2013 fundraising campaign Tuesday at the Richmond Hill City Center. With her wearing Power Ranger masks are Bryan County Commission Chairman Jimmy Burnsed, left, local fundraising chairman Lawanda Edenfield, United Way of the Coastal Empire CEO Gregg Schroeder and UWCE campaign chairman Dale Holloway. - photo by Jeff Whitte

The United Way of the Coastal Empire kicked off its 2013 Bryan County fundraising campaign Tuesday with a luncheon at the Richmond Hill City Center that included more than a buffet and speeches.
There also was a nod to an enduring kids’ TV franchise as the Red Ranger of “Power Rangers” fame dropped in to explain how important the organization’s campaign kickoff is for all involved.
“We want to show the community this is an exciting time in the next couple of months to be raising money that’s really going to impact Bryan County and help those families in need,” said the Ranger.
The Ranger was actually United Way of Bryan County Director Kristi Cox. She was one of a handful of speakers at the kickoff, which drew local employers and government officials along with United Way representatives and board members.
Bryan County Commission Chairman Jimmy Burnsed gave the keynote speech, noting he’s been involved in United Way fundraising for 50 years. Hobart’s Lawanda Edenfield, the 2013 campaign chair, also spoke before she helped unveil the organization’s 2013 fundraising goal of $75,000.
Edenfield said giving is an important part of her company’s culture and the key to encouraging donations is to keep it simple.
“You keep it simple and you make it fun,” she said, noting Hobart “strongly” believes in supporting the United Way.
“We have toy drives, food drives … We strongly believe words like ‘giving’ and ‘support’ represent the best actions of individuals and businesses alike,” she said.
Much of the donation of United Way is by payroll deduction, and Burnsed said getting those who can afford it to donate $12 a month is a worthwhile goal that could easily double the amount raised across the Coastal Empire.
“If you think about it, $12 a month is probably the cost of a couple cups of coffee at Starbucks,” he said. “It’s not a lot of money. We can all give something, and that’s really where we need to get to.”

Read more in the Sept. 11 edition of the News.

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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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