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Working wonders
United Way kicks off 2014 campaign
united way 2
United Way advisory board members show the goal for Bryan County during a kickoff luncheon Thursday at the Richmond Hill City Center. - photo by Jeff Whitte

The 2014 United Way of the Coastal Empire’s campaign kickoff in Bryan County ended with host Dave Kartunen telling the approximately 200 people in attendance reasons not to give between now and when fundraising ends in November.

"If you can predict where the next natural disaster is going to be, don’t give," said Kartunen, a morning anchor for WSAV-TV. "If you think you will go through life without having a child who has autism, don’t give."

He looked around the room at the Richmond Hill City Center at an audience that included a number of business, civic, government and school leaders along with those who run United Way programs.

"If you know who the next rape victim will be, don’t give. We don’t need your support, if that’s the case."

But in the next sentence, the reporter and United Way volunteer explained why he supports the agency, which helps provide services for those in need in Bryan, Chatham, Effingham and Liberty counties.

"The thing that I love about the United Way, and you saw it in the videos, you see it in the faces in this room and you see it in the programs they support," Kartunen said. "It touches every life in this room and we don’t know who that next life it will touch is. Young and old, black and white … it supports everyone in every state of life."

Kartunen wasn’t the only one to speak Tuesday, as local United Way officials announced Bryan County’s goal of $75,000. Caitlyn Young, who is chairing the Bryan Advisory Board, dressed up as Wonder Woman to help spread the United Way message.

"We are working wonders in Bryan County," she said. "Every day, we encounter people here who are hungry, homeless, who have lost their job and are having trouble making ends meet. (We encounter) people who have family members who have experienced medical emergencies, and you never know when that’s going to happen."

It could be anybody, Young said.

"The need is great, especially in these times. We all need help sometimes," she added, then read a note from someone who benefited from the program.

"When my sister became ill unexpectedly, United Way stepped in and helped our family right when they needed it," Young read. "My sister suffered two aneurysms in her brain and one burst leaving her needing emergency surgery. That left me taking care of her four children, ages 15, 14, 12 and 9. I was working full time and trying to care for her four children full time along with my 2-year-old daughter. My bills were falling behind."

Local United Way director Kristi Cox and the Bryan County office stepped in to help "when I felt my back was against the wall," the note said. "I’m grateful for all you have done, all you are doing and all that you will do."

Also speaking at the event were retired U.S. Army Col. Leroy "Zke" Zimmerman and Team Impact’s Cesar Arocha, a Richmond Hill body builder. The two have teamed up to help kids be successful.

Zimmerman, who was wounded in Vietnam and has gone on to become an educator and volunteer, and his wife have one son and 21 adopted children. Arocha and his wife Mary have eight kids.

"Our goal is to take as many kids as we can and make them fully prepared to work productively in whatever environment they are raised in," Zimmerman said. "And see them developed as young people who one day go on, if they are destined to do so, to the highest level of education they can acquire. So that the end product is, wherever their purpose leads them, to be productive citizens in the society in which they live. That is our dream."

Arocha, who thanked BoE Chairman Eddie Warren "for allowing me to come in your schools and tear up phone books," is the "drill sergeant" of the team, he said.

"Since 2006 I have traveled all over the U.S., I’ve gone overseas and I’ve spoken to millions and millions of kids," said Arocha, who started by tearing up a phone book. "I use my God-given ability, my strength."

The goal is to give kids confidence in themselves, he said, because, "if they believe in themselves, they can accomplish whatever they want to accomplish."

In all, the United Way of the Coastal Empire hopes to raise $8,888,888 by November.

For more information about United Way programs in Bryan County and the Coastal Empire, call 211 or 912-651-7730.

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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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