Speakers

Dawn Ellis

Dan Callender

After experimenting with different ingredients to perfect each beer type that Salty Turtle offers and the time it takes to devote to the rest of the business aspect, the company hired a brew master to oversee production. Dan said each batch of micro brew takes about a half day to produce. Even though Salty Turtle can brew in 200 gal tanks, their most popular beers couldn’t be produced fast enough, so they partner with a Cary microbrewery who had a larger tank capacity to have enough beer on hand for the increased demand they are seeing.

One component of the success of Salty Turtle is the community outreach the company supports. As former military service members, Dan and his partners wanted to return to the community the support they had been shown will on active duty. Not only does Salty Turtle showcase their brews at community events, they also host special group events at their business location.

Tommy Batson

By the time of landfall everyone representing up to 30 agencies and municipalities are sequestered in the Emergency Operations Center in Burgaw. Hours are long and tense as reports come in over the county communications network. As conditions permit, the EOC works to coordinate with the appropriate agency to get ‘boots on the ground’ where people need help and facilities need restoration.

Tommy stressed that everyone needs to have their hurricane preparedness plan in place before hurricane season arrives. Given the low elevation of Topsail Island and the threat of total island over wash in a Cat 5 storm, everyone must leave the island when the emergency declaration to evacuate is issued. What you will take, where you will go determines the basis of your plan including pets which may or may not be allowed in shelters.

Although we are well into the start of hurricane season, it is not too late to get organized. Everything you need to make your plan can be found on the Pender County Emergency Management webpage at https://www.pendercountync.gov/em/

Mario Harris

Following retirement, Mario saw a need for kids who had lost their way particularly in underdeveloped portions of towns and counties. Working with his friend and eventual mentor, Ike Johnson, and several other Marine Corps veterans, MENAC was incorporated as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that is positioned and was purposefully created for the mental growth, educational expansion, and societal awareness of every child, teenager, and young adult between the ages of 12 and 30 years old that lives in an underdeveloped neighborhood and community.

Mario uses his skills that were obtained as a facilitator and his training as a Formal School Instructor and Certified Master Trainer (USMC) for mentoring youth and young adults. His strategy is to serve as a guide to mentor kids in a way that helps them ‘up the mountain to plant their flag’ so that they can find out what they want to be in life.

While MENAC Inc., works with kids from middle school through high school and beyond, Mario focuses on middle school students while Ike works with high school students who are having trouble in school and in life. Often the kids are from single-parent homes with the mom as the kid’s only parent. Referrals come through the Onslow County Social Services program. Mario also takes on juvenile offenders from the court system. He tries to dispel the thinking that “I didn’t because I couldn’t.” He follows his mission because he believes that every kid should have a guide and by working together can help our youth make better decisions in life.

To learn more about MENAC and find ways to volunteer visit their website at https://menac.org/

Joe Crostic

Membership renewals and new members have been an issue for the Carolinas District as well as nationally and internationally. Our own club is a perfect example with only about 20% of our pre-COVID membership returning to our in-person meetings. Joe stated that while clubs in the Carolinas District have recruited over 200 new members this year so far, but membership losses have resulted in a net loss of  about 50 members in the district year to date. Our own club can claim three of those 200 with Barb Hoff, Kim Patrizi, and Tom Staker our newest members this year. Joe mentioned that interest in Kiwanis has developed in the Burgaw area of Pender County, such that recruiting is underway to get enough potential members to form a new club, not that we want any of our Kiwanis Club of Topsail Island Area members defecting to Burgaw!

Joe hyped the Kiwanis Education and Leadership Conference in Greenville, SC starting August 28th. Lots of good fellowship, educational opportunities and an outstanding slate of speakers. You can register, see the program and events scheduled for the ‘Get Back in the Game’ themed event at https://carolinakiwanis.org/(X(1)S(0wtdtsywlywrottuogdflafb))/Page/50679

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Governor-Elect Joe Crostic
Carolinas District of Kiwanis Priorities for 2021-22

• Increase Kiwanis Membership in the Carolinas
  • Net increase in membership across the District of 5%
  • Open 5 new clubs

• Strengthen Kiwanis Clubs throughout the District
  • Host 2 Club Coaching Days
  • Conduct at least 6 webinars throughout the year on topics of current interest
  • Train minimum of 10 Club Coaches in District

• Expand Kiwanis Youth Programs
  • Add 10 new Service Leadership Programs in the District

• Support the Kiwanis Children’s Fund and District Foundation
  • Increase support of the Kiwanis Children’s Fund and Carolinas District Foundation by 5%

• Strengthen District Organization and Club Support
  • Complete District Organizational Resilience Plan
  • Launch new District Website by end of year
  • Launch District Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee

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Visit Carolinas District website

Kathy Zagzebski

Kathy noted that in an average year the turtle hospital can have 100 patients. Currently there are 18 patients in the hospital. Most are Loggerhead turtles, a common species that nests on Topsail Island, some are Green turtles another nesting species here. Occasionally, patients such as Kemp’s Ridley, Leatherback, and Hawksbill arrive from other states to be treated at the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center. Once a turtle recovers, it is released on the beach to go back to sea. This year, five loggerheads from Massachusetts recovered at the hospital and were released here on Topsail.

By the way, the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center is open to the public now with online reservations. Over 60,000 visitors take the tour every year including this writer who visited with his wife and grandkids before COVID. The Center is an amazing place with both full-time staff and an lots of volunteers. Jean Beasley, the founder of the hospital named in honor of her daughter Karen, has a dynamic personality and love of everything sea turtle so much so that her program has garnered national attention. As she moves into retirement her enthusiasm will be missed. Kathy has large shoes to fill, but her natural enthusiasm like Jean’s will no doubt keep this great turtle conservation program going.

The other component of the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center on Topsail Island is the Topsail Turtle Project – Nesting Program for conservation of sea turtle breeding grounds on the island. In a given year there are likely to be 100 nests in the beach dunes.

This year so far 41 nests have been laid and found. Since sea turtles come ashore after dark to nest, volunteers must walk every 26 miles of Topsail Island each morning to look for new nests. Nests are located by the tracks that the mommy turtle left in the beach coming and going from the dune where she laid her 80 -120 eggs. Each new nest is evaluated, marked, and mapped by the trained volunteers. If the nest is too close to the tide line or a human dune crossing point, the eggs are excavated and moved to a safer location nearby where they may hatch in 45 to 60 days. Kathy noted that only 1 in 10,000 hatchlings survive to adulthood so every conserved nest is important for these endangered sea turtle species.

The Topsail Turtle Project through it’s staff and volunteers has a strong educational component to promote conservation of sea turtles. Teaching points include a) a warning about the danger of leaving behind your sand holes in the beach where turtles can become trapped, b) leaving your ocean-facing lights off as a light source can disorient a nesting turtle who then leaves the beach without nesting, c) reduce, reuse, then recycle your plastics so that turtles at sea don’t become entangled and die or need hospital care, and so that ‘microplastics’ don’t end up ingested in a sea turtle’s digestive system as is the case with some patients at the hospital.

How you can help

Phil’s message to us was ‘he has never seen a real estate market like this one’ in a very, very long time. This market is unprecedented. The ‘seller has power,’ but Phil warns that if you sell be prepared to pay the same or more for the same size house somewhere else. This market is not just a beach market as COVID brought people to the beach for security, but includes at least the entire east coast. Many out-of-staters are looking to relocate and Topsail Island is affordable compared to prices in their home state.

One driving force in the high price of existing homes is the uncertainty involved with new construction. Product costs (lumber, plumbing, electrical, etc.) are increasing in large part due to a backlog in getting product to local distributors. Contractors are going back on their contracted price for a new home and asking the buyer to cover these escalating building materials costs.

Locally, the rental market is very robust as many large-scale contractors are renting units for their employees who are working in the area. For instance, Camp Lejeune has a 2,000 person workforce building new or repairing infrastructure onboard the base.

John Fahey

As he became more experienced in the classroom, he realized that he had a knack for school leadership and thus applied for and became principal of his school. Over the years he moved from school system to school system first as a principal and then, later as a superintendent in both Virginia and North Carolina school systems. While his daughter was a student at James Madison University he took on an instructor role there so the family could remain close.

Dr. John developed a list of what he consider five basic human needs from his long involvement in education: a physiological need to satisfy nutrition and comfort; a power need to do what you are capable of doing; a love need to love one another; a freedom need to what you want; and a fun need well to have fun in life. Whenever he counseled his students he would always keep these needs in mind. As a principal and superintendent he would be sure all the kids had enough to eat in the cafeteria. Students that became problem kids for teachers in the classroom would be sent to his office. He would figure out how to help the kid by figuring out what need or needs the kid was lacking in self-confidence. Even kids he suspended were welcomed back to school with a clean slate in his mind.

Now, Dr. John did brag a bit about the high school basketball team in Staunton, VA where he was superintendent. But hey with 85 straight wins and three state division championships who wouldn’t brag. The b-ball team was the most popular out of class thing for both students and parents. Often times at away games Staunton had more supporters than the local team.

Dr. John is a multi-talented person, so he had to show some of his magic talent with a device that could defy gravity. The gravity defying device consisted of a metal ring with 5-6 beads. Once the beads were spinning, Dr. John could keep them spinning indefinitely! He even made the machine disappear by ‘turning his back’ to the audience. To show that others could also operate a gravity defying machine, Dr. John invited our fellow Kiwanian, Roger Morton up front to continue ‘operation’ of the machine since it does wear one a bit when you are controlling a gravity defying machine. Roger, however, had trouble handling the machine as it really is not as simple as Dr. John implied to his audience. Eventually, Roger got the hang of it, but didn’t attempt the ‘make it disappear’ act!

From time to time throughout his presentation, Dr. John would mention his hobby of jewelry making. He brought along some displays of his work in sterling silver that resemble various animals from sea creatures to mountain animals and that can be pinned to one’s collar or coat. He is also ‘Sargent at Arms’ for the Topsail Longboard Association, a youth group that Cory Sydes started and has talked to our club about in the past. From his connections with surf board makers, Dr. John expanded his jewelry hobby into surf board resin and the fascinating layering of colors you can achieve with the left over resin from surf board making.

The club was appreciative of Dr. John and his message, so he got several questions from the audience that he was able to answer and extend his message.