• S H O R T S H O R T S •
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WBM
PADDLING TO VICTORY MEMBERS of the Wrightsville Beach Outrigger Canoe Club
(WBOCC) have developed some friendly competition in
the four 6-person outriggers they regularly paddle in the
waters around town. In April they headed to Dunedin,
Florida, for more serious competition, entering more than one outrigger in
the Shark Bite Challenge.
“Shark Bite is the first race where we were able to compete against other
clubs. We had no idea what to expect at all,” says club president Emily
Deisroth.
WBOCC boats acquitted themselves well. Reggie Barnes, Wes Stolp,
Jarrod Covington, Ricky Devennish, Kevin Rhodes and Chris Curry paddled
to a first-place finish in the men’s open OC-6 division, followed by Craig
Stevens, Jamie Penland, David James, Ray Worrell, James Bain and Harrison
Deisroth in second.
Robert Deisroth, Lori Batson, Larry Cain, Cristy Bain, Wendy Smith and
John Beausang won the mixed division. Amanda Browne, Emily Deisroth,
Cameron Deisroth, Jessica Kennedy, Hannah Gaerlan and Sarah James took
second in the women’s division.
“I’ve been a part of two canoe clubs, in Hawaii and California,” Deisroth
says. “It is highly unusual to be so competitive this quickly. It’s due to the level of watermen that already exist here at Wrightsville Beach and
Wilmington. We have experienced standup paddleboarders and it’s a matter of just getting them in a canoe and working together.”
FSHARING THE FRUIT IRST FRUIT MINISTRIES has added free medical care to the lengthy list of services it provides to Wilmington’s poor and home-less.
During a gathering at Wrightsville Beach’s Surf Club in late April, First Fruit founder and president Rick Stoker said the
organization has completed building a free medical clinic inside its building off Vance Street, along with an office for a clini-cal
therapist for counseling. His message, along with that of his wife Lee Anna Stoker, the ministry’s executive director, was,
“Come see what and how we do things.”
With the addition of showers at the back of the
building off Shipyard Boulevard, First Fruit is a one-stop-
shop, Rick Stoker says, offering medical care,
counseling, meals, clothes, showers, boxes of food,
transitional housing for 12 single women and jobs.
In 2016, volunteers for First Fruit Ministries spent
13,647 aiding Wilmington’s poor and homeless. They
served 15,500 hot meals on the streets, handed out
groceries from First Fruit’s three-day-a-week food pan-try
69,429 times, and distributed more than 500,000
pounds of groceries.
See WBM’s December 2016 story, “Dignity to
Wilmington’s Poor,” for a complete look at First Fruit
Ministries.
Photo to come
Club members Jessica Kennedy, Hannah Gaerlan,
Cameron Deisroth, Emily Deisroth, Amanda Browne
and Sarah James placed second in the women’s open
division in the Shark Bite Challenge, Dunedin, Florida.
PHOTO COURTESY OF WBOCC
Medical care is First Fruit Ministries’ newest outreach to the poor and
homeless.
www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com
PHOTO BY ALLISON POTTER