Up Front
Who has noticed we’re in the final third of the year?
BY Pat Bradford
Our cover story is writer Beth Hedgepeth’s “where are they now” update on young local male surfers, called groms. Pictured is Jack Brandon. We first featured these seven in 2005. Hedgepeth checked in with them eight years later, and now the present day look at their lives another decade later is simply fascinating.
Of all the nonprofits working with young people, one that has stood the test of time is Kids Making It, began in the mid 1990s to teach woodworking skills. This vocational, entrepreneurial and life-skills program focuses on at-risk, low-income and disadvantaged youth and is a gift to the community.
Another treasure is the library system in this area. Besides being a lifelong voracious reader, back when we began this labor of love I spent a lot of in-person time in the downtown library. There I got to know the North Carolina Room’s Beverly Tetterton. Under her guidance, I accessed and dug into the history of the region. Over the years we have also made good use of the plethora of materials at the Randall Library on the UNCW campus. (The Cape Fear Museum’s online materials have also been a tremendous resource.)
Now the Randall Library is in the process of a major upfit and expansion, which will hold the growing archives of the history of the region. For this library nerd, it is pretty exciting. Included in the 80,000-square-foot, three-story expansion is a home for the Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History. It will hold personal papers, letters, audio-visual materials, maps and photographs of the people and communities of Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Duplin, New Hanover, Onslow, Pender and Sampson counties.
On a side note: all our magazine issues from year one have been collected there as well as the 15 years of weekly Lumina News issues.
Our readers love our photography-rich pages, and this issue will not disappoint, from a spectacular “Boat House” on Oak Island to a selection of the Cape Fear Camera Club’s Images of Distinction, on display in a show going on now in Wilmington.
As the temperatures cool a touch, backyards will again go into high gear and our dry rub Savor feature will have you cranking up the barbie.
—Pat Bradford, Senior Editor/Publisher