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Ellis Wood crew helps Effingham cleanup
After March 16 tornado, Boro business sends equipment, manpower
cleanup LeadWeb
A crane helps clear debris from a home in Effingham County destroyed by a tornado March 16. Crews from Ellis Wood Construction in Statesboro, including this crane, traveled to Effingham Saturday to donate their equipment and time to help with the cleanup effort. - photo by PAT DONAHUE/Courtesy Effingham Herald

A convoy of more than 100 Bulloch County volunteers traveled Saturday to Effingham County, joining others from across Southeast Georgia to help residents recover from tornado damage which occurred during a sweep of storms across the area March 16.

             Bulloch County Public Safety Director Ted Wynn, local business owner Ellis Wood and others from the community joined forces and took both manpower and equipment to the area.

            Wood, who owns Ellis Wood Construction, led a work crew to  the Ebenezer Road area, removing twisted trees and  the mangled remains of two mobile homes. Workers also joined others from local construction companies to help in Effingham County's Wylly Road neighborhood.

             The group from Bulloch County was comprised of "a blend of volunteers from several local agencies" including law enforcement, public safety and other local businesses, Wood said.

            While most of his crew went to Effingham County, some traveled to Wrens in Jefferson County, where the line of storms wrought havoc as well.

             This effort followed others in the past when volunteers took equipment to help citizens recover from storm damage in Charleston, S.C., Macon, Camilla and other areas, Wood said. “The nucleus of this crew has been doing this since the late 1980s ... in a lot of different places.”

            Wood said he contacted Effingham County Sheriff Jimmy McDuffie "to see if  there was a need for what our volunteers can do," he said.“We focused on situations where we knew we could help with people and equipment.”

            Wanda Rogers, who owned the two mobile homes that were destroyed, was in Metter at a livestock sale when  the storms swept through. She expressed appreciation for what the volunteers were doing.

            “I can’t put into words what’s in my heart,” she said. “My heart is real full in knowing there’s so many good people out there.”

            McDuffie also praised the volunteers.

            “This says a lot.  “This is what this country is all about, people coming and helping in a time of need.”

            Wood agreed.  “This confirms there are a lot more good people in the world than there are bad,” he said.

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Kathy Bradley - Merci, gracias and thank you
Kathy Bradley
Kathy Bradley

As an origin story, it is nothing particularly noteworthy. In fact, the circumstances were ordinary, mundane, unremarkable. It was a scene repeated hundreds of times over every day across the country. But, like Robert Frost’s road in a yellow wood, it has made all the difference.

It was lunchtime. Fifteen or 20 of us were gathered in the back room of what was then RJ’s Restaurant – heavy china plates, green napkins, plastic glasses sweating in summer humidity that not even the best air-conditioning could vanquish. The business meeting for Leadership Bulloch Alumni had not yet begun; polite chatter and subtle gossip circled the tables placed end-to-end. I was counting the minutes until I could leave and get back to the stack of manila folders on my desk.

My friend, Phyllis, sat across the table from me and beside her sat then-editor of the Herald, Larry Anderson. With the charm and genuine interest that would one day make her president of the Chamber of Commerce, she turned from side to side, leaned across the table, pulling everyone into the current of conversation.

“Oh, Kathy,” she offered when the flow of words stalled, “you have to tell Larry that story.”

I knew which one she meant, the one about how, in reviewing the work of that year’s General Assembly, I had discovered that it was now illegal in Georgia to feed wild alligators (an act it had never occurred to me as something in which to engage). Intrigued, I delved further and learned that our esteemed legislators had also used part of its short 40-day session to pass legislation making the peanut the official Georgia state crop, the peach the official Georgia state fruit and the State of Georgia the Poultry Capital of the World.

They were just following precedent as previous General Assemblies had declared the shark tooth the official Georgia state fossil and the honeybee the official Georgia state insect (Didn't anyone think to nominate the gnat?). In 1981, the legislators really got into the spirit and named eight "officials," including an official reptile (the gopher tortoise); an official vegetable (the Vidalia Sweet Onion); and an official 'possum (Pogo, as created by cartoonist Walt Kelly).

I generally do what Phyllis tells me, so I recounted my legal research and he found the story sufficiently entertaining to ask me to write it down so that he could publish it. I did and he did and a few days after the column came out, Larry called me and asked, “What would it take to get you to do this on a regular basis?”

I almost said, “Not much.”

What I did say was, “Let me think about it.”

I thought about it and decided that I could probably think of a few more things to say. This month that was 30 years and around 700 columns ago.

Seven hundred times I have begun by staring at a blank computer screen. Seven hundred times I have panicked just a little. At least half of those times I have had no idea what I was going to say until my fingers started moving over the keys. And every single time I have been struck by what a privilege I have been given to share my words.

It seems an appropriate moment in which to offer two more: Thank you.


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