Southport Magazine

Volunteers work a recent Community Clean Water Day hosted by the North Carolina Coastal Federation. Oak Island will benefit from the event this month. Courtesy photo

As the production of each issue comes to a close, an unplanned theme begins to emerge. Sure, January’s pet edition and the wedding focus of February are fairly easy to pin down. This month, however, community and family reign high. What I’ve learned: Family is of utmost importance, and one’s community can be a family, too.

The clear reference is to our story on local chef Joe Borsuk of Joseph’s Italian Bistro. Joe not only splits duties with his wife, Debra, but his parents help out with prep in the mornings, too! Meanwhile, after three of his cooks have spent eight years with Joe, they’ve become like family as well.

Our area’s culture shines through with two more close-knit clans. Shannon Rae Gentry covers the North Carolina Maritime Museum at Southport’s June events—one of the area’s once-strong fishing community, and the other a look behind the gates of Orton Plantation. We’d guess the keepers of the Orton secrets, who work diligently to restore the longleaf-pine forests and rice paddies, likely have become as kin themselves.

Finally, the Oak Island community will once again join as a force of nature—literally! In March the North Carolina Coastal Federation recruited volunteers to help build oyster-shell reefs to protect the shoreline and filter water. This month they’ll build a rain garden and place native marsh plants along the coast to do the same during Community Clean Water Day.

As author Elizabeth Gilbert writes, “We must take care of our families wherever we find them.”

Thanks for being a part of ours,

Bethany Turner