Features

Did you know the color pearl represents lung cancer awareness or that November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month?

Neither did Joan Bourguignon until she became a lung cancer survivor.

“You never really learn about these things until you become a part of it,” Bourguignon said.

While not alone in being a lung cancer survivor of more than five years, she is in the minority. According to research results published by Lung Cancer Alliance, the overall 5-year survival rate for lung cancer is 15 percent.

Blues musician Rickey Godfrey is in the coastal Carolinas this week promoting his new CD, “Nasty Man.”

The CD is described in a press release as “solidly blues-driven with jazz and funk influences that give it an edge and a sound that’s unique to the uber-talented musician.”

Godfrey will be in the area promoting his new CD starting Thursday, Nov. 11, and continuing through Sunday, Nov. 14.

An unexpected angel aided a Brunswick County native as she fought to return to North Carolina from Wyoming to be by her sick child’s side.

Ravin Gore, community development planner with the North Carolina Department of Commerce, was out of town on business when she received a devastating phone call. Gore, formerly of Brunswick County and now a resident of Raleigh, flew to Pinedale, Wyo., to join a team of community development planners on a business trip in mid-September.

Sunset River Marketplace’s Creative Exchange series continues with “Creative Accessorizing Made Easy” by style expert Betsy Russell from 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 10.

The fee is $5 and includes lunch. Due to limited seating, reservations are required.

A band nominated for three Carolina Beach Music Awards headlines the entertainment for this year’s Festival By The Sea.

Six bands will play at the festival on the stage of the Holden Beach Pavilion.

Making its first appearance at the festival is the Carolina Breakers.

“They’ve been nominated for three Cammies and new artist of the year,” said festival volunteer Barbara Andrews.

LITTLE RIVER, S.C.—As lots of attention is paid to Breast Cancer Awareness this month, Stephanie Campione believes one facet of that is sorely lacking.

Campione, a breast cancer survivor, believes more attention should be paid and information made available to what should be done after recovery, including alternatives.

Campione wants to tell survivors what they can do “after the cancer is gone.”

Campione said she had a trying experience just like everybody else.

CALABASH—Maj. Sergej Jakovenko Jr., son of Sergej and Martha Jakovenko of Calabash, was honored at a surprise luncheon last week for his 20 years of service with the United States Air Force.

The Oct. 15 celebration took place at Nocha White Calabash American Legion Post 503, where Jakovenko’s parents are members.

Dana Gause gazed skyward, through the freshly installed wooden trusses of her Habitat for Humanity house where afternoon sunlight, rather than the previous week’s rains, poured through.

“It’s a blessing,” said the Shallotte cook, recipient of Brunswick County’s first Women Build house, a Habitat project that drew more than 100 female volunteers from throughout the state for the week-long house-raising on Evans Circle that concluded Saturday. The event was orchestrated with assistance from the North Carolina Women’s Missionary Union.

What has contributed to Geneva Grissett’s long life of 100 years? 

An active faith in God, a loving family, and a healthy lifestyle with good food and plenty of exercise in the form of hard work.  

She was a great cook; just ask her family, her church family and the people who worked on her farm. She could also sew anything, from dresses to quilts. She gardened and raised chickens for meat and eggs, and she even built the stools people sat on around the dinner table.