This week we’re covering the basics of rehabilitation – getting sick and injured sea turtles back home. Most of the sick and wounded coming through our doors can generally be grouped into a few categories: predatory (shark or other natural enemy), human interaction (boat strike, prop wounds and fishing gear entanglement), pollution of their habitat (plastic waste, litter, toxic chemicals, balloons), cold-stuns...
If you're an advid golfer, you wouldn't think golf and sand go well together - especially if you find yourself in a sandtrap. But for Pender County, golf and sand go hand in hand. On May 1-7, the Wells Fargo Golf Championship is coming to Eagle Point, a beautiful and exclusive golf course on the Intracoastal Waterway. One of the major parking areas will be in Hampstead, an unincorporated community in Pender...
HAMPSTEAD – Davis Canady and Emily Smith’s dance class schedule is exhausting just to read. They teach Beginner Rumba, Shag Basics, West Coast Swing, and a host of other styles, in addition to private lessons and classes for children. “I started teaching dance in 1992 – that’s 26 years this month,” said Davis, of Dancing Davis Studios. Nineteen years ago, Emily was...
HAMPSTEAD- Burney’s Sweets & More, a Southeastern North Carolina favorite, from Clinton to Southport, has opened in Hampstead. Located at 14542 US Hwy 17, in the Hampstead Station shopping plaza, Burney’s Sweets & More is owned by William and Milushka Reed. It’s a family franchise with the original Burney’s granddaughter working in Hampstead, as well as Milushka’s mother, Nora. ...
The Mountains to Sea Trail (MST) is 1170 miles of adventure from Clingman’s Dome in the Great Smokey Mountains to Jockey’s Ridge on the Outer Banks. Some portions are strenuous. Some paths meander along rivers and lakes. This year, the concept of the trail will be 40 years old this September. More than 700 miles is completed and the state recognized the MST as an official state trail in 2000. The...
Hampstead, NC - Team Inspire, a group of local women bound together by the desire to help families dealing with mental health and substance abuse issues, will run from Roanoke Rapids to Surf City, North Carolina this spring. The 170+more than 170-mile trek will begin on May 4. The group plans to cover more than 50 miles per day, arriving in Surf City May 7. A finish party is set for May 7, from 2 - 5 p.m. at Soundside...
What's new in Pender County Tourism? Click here.
Two favorite restaurants, loved by locals and vacationers alike, are relocating and expanding. Surf City BBQ is leaving their North New River Road location and moving to 13500 NC Hwy 50/210 in the Gateway Plaza. Surf City BBQ, owned by Guy and Rebecca Royal, opened nearly four years ago. Home Port Restaurant & Pub, located at 718 S. Anderson Blvd. in Topsail Beach, is moving to Hampstead Town...
Generally, the week after Christmas through mid-January is a quiet time in the tourism office. It’s the time we clean files, organize, and complete the last edits of the visitor guide. Not this year. And we’re not complaining. Pender County is one of the fastest growing counties in North Carolina and we can attest to that with the addition of several new businesses and expansion of others. This...
Things have been relatively calm at our hospital. We can thank the winter that didn’t happen - yet - for the fact that we’re not inundated with cold-stunned turtles - not that our volunteers are complaining in any way about it. We do have quite a few New England Kemp’s and “local” greens in our Sick Bay that are taking some extra time to recover from their exposure to the first arctic...
Here is this week's tourism update, filled with news and dates of upcoming events for tourism and hospitality businesses. Click here.
It’s not easy to ignore the siren song of our patients. Often it starts out with only one volunteer from a family signing on, but quickly a second, third or even more of them are cleaning tanks, treating wounds and educating our visitors during tours of the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center. Long-time volunteer Sandy Sly has been working with both our beach program and our hospital since...
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If you were feeling the chill when the arctic blast blew in this past weekend you weren’t alone. For any sea turtle still around our inshore waters when the temps plunged into the 20’s they were most likely beyond chilled – they were stunned – literally. Yep – it’s our (not favorite) season at the hospital: cold-stunning season. While we were enjoying our extended warmth into December...
On September 9, 1977, Howard Lee, then the NC Secretary of Natural Resources and Community Development, made an audacious speech to a National Trails Symposium at Lake Junaluska in Haywood County which has fired the imaginations and energy of NC trail enthusiasts ever since. In that speech, Lee recommended that North Carolina build a “state trail from the mountains to the coast, a trail leading through communities...
Pender County, Surf City and Topsail Beach have bounced back from Hurricane Matthew. Interstate 40 was closed for a short period of time but it is open and power has been restored. Moores Creek National Battlefield is currently closed and Poplar Grove Plantation has several trees down. For the latest happenings in tourism click here.
Hurricane Matthew has changed many of our area's activities and plans. For a list of postponements and cancellations, click here.
For the first time in 18 months, we missed a tourism update. We apologize for not sending out an update last week. We were not slacking though! We were on the road with Fireball Run: 10th Anniversary Edition. There will be more about this later, but rest assured, we promoted county tourism and raised awareness for America's missing children in the Race to Recover America's Missing Children. Click here to read...
The Coastal Crescent path of the Mountains to Sea Trail traverses Pender County. Just yesterday we met two hikers who were passing through! Here's the latest news from the Friends of the Mountains to Sea Trail. Click here.
You are invited to attend a public forum regarding the Mountains-to-Sea Trail. To read more, click here.
To learn what is new in tourism, click here, to read the Sept. 19 newsletter. This edition features updates on Ghost Walk tickets, Fireball Run, and important dates.
For upcoming events in Pender County, click here for the week's listing. If you're looking for something to do, or looking for a new hobby, there's plenty going on in Pender!
If you were planning a long Labor Day weekend in Pender County and Topsail Island, we have good news and bad news. The bad news first. A a tropical storm, Hermine, is passing through Friday night, according to the latest predictions by the National Weather Service. The good news is, Hermine will be out of here by Saturday morning. TS Hermine may cause localized flooding, delivering an estimated 5-10 inches of...
It's called the last weekend of summer, but in Pender County, our summer stretches into autumn. But for those of you who are looking for activities this weekend, we have suggestions. For a listing of Labor Day weekend events, click here.
Chris Letterloah, owner of Desperado Horse Farm, has been in business since 1990. But he said he was 5 years old when “got the germ” of horse loving. “It was 1964 and my dad won a pony named Stormy,” Letterloah said. “I remember that day. Stormy was my pony. Since then, I have ‘eat, breathe and live’ horses.” Since then, Letterloah developed a business that gallops...
