2022 Work trip

2022 Work Trip to Great Island Camp, South Core Banks

March 2-6, 2022

Tom Monaco

We took a gamble in scheduling our annual work trip to Great Island Camp in early March before the cabins opened up for the season. The gamble paid off since the weather cooperated and we had full access to all the cabins in the camp. Nineteen hardy volunteers from both CBSFC and DIFF showed up on the island on March 2 courtesy of Mack Best running three ferry trips on that day. Scott McCormick facilitated our efforts by organizing the work party into four crews in advance of our arrival on the island.

Painting cabin exteriors was the park service’s number one priority and several of the volunteers hit the ground running on March 2 scraping cabins in preparation for painting. Scott McCormick, Darrell McCormick, and Johnny Ray prepared cabins 1 and 2 that day so the paint crew could begin painting early the next day. Vickie King, Scott King, Andrew Craven, Scott McCormick and Johnny Ray continued scraping cabins ahead of the spray paint crew. Scott and Johnny replaced rotten panels on a number of cabins when they encountered them as they scraped.

Rather than our usual process of covering windows prior to spray painting Ann Beeson and others roll painted an area around each window. Matt Doby who ran one of the spray guns used a shield around each window to prevent spray drift on the windows. Roy Byrd led the paint crew and included Mike Kirn and Matt Doby operating the spray guns. Kent Wiggins and Joe Gaughran helped move ladders and kept Roy supplied with paint. A total of 13 cabins (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,11,12,13,14, and 16) were painted over two days. Portions of other cabins were painted where rotten panels were replaced.

The existing fish cleaning station was expanded and a new station was constructed adjacent to the existing station. Lee Hege led this team which consisted of Darrell McCormick, Jimmy Wade, Tyler Buchanan, and Jim Prescott. A raised platform was constructed on the high side of the existing fish cleaning station to facilitate its use. Ralph Lassiter and Pat Ragan roughed in the plumbing for the stations using materials that were on hand. We now have 20 cleaning spots on the two fish cleaning stations.

The team also repaired the dump station ramp and also made major repairs to cabins 21 and 22.

Fourteen screen doors were painted by Ralph Lassiter and Pat Ragan in preparation for them to be installed at various cabins.

I was not able to observe all the activities underway as my primary responsibility was to prepare meals and cleanup. Am sure I missed some of the chores done by all. My thanks to Ralph Lassiter for providing two of the evening meals.

We also recognize Will Platt for having all the materials on site, Jill Jaworski who made the cabin arrangements possible and visited us on Thursday, the park service staff who assisted us when needed and Jeff West for making this unique work trip possible. A bonus on the trip is that all had a chance to fish on Saturday after all the work was done and the surf was full of puppy drum with almost everyone catching a few.

2022 Work Crew in Action