I don’t consider myself a writer. Not even close. I’ve often imagined the internal conversations of my six prior editors at Savannah Morning News, and left “good luck editing!” at the end of some of the weekly columns I submitted.
Knowing how difficult my freestyle writing is to edit, I hope this column is easier because this is the last time I will be writing a column for a paper that has given me a platform to spotlight the coolest people and events this city has to offer.
Twelve years ago, I ran across a young girl from SMN named Liberty Powers who asked me where I was uploading all the pics I was taking at events around town. At that time, I was uploading to the New South Café website and was thrilled to be asked to provide photos for SMN's Spotted section.
Fast forward another year to when I saw a LinkedIn post from SMN editor Mona Lisa Castle asking for a weekly social scene writer. I called that woman relentlessly. Months later Mona Lisa replied, "Write about an event and give us pics with names."
Credit: Bunny Ware / For Savannah Morning News
Credit: Bunny Ware / For Savannah Morning News
Twenty photos and 1,200 words later, I started on a journey that has taken me to the top of the Coastal Empire Fair Ferris wheel to watch fireworks, to sailboat regatta races, from backstage at concerts to tea parties in Johnson Square. The invites poured in, and even though I struggled every week to put my rapid fire thoughts into coherent sentences, I did it because I got to highlight the people that we don’t always hear about.
Now, when I pull up at the Westin, the valet guys yell out a greeting and run to pose because "my grandmama is gonna see me in the paper." When I see Lisa Scarborough from Coastal Pet Rescue, she reminds me of the time I told her, "Lisa, you have to be nice to people, dress up and wear makeup because you know that I am going to take your picture!" And one of my favorites was when I took pics of local police officers like Lt. Dana Purvis, along with Cpt. Michelle Halford and Cpt. Shamonica Badie, and remembered when they were young officers.
Credit: Bunny Ware / For Savannah Morning News
Credit: Bunny Ware / For Savannah Morning News
Documenting the history of this eccentric town means you get to cover the St. Patrick's Day events where you meet Irish Prison Honor Guard lads like Simon Duffy and Peter Guinan, and track them down every year for their return. You get to call Susan Catron and ask the managing editor, "I know I don't cover birthday parties but it's John Davis' 50th birthday, what do you think?"
Her answer, "It's John Davis, GO!" I usually never ask permission to cover events, and a lot of times I would show up without calling ahead because I knew people like Bonnie Rachel at Faith Equestrian Therapeutic Center would greet me with open arms. The number of nonprofit invitations grew so large that I had to book a year out to make sure I would not miss events that needed every little bit of coverage I could give them.
Credit: Bunny Ware / For Savannah Morning News
Credit: Bunny Ware / For Savannah Morning News
From the early days of events with the 200 Club, and my most favorite event of all, Low Country Down Syndrome’s Night of Champions, being privileged to cover the Historic Savannah Foundation Gala, where magic comes to life in a moonlit night underneath oaks and twinkling lights, to so many events at the Landings that the guards know my Jeep, I feel like I’ve done it all.
A few years ago, I was lucky enough to travel the country taking photos of ribbon-cuttings for Virginia College. I would stay gone for a few weeks and fly back to shoot two events, then zoom back out because I didn’t want to miss a week writing. I have put the finishing touches on this column from a McDonald’s in Alaska, a library in New York, and hotel lobby computers across the country when Wifi was spotty. Then, during COVID-19, I switched to reporting all the good deeds this benevolent city of do-gooders was able to pull off.
Credit: Bunny Ware / For Savannah Morning News
Credit: Bunny Ware / For Savannah Morning News
Through it all, I have been blessed to do what I do best, not so much by writing stories, but by meeting people and connecting them to who they need to know to become the best they could be. Now well-known folks like Greg Lard, Marianne Ganem-Poppell, Chris Sweat, Mia Mance and Tara O'Sullivan – some of my closest friends–were spotlighted more than they wanted and my world has become a better place because they are in it.
I’m not leaving Savannah. I’m still going to be here doing what I do: connecting people. And as I write this final paragraph, I want to say “thank you.”
Credit: Bunny Ware / For Savannah Morning News
Credit: Bunny Ware / For Savannah Morning News
Thank you all for letting me ramble, for letting me take up valuable print space for a light, fluffy social column that didn’t quite fit in with real news of the world, but somehow fit so perfectly in the most magnificent city in the South! This has been the most rewarding, door opening, (I never got any better as a writer) experience of my life!
Invite Bunny Ware to your gathering, gala or other social event. Contact her at 912-844-1122 or email at bunnyware@aol.com. See more columns by Bunny at SavannahNow.com/Lifestyle/.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Thank you for the many years of covering the coolest people and events that Savannah has to offer
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