Criminal Defense Attorney in Skidaway Island, GA.

TYBEE ISLAND, Ga. (WTOC) - If you spot an old camper fixed up for the holidays, you might have found a member of this group. Sisters on the Fly is the largest women’s outdoor group in the country and dozens of its members are coming to Tybee Island for a Christmas Caravan Tour.

Tons of vintage trailers will be parked at River’s End Campground this weekend with their doors open. You will get the chance to take a look inside and meet the women who say they want to inspire others to camp, travel, fish and explore the outdoors.

“Everybody loves to see these trailers,” said Susan Kelleher with Sisters on the Fly.

Decked out in holiday décor, more than 30 vintage trailers will be open this weekend for tours.

“One cuter than the next.”

The trailers are being brought to the island by members of the national organization, ‘Sisters on the Fly.’

“They started out as just girls who love to camp.”

Susan Kelleher is a business owner on Tybee Island and is also a 10-year member of the southeast division of ‘Sisters on the Fly.’ She says the organization was started out west for women with similar hobbies - camping and fly fishing. Now, she says, there are about 20,000 members.

“Idea caught on and more and more women wanted to join.”

Kelleher says one of the unique elements of the organization is that the women camp in renovated vintage trailers. Trailers many people enjoy taking a peek inside of.

“They all love to talk about their trailers. How they fixed them up, what they did to them, what their themes are, there’s cool painting on the outside. All around the trailers they’ll have all their vintage collections.”

Kelleher says she wanted to use their trip to Tybee as a way to raise money for a local nonprofit. She says when you buy a ticket for a trailer tour, the money will go toward the Tybee Post Theater.

“Without support like that we will not be able to do things in this space,” said Evan Goetz, Executive Director of the Tybee Post Theater.

Goetz says now that the theater is 100 percent up and running again, this money will help fund them in many ways.

“It pays for our staff too. We pay our concession stand workers and our house managers and our technical person. Any little funds like that just helps us operate and keep our doors open,” Goetz said.

Trailer tours are on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. If you’d like to buy a ticket you can do so on the Tybee Post Theater’s website or at the Seaside Sisters store on HWY 80. Sisters on the Fly will also be walking in the island’s Christmas parade this Friday.

Find out more about Sisters on the Fly by clicking here.

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Tybee Island Fire Department's (TIFD) new fire chief, Jeremy Kendrick, kicked off his first day on the job on Monday. The department was without a chief for nearly half a year after the previous head, Matt Harrell, resigned in June amid sexual harassment and bullying allegations. Kendrick, a Georgia native with 25 years experience under his belt, said his goal is to "uplift the team's motivation and give the department a fresh look" for the future.

"The job of the fire chief is to take care of people and that's going to be my goal," said Kendrick.

Previous plans for Chatham Emergency Management Services (CEMS) to provide an interim fire chief did not go through. Instead, TIFD lieutenants handled day-to-day operations as the city fast tracked its search for a replacement.

During that period, Tybee Island City Manager Shawn Gillen said he's been working with the HR director and employee focus groups to develop new policies and additional training to create the avenues where people can report similar issues about workplace behavior.

Gillen said a review board made up of city staff and community members interviewed about five individuals after selecting candidates from dozens of applications from across the Southeast. After rounds of interviews and a shadowing period for each candidate, it was Kendrick who stood out as the best fit, said Gillen.

"It was a tough decision," he said, "It was a good problem to have, to pick from great candidates like that."

Kendrick, who is coming off a two-and-a-half year stint as the division chief at the Southern California Logistics Fire Department, said he is excited to reunite with his family in Georgia and work on Tybee Island, which he frequented as a child.

"I really put my heart and soul into it and it felt like it was the right thing," said Kendrick.

Gillen said Kendrick's Georgia roots and extensive experience ultimately led to the panel's decision.

"What impressed us a lot about Jeremy was that he saw every issue that we have been seeing...he also recognized a lot of things that we don't know about," said Gillen, "He was able to make a very thorough assessment in a three-day period."

Both Kendrick and Gillen said increasing the TIFD's services, namely emergency services, will be a long-term goal. Currently, Chatham Emergency Management Services (CEMS) serves the city and usually stations one emergency ambulance on the island. When that ambulance is dispatched, another cover unit is sent in, according to CEMS CEO Chuck Kearns.

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"Tybee is a big tourist area and the potential for emergency services is really there with the amount of population that comes in," said Kendrick.

Tybee has a permanent population of a little more than 3,000 residents, which can multiply ten times over the weekend during the tourist season, putting a strain on the island's public safety departments. The fire department currently employs 15 full-time fire fighters along with part-timers. About three to four employees are on each shift, said Gillen.

Gillen added that the fire department has come a long way from three years ago when there were just three full-time firefighters. "And even before that, it was all volunteer," said Gillen.

"We are in a unique position being so isolated," said Gillen, "It's an ongoing challenge so we're looking at what we can do here locally and what we can do partnering with Chatham Fire (CEMS)."

At his previous post with Southern California Logistics Fire Department, Kendrick said he oversaw daily operations including fire suppression and services with the city of Victorville, the Federal Aviation Administration side of the airport, deployments for special assignments with the military, as well as other special operations.

His past experience also includes a stint as captain with the Sallyport Global Holdings Fire Service in the Kirkuk Iraq Department of Defense and a brief period with the Savannah River Site Department of Energy.

After two-and-a-half decades, Kendrick said one of the most important things he's learned in the field is humility.

"The day you think you know it all is the day you need to go home and retire," said Kendrick."

The other big lesson, he said, is respecting personnel no matter their rank.

"One thing that I can say that has really been successful for the fire service is having trust and a bond with your personnel and knowing that you've got their back and they've got your back," said Kendrick, "I want to treat everybody with the same respect...it's just paramount for any department or organization."

Nancy Guan is the general assignment reporter covering Chatham County municipalities. Reach her at nguan@gannett.com or on Twitter @nancyguann.

Georgia drivers are one step closer to being able to showcase the Tybee Island lighthouse on their license plates. The city announced the winning plate design on Thursday, which features the state's oldest and tallest lighthouse against a clear blue sky.

A panel of four judges including State Rep. Jesse Petrea (R-Savannah), who sponsored the license plate bill, and Tybee Island Mayor Shirley Sessions voted between two finalists. The group chose the design that reflects a more realistic portrayal of the city's centuries-old lightstation.

"The lighthouse is definitely a beacon, not only for Tybee, but also for Georgia," said Sessions.

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Residents aren't able to tack the plate onto their cars just yet. In order for the new tag to become available to drivers, 1,000 pre-orders must be made in order for the bill to pass in the 2022 legislative session. Right now there's 350, said Tybee Island Historical Society (TIHS) Executive Director Sarah Jones.

Pre-orders must be made by January 2022 on tybeelighthouse.org.

Partial proceeds from the sales will go towards the TIHS, which will aid in the repainting of the lighthouse in the upcoming years, a $500,000 endeavor, according to Jones.

"I know Tybee is just one of those communities that gets in there in the ninth hour and gets it done," said Jones.

The plates are $27 to pre-order, $25 of which will go to the Tybee Island Historical Society. The other $2 pays for the online processing of the pre-order.

If the bill passes the 2022 legislative session, $25 from the pre-order will be deducted from the $55 total cost of the plate. If the bill doesn't pass, order holders don't get their money back. It will be considered a donation to the TIHS.

Jones points out that if the bill passes it will be a sustainable funding system for the TIHS. Every year people renew their tag, a percentage of the fee will continue to go towards the organization.

Petrea, who grew up on Isle of Hope, notes that this will be the first Georgia license plate to have a lighthouse design.

"I wanted to allow people to have a really neat, beautiful new tag that they didn't have previously," said Petrea, "and to do it in such a way that we help support the organization that preserves and protects it."

Nancy Guan is the general assignment reporter covering Chatham County municipalities. Reach her at nguan@gannett.com or on Twitter @nancyguann.

Walking along Tybee beach Friday after work, Jodi Moody saw a few jellyfish in the surf. Then she rounded the north end of the island. A few turned into "a jamboree of jellyfish."

Thousands of cannonball jellyfish had washed up, covering an area several yards wide all the way down the beach.

"It was a little intimidating, honestly, because I've never seen that, Moody said Monday. "And I do walk at the beach pretty frequently for years now, and had not seen that."

She posted her photos to Facebook and garnered hundreds of reactions.

The fact of them washing up was not as unusual as the quantity of them, Tybee Island City Manager Shawn Gillen said.

"It happens every year, maybe not as concentrated in one single area as that," he said.

Cannonball jellyfish can't swim. Instead they go where the winds and currents take them. A strong easterly wind on Friday pushed the jellyfish onshore, not only on Tybee but other Georgia beaches as well, including Jekyll, said Tyler Jones, a spokesman for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

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"It's just a regular occurrence," Jones said. "It isn't like a sign of the apocalypse or anything."

Cannonballs are most prominent species of jellyfish in the Southeast, according to the Ga DNR web site. During the summer and fall they make up over 16% of biomass on the coastline.

"They primarily eat zooplankton and red drum larvae," the web site notes. "When disturbed or threatened, the cannonball jellyfish will secrete a toxic mucus that will harm small fish, and drive away most predators."

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Although they're generally considered to be non-stinging and no threat to beachgoers, Tybee Island Public Works Director Danny Carpenter advises people to avoid handling them.

"If you're allergic the sting (from the mucus) can be significant," he said.

Sea turtles eat cannonballs and so do some people. In fact, cannonball jellyfish are the second largest fishery in Georgia by weight, Tyler said. Using shrimp trawlers, fishermen scoop up massive quantities of cannonballs. They're processed in Darien then exported, mostly to Asian markets where dried jellyfish are prized for their texture.

By Monday on Tybee's north end, the odor of the washed up jellyfish announced their presence as they decomposed. But Tybee does not plan to remove them.

"They wash up on the beach and they get stranded there and become food for the birds and the crabs," Gillen said. "And then the next tide will wash them out or they'll get buried in the sand. We just let nature take its course."

Mary Landers is the environment and health reporter at the Savannah Morning News. Contact her at 912-655-8295. Twitter: @MaryLandersSMN

Walking along the beach at Tybee Island in Georgia on Friday after work, Jodi Moody saw a few jellyfish in the surf. Then she rounded the north end of the island. A few turned into "a jamboree of jellyfish."

Thousands of cannonball jellyfish had washed up, covering an area several yards wide all the way down the beach.

"It was a little intimidating, honestly, because I've never seen that," Moody said Monday. "And I do walk at the beach pretty frequently for years now, and had not seen that."

She posted her photos to Facebook and garnered hundreds of reactions.

That the jellyfish washed up was not as unusual as the quantity of them, Tybee Island City Manager Shawn Gillen said.

"It happens every year, maybe not as concentrated in one single area as that," he said.

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Cannonball jellyfish can't swim. Instead, they go where the winds and currents take them. A strong easterly wind on Friday pushed the jellyfish onshore, not only on Tybee, but other Georgia beaches as well, said Tyler Jones, a spokesman for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

"It's just a regular occurrence," Jones said. "It isn't like a sign of the apocalypse or anything."

Cannonballs are the most prominent species of jellyfish in the Southeast, according to Georgia's DNR website. During the summer and fall, they make up over 16% of biomass on the coastline.

"They primarily eat zooplankton and red drum larvae," the website says. "When disturbed or threatened, the cannonball jellyfish will secrete a toxic mucus that will harm small fish, and drive away most predators."

Although they're generally considered to be non-stinging and no threat to beachgoers, Tybee Island Public Works Director Danny Carpenter advises people to avoid handling them.

"If you're allergic, the sting (from the mucus) can be significant," he said.

Sea turtles eat cannonballs and so do some people. In fact, cannonball jellyfish are the second-largest fishery in Georgia by weight, Tyler said. Using shrimp trawlers, fishermen scoop up massive quantities of cannonballs. They're processed in Darien, then exported, mostly to Asian markets, where dried jellyfish are prized for their texture.

By Monday on Tybee's north end, the odor of the washed up jellyfish announced their presence as they decomposed. But Tybee does not plan to remove them.

"They wash up on the beach and they get stranded there and become food for the birds and the crabs," Gillen said. "And then the next tide will wash them out or they'll get buried in the sand. We just let nature take its course."

Mary Landers is the environment and health reporter at the Savannah Morning News. Contact her at 912-655-8295. Twitter: @MaryLandersSMN