DeWayne Grice shares Chamber's Community Connector award with Jonathan and Stephanie Smith - Grice Connect

Grice Connect founder and publisher, DeWayne Grice, was honored by the Statesboro-Bulloch Chamber of Commerce with the Community Connector of the Year award at the 3rd Annual State of the Region on Monday evening October 21, 2024. During his acceptance speech he offered to share this award with Pittman Park UMC pastors Jonathan and Stephanie Smith, who have exemplified community spirit through their tireless efforts to support those in need during recent hurricanes.

East Georgia Regional Medical Center (EGRMC) CEO Stephen Pennington presented the award to Grice. During his introduction he discussed Grice's over four decade legacy of making a difference in our community. He shared how Grice has impacted him personally through their friendship and in his role as CEO of EGRMC. Stephen opened his coat jacket and reveled he was wearing one of DeWayne's iconic, black Grice Connect logo's shirt.

Here is the transcript of DeWayne's acceptance speech:

"Thank you Stephen. Stephen and I had lunch on Wednesday and I wondered why he wanted a Grice Connect shirt. Whitney Lavoie, Grice Connect’s Manager Editor is in the back of the room and she is very excited to have someone else in the call rotation. Stephen if you could see her before you leave.

Standing here and listening to all these wonderful updates we all realize what a wonderful place we choose to live here in Bulloch County.

You know, for 40 years, many of us in this room have worked to get to the moment we are at today.

And can you imagine that the only way our story was told was through social media and Facebook?

Think about that.

There are a lot of communities in America where local newspapers and local news are disappearing. We refuse to be one of those communities.

I was working as the Business Editor of the Statesboro Herald when they dropped it down to three days a week. It was at that point that I decided to leave and made the decision to start Grice Connect. Because I knew that the stories I was seeing on social media were not representative of the character and the fiber of this community that we all worked so hard to build and love so much.

I knew we deserved better as a community.

So every morning my team starts our day looking for what's right with our community.

What's good in our community?

You know, it's easy to tear people down.

It's difficult to build people up.

And when we have an opportunity to lift people up, that's when you connect and pull a community together.

Nothing was more evident of this than what we have witnessed in our community coming together in the last two hurricanes we've had.

Over the last 14 days, you know, we have seen our community come together in extraordinary ways.

Just two months ago, when Hurricane Debby struck at midnight, I got a call from Bulloch County EMA Director Cory Kemp, who's five months on the job and I hope Corey you've got a two year contract because you've had a tough five months. But he's done an incredible job leading us through these disasters.

Corey called and he said, you know, DeWayne, we've got a fear of failure a couple dams.

If those dams break, we're going to need to evacuate people from their homes.

We're getting boats ready now.

In fact, they were stationed here at Ogeechee Tech. Swiftwater boat rescue teams, and he said, we need a place to put the evacuees.

Can you help me?

I picked the phone up and I called Jonathan and Stephanie Smith at Pittman Park UMC at 12 am, and I said, Jonathan, he answered the phone and I said, this is what we got.

He says, I'll meet you at the church in 15 minutes and 15 minutes later our community was in that church setting up a makeshift shelter.

Y'all within 30 minutes of finishing that shelter, citizens rescued by boats were arriving by fire truck, by police cars and by ambulances. People after people after people in their nightclothes, that have been rescued from their homes by our public safety members in the middle of the night because floodwaters were approaching their houses, and they had a place of respite because Jonathan answered that call.

And you know, for the next few days, he and his wife staffed that shelter in their church until every one of those citizens in our community had a safe place to go.

Just a few mornings ago, on a Friday morning, we all woke up to tremendous devastation caused by Hurricane Helene.

We didn't have power, you know, our community was on our knees.

My phone rang, it was Director Kemp.

Director Kemp says, DeWayne, this is bad.

We've got one power company that's completely destroyed, we've got another one that's on their knees.

We've got a long road to recovery.

We need to open a shelter.

So I said we got this, and I picked the phone up, I called Jonathan and remarkably he answered again.

And I explained to Jonathan what we had going on and he said we have no power or water at my house and to be honest with you I don't even know how I can get out of my driveway.

He said, but I'll head to the church and if I can get to the church and the church has power, we'll help you.

An hour later he called to let me know that the church had power.

He said, announce to the community we're open and we'll help.

For the next five days, Jonathan and Stephanie and his kids slept in that church to make sure our community was protected.

FOR FIVE DAYS.

That's the story of why this community is so remarkable.

But that's why, Stephen, I can't accept this award.

I can't take an award for just telling the story.

Jonathan, please come up here and accept this award.

This award goes to these people, Jonathan and Stephanie Smith (Stephanie had to leave already).

Along with them there are so many heroes, our community.

This is what makes a community incredible, it people like this and answering the call when our community needs them, so thank you!"

Jonathan Smith came forward and joined DeWayne in accepting the award.

"Stephanie and I are deeply honored to be recognized by DeWayne as Community Connectors. We are grateful to be part of such a remarkable community here ni Statesboro and blessed to serve alongside a church family that responds with compassion whenever a need arises," said Pastor Jonathon Smith. "Pitman Park United Methodist Church si committed to being a beacon of hope and resilience for our neighbors, and we look forward to continuing this meaningful work together. Thank you for this recognition. It inspires us to keep building connections that make lasting impact.