The Winner Circle awards were presented during the Visit NC 365 tourism conference, hosted by Greenville Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Jean Beasley was introduced by Tammy Proctor, the director of Pender County Tourism.
It was under the direction of Jean Beasley, the center's founder and director, that the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue & Rehabilitation Center became reality. Beasley organized a small group of volunteers, the Topsail Turtle Project, in 1996, in an empty lot on Topsail Beach. They operated in a 900-square-foot space until 2013, when the 13,000-square-foot center in Surf City opened its doors. At any given time, the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue & Rehabilitation Center may house between 40 and 50 rescued sea turtles. As a former teacher, Jean believes the best way to protect and preserve sea turtles is through education and understanding. Under her direction the sea turtle facility includes educational programs designed to provide students a "hands-on, feet-wet" learning experience. In addition to the education efforts, the center focuses on conservation with a rehabilitation area, a turtle ICU, satellite tracking, and a daily sweep of all 26 miles of Topsail Island each morning from May to August during nesting time. The center is 100 percent staffed by dedicated volunteers. Jean has been honored with many awards including the Oceana's Ocean Hero Award, NC's Wildlife Federation Governor's Conservation Achievement Award: Conservationist of the Year, and Animal Planet's Hero of the Year.
Jim Early, a Henderson native and longtime Winston-Salem resident, is a Wake Forest University law school graduate. More than three decades into his law career, Early embarked on a journey that led him out of the courtroom to chart a course celebrating North Carolina barbecue. After six months of travel covering 18,000 miles, he published The Best Tar Heel Barbecue: Manteo to Murphy in 2002. The next year he took his passion for the pit further and established the North Carolina Barbecue Society to preserve North Carolina's barbecue tradition, raise awareness of the state's standing as the "Cradle of Cue," and promote pitmasters who continued to cook over wood. From that quest came the society's Historic Barbecue Trail, which has mapped a decade's worth of barbecue pilgrimages and generated extensive media coverage. In 2007, Early closed his law office to focus on Barbecue Society. Its activities include three yearly BBQ Boot Camp & Judges School events, which have been featured in Ladies Home Journal, CNNgo.com and other outlets. Early has written two other books, Reflections: The Memories and Recipes of a Southern Cook and Shining Times -- The Adventures and Recipes of a Sportsman, which explores his love of hunting and cooking.
A.C. Hall graduated from Wake Forest with a degree in biology, studied at N.C. State's School of Design and completed his master's degree in City Planning from Chapel Hill. He became the Raleigh City planner in 1952 and worked in that position for 30 years. In 1960, he began the vision and design of the Atlantis Lodge. The lodge began welcoming guests in 1963 and by 1973 all of the buildings were complete as it stands today. Whether it was the ocean views, the lush maritime vegetation, the abundant wildlife, the beautiful beach, or the inimitable hospitality, the Atlantis was an instant hit. A pillar of the community, Hall even designed a city seal, which was adopted when the town of Pine Knoll Shores was incorporated in 1974. The was no town hall, so the Atlantis Lodge served that function. Hall served as a member of numerous hotel and motel boards on the state and national levels and proved instrumental in getting the law changed to allow dogs in motel sleeping rooms. To this day, staff at the lodge leave dog treats with welcome packages for canine guests. Hall celebrated his 90th birthday in January of 2017.
