280 Living
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Volume Issue 6 |2011 February | 4,February | 2011
Op
FE enin B7 tg h
neighborly news & entertainment
February Features
Local high school sweethearts await Valentine reunion By Kathryn Acree
Valentine’s Gift Guide pg 14-15
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Publisher’s Note Restaurant Showcase Business Spotlight Liberty Park Schools Teachers of the Year-Hoover HS Correspondents Athlete of the Month Brent Watson Valentines Gift Guide Network 280/Social280 Patsy Smith Recipe 280 Then and Now Irma Palmer 280 Business Happenings Library Happenings Rick Watson Paul Johnson Calendar of Events
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Courtney McLaughlin is a young bride in Jacksonville, North Carolina, awaiting the return of her Marine husband, Coty. Like many military wives, the Chelsea native says she keeps herself busy with life’s routine until he is back in her arms. Coty McLaughlin’s Marine unit deployed last year to Marjah, Afghanistan, one of the highest military combat areas in that country. “Since his MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) is infantry, that means he is going to be in high combat every day of his deployment,” Courtney said. Courtney is enrolled in nursing school at Coastal Carolina. “It keeps me very busy while he is away and I try to entertain my thoughts with activities that distract me from thinking of the alternative,” she said. Coty’s bride and their families anxiously await his upcoming leave. He is due back to the states around the second week in February, right before Valentine’s
Day. He gets leave from March 1 to April 1. Coty and Courtney’s story begins at Chelsea High School. “Coty and I met my junior year, his senior year at CHS,” Courtney said. “I just moved to Alabama and I didn’t know very many people. Coty was the quarterback of the football team and the pitcher on the baseball team. He definitely upheld his reputation of a jock. I was skeptical of him at first because I was never a big fan of dating jocks. However, we were introduced at a party that was held by mutual friends and I could tell that there was something so different about him.” The couple eventually double dated with friends and after that were “inseparable, like best friends,” Courtney said. Coty graduated from Chelsea High School in 2007 and received a two-year scholarship to Lawson State Community
See Reunion, PAGE 18
Residents reach out to children in need of homes By Kathryn Acree and Rick Watson Led by the Church of Brook Hills to become foster parents, Jake and Blair Kelley of North Shelby County brought home a baby boy in February 2010. “When we first went to get him, we had hardly anything to take care of a baby besides a crib,” Jake said. “By the end of the weekend, our faith family from Brook Hills had provided us with more clothes and toys than our tiny apartment could hold.” Their faith-inspired generosity didn’t stop there. “In August, we were surprised to get the call that another baby boy needed a (foster) home,” Jake said. “Although I was initially very nervous about how that would work, I knew that God had been faithful to supply every need we had with the first baby boy and that he would be faithful again. We brought him home and now we have two baby boys and life, while sometimes hectic, has never been more abundant.” The Kelleys are among a whole host
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Courtney and Coty McLaughlin
See Foster Parents, PAGE 16
The Bussell family: Gene, Benita, Taylor, Madi, Evan, and Neil
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