Shirley Wright, Chair

Shirley Wright retired to Tybee Island in 2009. In earlier years she graduated from Belmont University (B.S) and the University of Tennessee (MSSW) and enjoyed her career as a social worker/Executive Director of children’s homes and multi-service nonprofit organizations in Tennessee, Texas, Missouri, and Georgia. She has a passion for women’s and children’s issues, racial and social justice, and transparent, effective government. She has been a member of Forever Tybee for 10 years and has served as President since 2017. In addition to volunteering with Forever Tybee, she works with the League of Women Voters Coastal GA and conducts candidate forums for both organizations. For fun, she enjoys reading, writing, travel, and creating photobooks. 

Bill Cannon

A full-time Tybee resident since 2003, Bill is a retired Forest Products Executive with specialization in Land Management and Real Estate. He is an active volunteer with several nonprofits on Tybee including Rising Tyde Food Pantry, Forever Tybee, Sons of the American Legion, and Tybee Beautification Association. Bill enjoys the Tybee lifestyle which includes biking, kayaking, classes at the YMCA, and walking on the beach.

Cary Christopher

Cary Christopher was an elementary teacher in Asheville, NC. After retiring in 2020, Cary and her husband Jimmy moved to Tybee in 2021. That same year, Cary attended a Candidate Forum sponsored by Forever Tybee and became a member. She has served as an Observer, attending meetings and providing summaries to Forever Tybee members. In October, 2023, Cary coordinated Forever Tybee's annual yard sale and has plans to make the event bigger and better in future years. She also volunteers at the Post Theatre and Rising Tyde Food Pantry.

Sharon Edwards

Sharon and her husband Don moved to Tybee in 2017 but they had been visiting her mother on the island since 2001. Sharon has been a teacher of mathematics for K-12 grades and at the college level. In retirement she continues to teach in an online format. Passionate about math, during the pandemic Sharon offered to tutor every level of math to anyone who needed it. She is a new grandparent to two foster babies who are hoping to be adopted soon by her daughter and son-in-law. For hobbies, Sharon enjoys cooking, baking, reading, and traveling. Sharon and Don have been Forever Tybee members for over five years and in 2023 they were responsible for the successful Meet and Greet event for candidates. Sharon is eager to plan more social activities to bring Forever Tybee members and neighbors together..

Don Hicks

Don Hicks graduated from North Carolina State University (NCSU) with a degree in Chemical Engineering in 1982. His career path took him in a different direction and he spent ten years in the commercial roofing industry in consulting, technical services, and outside sales where he discovered a knack for helping people solve problems that became the common thread for his life.
He met his wife, Bonny, on a blind date in 1986. The first date cemented their relationship, and they became inseparable and married in 1988. Don then worked at Overhead Door Company of Atlanta in outside sales from 1993 to 2020 when he retired. His focus was to help customers solve building code-related problems. He and Bonny moved to their forever home on Tybee Island in the same month he retired. Bonny and Don have a passion for Carolina Shag Dancing. They teach free lessons to anyone who wants to learn and have taught nearly 100 people since moving to Tybee. They belong to five shag clubs and frequently dance three times per week in and out of town. Don has also played pickleball for three years. In 2021, Don and Bonny discovered Forever Tybee at the annual yard sale. They embraced the concept of encouraging ethical and transparent government through information, programs, and citizen engagement. Don has been an observer for various meetings each month for three years.

Martha Makel

Martha worked many years in the restaurant and catering business before becoming an elementary reading specialist volunteer and working with the nonprofit Christmas in April (now Rebuilding Together) as a volunteer, board member, and treasurer. At Christmas in April she worked to improve housing for Nelson County's most vulnerable residents and developed a love of building restoration. After 20+ years of owning a business specializing in rebuilding vintage aluminum trailers, Martha and her husband, Dave, closed the business and moved to Tybee. In 2017 they became full time residents. In addition to restoration and design, Martha enjoys her seven children, grandchildren, art, the beauty of Tybee, cooking and entertaining, volunteering with the Tybee Island Marine Science Center, and being with her All Saints family.   

Dawn Shay

Dawn DiBenedetto Shay is a Chatham County native and Tybee has always been an integral part of her life as a day tripper on Sundays with her family, on summer vacations, and visiting her parents when they moved to Tybee full-time in the mid-eighties. Dawn shares her love of the beach and ocean with her two daughters and four grandchildren. She and her husband Sam retired and moved to Tybee full-time in 2021. She became a Forever Tybee Observer in 2022. Dawn’s career was spent as an Information Technology Director and Project Manager running projects and creating successful teams. Dawn wants to help ensure that Tybee and its beaches, salt marshes, sea life, and unique environment are here for generations to enjoy. You can often find Dawn at Alley3 and paddling on the local waters in her outrigger canoe. In addition, she enjoys performing in Tybee parades as part of the Tybee Island Beach Brigade and loves being on turtle patrol with the Tybee Sea Turtle project both on Tybee and Little Tybee.

Dale Williams

Dale spent some of his 20’s and most of his 30’s living and travelling outside the US, mostly in Europe, mostly courtesy of the US Air Force. This experience had an outsized influence on his view of the world, but he would tell you that moving to Tybee Island in 1994 to join his now wife, Debbie Kearney was the best decision he ever made. Dale’s formal education in Psychology then Business, combined with a love of the outdoors, help explain his unusual career path, mostly involving small businesses in the outdoor industry. He started and sold, or took to their logical conclusion, several small businesses on Tybee (Sea Kayak Georgia, The Outdoor Inn, Wave Paddler). He’s still involved with kayak-based adventure travel programs and wholesale kayak distribution.