{"id":17372,"date":"2020-07-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-01T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sasee.wpenginepowered.com\/?post_type=essay&p=17372"},"modified":"2024-03-26T15:08:40","modified_gmt":"2024-03-26T19:08:40","slug":"finding-freedom-on-the-water-karen-berry","status":"publish","type":"essay","link":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/essay\/finding-freedom-on-the-water-karen-berry\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding Freedom on the Water: Karen Berry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Outdoors, on the water \u2013 this is where Karen Berry feels most at home. And as Vice President of Operations for Freedom Boat Club of the Grand Strand\u2019s six locations, the water is definitely her second home. \u201cI have a real passion for my work \u2013 it\u2019s all I ever do!\u201d laughed Karen as we began talking about her life.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, this savvy sea captain grew up far from the open water in Illinois. But her father and grandfather taught young Karen to love boating at an early age. \u201cWe would fish on lakes in a jon boat \u2013 those are some of my best childhood memories.\u201d<\/p>\n

Karen has two sons and three grandchildren who are everything to her. She lives happily in her home tucked away in Longs when she\u2019s not working. But this life, as wonderful as it is, came out of a horrible tragedy. \u201cIn 1983, my husband and I were living in Oklahoma City, and he traveled to spend time with his parents in Florida. They were out on a beach excursion when he was caught in an undertow and drowned.\u201d Karen tried to pick up the pieces of her life where she was, but decided she needed a fresh new start. \u201cMy brother was stationed at the former Myrtle Beach Air Force Base and encouraged me to come here with my boys. So, sight unseen, I moved and have been here ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot long after I got to Myrtle Beach, I met my best friend,\u201d Karen began. \u201cShe\u2019s a boat captain and was giving Hobie Cat rides at the Spanish Galleon. She\u2019s a small person, and I went along as her extra weight!\u201d Karen remembers daydreaming with her friend about the future \u2013 and that future always included being on boats. \u201cToday Captain Tamie has her 100-ton Master Captain\u2019s license and has operated boats that can carry 150 people, and I\u2019m VP of Operations for Freedom Boat Club of the Grand Strand.\u201d The two women have definitely made their dreams come true.<\/p>\n

\u201cLater on, Tamie designed and owned a 42 foot Catamaran, and ran a business called Getaway Cruises. I would mate for her on my days off. One day we were close to some shrimp boats, looking for dolphins, and saw a loggerhead turtle in distress.\u201d Tamie quickly came up with a plan to save the animal. \u201cShe pulled up beside the turtle, lowered the ladder, and I climbed down and helped pull the turtle onto our boat.\u201d The women took the turtle to nearby Bird Island where they stayed with the endangered loggerhead until the animal revived and swam back out to sea. \u201cIt was drowning in the shrimp net,\u201d Karen said, finishing her story. \u201cI will never forget that day. These are the experiences that keep me coming back to the water.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"I asked Karen to talk about the growing number of women boaters. \u201cI was on the National Marketing Council for all Freedom Boat Clubs, and we were always looking for new ideas. While there are always a lot of boating activities for guys, not as many are planned for women. I\u2019m a woman and enjoy boating, so I suggested we create something to empower women boaters.\u201d Today, a majority of the clubs have Freedom Boat Divas in place\u2013 women boaters go out on the water to learn new skills \u2013 and they stop for lunch and shopping. \u201cEvery time we go I teach them something, like nautical knots, radio etiquette, or docking skills,\u201d said Karen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love seeing women go out on the water on their own. I tell them that if I can do it, you can do it. I learned everything I know from Captain Tamie, and I\u2019ve taught hundreds of people in my 13 years with Freedom Boat Club.\u201d Karen added that we are never too old to learn to operate a boat safely. \u201cI\u2019ve taught women in their 50s and 60s that have never been at the helm of a boat.\u00a0 If you can drive a car, you can drive a boat.\u201d<\/p>\n

A big part of the joy of boating comes from the relationships you make on the water, and Karen gets a great deal of satisfaction from seeing her members make lifelong memories. Her members have shared some touching stories through the years and, this seasoned boat captain shared a recent story that brought both of us to tears. \u201cA guy joined not long ago and told the captain giving him his training that he joined for his five year old son. His son is battling cancer, and he and his wife wanted to fill the rest of their child\u2019s life with as many wonderful experiences as possible. When they asked their son what he wanted to do, letting him choose anything he wanted, he pointed at a boat and said he wanted to go boating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Our boats start in the $45,000 range and go up to $100,000, and are never more than three years old,\u201d Karen said, telling me about the benefits of Freedom Boat Club. \u201cWe spend a lot of time training new members and making sure they are comfortable on the waterways. We also offer ocean training if you are interested. You can keep the boat from sunrise to sunset \u2013 and we even allow members to keep the boats overnight, but the craft must be docked during the dark hours.\u201d Karen told me that boats are available seven days a week and are stored in the water, ready to go, and members can access boats at 235+ clubs in the United States, Canada and France.<\/p>\n

Freedom Boat Club of the Grand Strand also raises money for a wide variety of charities in the area, including over $100,000 over the past 13 years for the American Cancer Society\u2019s Relay for Life. \u201cWe also help Julie\u2019s Kids (a local DSS home for children) with Christmas each year, as well as Christmas in July to help with back to school supplies and clothing.\u201d Karen is also proud that her club recently participated in making masks for Tidelands Health. \u201cWe contributed supplies for more than 500 masks.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Karen takes her grandchildren boating, the family usually makes the trip from Wacca Wache Marina in Murrells Inlet, to Conway. \u201cIt\u2019s a wonderful trip down the Waccamaw \u2013 one of our area\u2019s most beautiful.\u201d As we finished up our chat, Karen said, \u201cSo many good memories are made on boats. This is my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

To learn more about Freedom Boat Club, call 843-732-3777 or find @freedomboatclubgrandstrand on social media.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Outdoors, on the water \u2013 this is where Karen Berry feels most at home. And as Vice President of Operations for Freedom Boat Club of the Grand Strand\u2019s six locations, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":17374,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_gspb_post_css":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","footnotes":""},"essay_type":[50],"essay-category":[],"class_list":["post-17372","essay","type-essay","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","essay_type-meet-your-neighbors"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/essay\/17372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/essay"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/essay"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/essay\/17372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"essay_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/essay_type?post=17372"},{"taxonomy":"essay-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/essay-category?post=17372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}