He`s So Original

Chris Stevenson, owner of Stevenson Fitness had a dream. He wanted to open up a different kind of gym. He wanted a gym with a neighborhood vibe and family environment. He wanted a gym where staff members from the front desk personnel to the class instructors to the personal trainers knew the names of the gym clientele. But most of all, he wanted to open a gym where people actually enjoyed going to the gym and working out instead dreading it. Through hard work, a knack for hiring the right people a

A passionate man all of his life, when Jere opened his antique shop in 1978, he never dreamed he’d find anything else to bring him such fulfillment. However, when his wife Elizabeth was diagnosed with breast cancer nearly 8 years ago, he witnessed the comfort and support she found and was able to give others through the Susan G. Komen foundation. Ever since then, Jere, alongside his wife, has been volunteering his time, energy, and funds to an organization he has seen make a difference in countless lives—including his own.

“Gender equality continues to be nonexistent in today’s society, and I believe that equality must be gained in order to end sexism, misogyny and homophobia." An advocate for across the board equality for all human beings, Jess, an openly gay 23-year-old, helps fight the constant battle to gain fair treatment for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered community.

Born in Germany to a military family, Nick was exposed to different cultures early on in his life—

Andrew says he was born with the entrepreneurial spirit: “I was always trying to make a buck washing neighbors’ cars or mowing lawns.” At age 15 he was building computers, and at 16 he wrote a spreadsheet application for a Fortune 500 company. First to New York, then Los Angeles, a growing family prompted relocation to Savannah, where he started United WebWorks, his web solution for small businesses. One morning everything changed, though, when he found himself a single dad.

 The Whynatte guys just landed in the streets Savannah.

Buck left L.A. for Savannah almost two years ago, and so far it hasn’t disappointed. He’s a veterinarian at Central Animal Hospital three days a week, and on his “off” days, he spends his time on his other career—the arts. Buck is an abstract artist, musician, and actor, and says living in Savannah has allowed him to find a way to dabble in all of the things he loves.

“I was drawn (to Savannah) by the reputation of SCAD, but also finding out that the whole town is sort of filled with creative people,” he says. “A lot of the things that I didn’t like about L.A. are corrected by moving to Savannah. I know my neighbors. I live very close to everything I do. I absolutely adored living in L.A., but it was time for something different.”

What’s your favorite thing about wearing a skirt? “I’m not sure. I think you girls have it over us guys in terms of clothing freedom.”

And your favorite thing about reading skirt!? “I don’t want this to sound negative, but I was surprised to find it so much more than a women’s magazine. I was really impressed with the way it was laid out. I like the large format; I like the kind of anything-goes subject matter and topics. I found it quite inspiring.”

Chandler, executive chef at the Savannah Golf Club, has been creating art from giant blocks of ice—weighing in at a whopping 300 pounds each and measuring more than three feet tall—for sixteen years. It’s a battle pitting Chandler against time; he has to work fast so that his medium doesn’t melt, but he has to be precise with his chainsaw and chisel in order to create the complicated 3-D sculptures.

They aren’t always your every day fish or swan, though—Chandler has been known to replicate pictures of family dogs or even, in one instance, a motorcycle. “It’s something that takes a whole lot of practice,” he says. “I get a lot of satisfaction when someone calls me back and says, ‘Wow!’”

What do you like best about wearing a skirt? “Two-for-one drinks on ladies’ night.”

What about reading skirt!? “Reading skirt! really gives my girlfriend and I great information on what’s going on in Savannah. I think it’s really honest on a women’s perspective.”
 

A year and a half ago, the Savannah-born, Emory-educated internist was referred a charming, 500-lb. patient who swore that if someone could just feed her right, she could lose weight. That patient was Ruby Gettinger, and Dr. Bradley’s medical advice has been spotlit on the Style Network’s hit reality show Ruby along with nutritional takeout meals from OurLife Fitness (formerly Hourglass), the company he helped found.

“Ruby’s a brave lady who’s motivating people tremendously,” he says. He became one of the state’s first obesity specialists in the 80s after realizing he could treat weight-related diseases like diabetes with diet and exercise more effectively than with medication alone, and says education is the key to improving Georgia’s status as third in the nation for childhood obesity. “It’s about baby steps. Every lost pound makes you healthier—it doesn’t matter if you have two hundred to go.”

What do you like best about wearing a skirt? "I’m enjoying the attention, but I’m not sure this pattern goes with my tie."

What do you like best about reading skirt!? "It features real people, and that inspires other real people accomplish their goals."

It began in 1936 with one small building where homeless people could find a clean place to sleep, but since Micheal’s arrival in 1987, Union Mission has grown into a social services umbrella that covers 13 buildings around Chatham County - including its own hospitals, an organic garden and its jewel culinary training program/popular lunch spot, Starfish Café.

This CEO prefers the term “non-profit management organization” over “charity” and is known for his radical practice of running Union Mission like a business.

“To end homelessness, you’re going have to buy your way out. We get people employable to the extent that they’re able.”

Though his clientele is mostly unskilled and often mentally ill, the emphasis is placed on “making everyone’s days productive. Everyone, no matter how broken, has worth.”

Weekends, the good reverend is does his best to be just another Tybee beach bum.

Favorite part of wearing skirt? I like embodying the wisdom that clothes don’t make a person; meaning you can’t judge someone by what they’re wearing. But I look good, don’t I?

The owner of Fleet Feet Sports helps organize Savannah’s many foot races from the Bridge Run to the Tybee Marathon, but the city’s first Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure holds special meaning.

“I lost my mom to breast cancer four years ago. While most races are about competition, this one is about remembrance.”

It’s also about survival: 75% of the funds raised at this month’s 5K will stay local for early detection and education programs. “It’s my passion to help out charities and keep people moving at the same time.”

Rain or shine, you can find Robert sprinting through the squares, exercising his “fitlosophy”: “Do something that gets your heart rate up once a day without getting mad,” adding that “an active town is a prosperous town.”

Run with Robert and the staff of skirt! Saturday, April 18: savannahraceforthecure.org.

What you like best about wearing a skirt? Running is easier – lots more leg room. Now when I’m selling these, I can speak from experience!

When this living historian walks into a classroom, eyes unglaze and slouchers straighten up. Wouldn’t you, if faced with General James Oglethorpe himself?

“By the time students see me they’ve already learned a bit about Georgia history, but being in character makes it relevant, not just dry facts in a book.”

More than just “a crackpot in costume,” the William & Mary graduate has been hooked on history since his first whiff of gunpowder as a Civil War re-enactor and got his professional start at Colonial Williamsburg.

“I own more historical clothing than anything else – maybe one good suit, two pairs of blue jeans.” Though he dabbles in other eras, he remains fascinated with the period of time when America was in its infancy.

“That the people could govern themselves as a democracy – it was, and still is, a revolutionary idea.”

Best thing about wearing a skirt? For General Oglethorpe, it was an act of diplomacy when he met with the Darien Highlanders. But I now understand why the Scots abandoned their kilts after meeting the Georgia mosquitoes.

Explaining the laws of physics to eight-graders might drive some to distraction, but this 13-year veteran of the classroom keeps kids curious about the world around them.

“The scientific method parallels the creative process,” says the Ellis Montessori science teacher, who moonlights as an abstract impressionist “highly inspired by the da-daists and Joseph Campbell.”

His mixed-media piece of discarded computer motherboards and other recycled materials showed in last year’s “Reincarnated” show at Gallery S.P.A.C.E., and this semester the committed environmentalist demonstrated the properties of plant cellulose to his students by making paper from scratch.

“With me, the art always has to come out somewhere.”

The TybeeIsland resident also sewed his wife’s wedding dress – and created his tie skirt especially for this interview. “My mom taught me to use a needle and thread when I was five, and I’ve been making things ever since.”

As a guest chef on Dinner: Impossible, Chef Lee faced down the challenge of preparing a meal for an unknown number of guests in a limited amount of time – an experience that helped him with his recent lightning-flash turnaround of the restaurant space at the Village at Wexford on Hilton Head Island.

“We didn’t invent the wheel, we just put new rims on,” says the former Floridian, whose architect wife took the photos for the walls as well as for the cookbook that’s flown out of local stores.

Serving up classically-influenced New Southern cuisine like Carolina chicken and sweet tea couscous, “Eat!” has been packed since day one with locals and Northern visitors – some of whom are surprised to learn that grits are the same thing as polenta.

After he’s done in the kitchen, the father of three likes to surf FollyBeach to blow off steam.

What does he like best about wearing a skirt?It’s funny, but it’s comfy. This orange lamé number is my wife’s favorite.