Volunteer's presence always noticed

Honey Shore has worn a lot of hats in her career - literally.

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As the volunteer public information officer for Martinez-Columbia Fire Rescue and the Columbia County Emergency Management Agency Dive Team, she carries a firefighter's helmet and baseball cap in her trunk.

Between her volunteer assignments, Shore manages to be a full-time senior labor and delivery nurse at Medical College of Georgia Hospital.

For 10 years, Shore has been a volunteer with the fire department. She is the contact for media at incidents such as fires and drownings. Shore also helps victims contact insurance companies and assistance agencies.

"I think the guys would much rather have me out there dealing with the media than handling a hose," said Shore, who prefers staying in the background to being in the limelight.

During the 1980s, Shore worked as an emergency medical technician and a radio news correspondent for WBBQ. First responders knew her as a comrade and recognized her when she was a reporter by her eclectic collection of sun hats. Listeners knew her for her call sign: Honey Shore, Mobile 4.

After being sunburned while reporting at an accident scene, Shore started wearing the sun hats. When she didn't have one on, first responders wouldn't recognize her, she said.

"So I started wearing the (hats), and it became my trademark," she said.

Shore said she does have one job that doesn't come with a hat - she's an Avon lady.

Shore didn't start out in journalism, medicine or public service. She graduated from Goucher College, in Maryland, after studying education and psychology.

Her medical career started one night in 1980 when her sister, a nurse, called her down to the hospital to help emergency room staff. She said she had no medical knowledge "other than what a mother knows from having four kids."

That night, as she held the hand of a little girl who had been thrown through the rear window of a car during a wreck, Shore decided to become an EMT, she said. Six years later, she became a labor and delivery nurse.

Shore came to public service honestly. Her father, a medic in World War II, kept a police scanner by his side and would wake up the family in the dead of night to go to a house fire, Shore said.

Shore said she loved her job in radio, because "they paid me to chase fire engines," something she did when she was a girl.

True loves for this grandmother include gardening and working in the delivery room at the hospital.

"I just love my mamas and babies," said Shore, adding she is still mesmerized by each birth.

Martinez-Columbia Fire Chief Doug Cooper said Shore, and other volunteers, are prized by the department.

"She's been a valuable asset to us," he said. "She works for free, and all our volunteers do a great job. We're proud of her."

Shore said she's honored to work with firefighters, and she intends to work as long as she can.

"I love it, and when I have to finally quit it will probably kill me," she said.

When she does retire, Shore said she'll still be listening to the scanner.