The families of three fishermen who went missing off the Georgia coast have organized a “Light up the Night” event as they continue independent search efforts to locate them.
The event, posted on the Facebook page "Bring Our Boys Home" will be at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 4 at the St. Marys waterfront. The flyer says to "join us for an evening of hope and prayer as we light up the night for Caleb, Dalton and Taylor."
Caleb Wilkinson, Dalton Conway and Taylor Barlow were reported missing off the coast of Brunswick on Oct. 21 when the owner of the boat they were on grew concerned after the vessel failed to return on Oct. 19. The fishing trip began on Oct. 14, and on Oct. 26, the Coastal Guard called off the search after searching more than 94,000 square miles.
Despite these efforts and the 16 days that have passed since their disappearance, the families still have faith they are alive. Through the support of GoFundMe donations, they have been able to fund pilots and planes to continue search efforts. The Cajun Navy, a non-profit that organizes search and rescue teams during national disasters, has also joined in as a resource.
They also have the assistance of Down East Emergency Medicine Insititute Search and Rescue, an organization whose mission is to "develop with ethics and integrity, systems that will save lives." The organization is analyzing photos taken on the planes, by the photographers hired by the families, to decipher if any images contain tips worth pursuing.
Chris Barlow, the father of Tyler, has consistently updated his Facebook with updates. One of the latest updates posted is they were able to get AIRtec Inc. to commit a plane to the search. Based at St. Mary's County Airport in Maryland, the company modifies and operates jet, turboprop, fixed and rotary-wing aircraft to deliver critical airborne services to government and science customers.
Yesterday, Barlow posted that they had one plane flying to Nantucket from Savannah, and a plane local to the Nantucket area conducting searches. The family is still seeking donations through their GoFundMe.
Other events the family is hosting to fundraise include a raffle to get a 30 minute session with full studio lighting and set design from LG Creative, a bounce house giveaway and a $500 tattoo giveaway from Metamodern, where all proceeds will be donated to the GoFundMe.
Destini Ambus is the general assignment reporter for Chatham County municipalities for Savannah Morning News. You can reach her at dambus@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: ‘Evening of hope and prayer’ organized for missing Georgia fishermen
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