‘The Real Mermen of Oak Island’ calendar created for good cause

OAK ISLAND, NC (WWAY) —  What started out as just a joke is getting a lot of attention. You might have even seen it spread through social media already. Guys dressing up like a mermen in Oak Island, but they are doing it for a good cause.

“I jokingly said I will donate 50 dollars to the Teddy Hiatt scholarship if he does,” Alecia David Geddings.

Davis Geddings is a professional photographer and says one bet led to another and they received more donations they ever imagined.

“I agreed to do a merman calendar,” David Geddings said.

The calendar features 24 men from the Oak Island area wearing fins including lawyers, principals, business owners, deputies, etc.

“March we are going to have some leprechauns,” Davis Geddings said. “October is a Halloween theme and it’s just two men dressed up as cowboys on the beach. Our Christmas theme is awesome.”

Ben Frazier, who works at the State Port Pilot Newspaper, said his month was September.

“Our theme was labor day” Frazier said. “We were suppose to be vacationers on the beach reading the paper and that kind of thing. It was pretty funny.”

The money raised from this 12 month spread is for a little boy who left quite the mark on the area, Teddy Hiatt, who lost his life at a young age.

Davis Geddings started the scholarship several years back to give a kid from a single family home the opportunity to go to college.

“Since he’ll never be able to walk through those college doors at least someone will be going in his memory,” Davis Geddings said.

For the month of June, the theme is graduation. Teddy would have be in 11th grade this year which is why one of his classmates is involved. Posing next to him in the shoot is South Brunswick High School Principal Chip Hodges.

“I think for me it’s a great way to connect with the community and then to support the scholarship in the name of a kid who would have been a South Brunswick High School student and it also supports one of our current students who is going to school next year,” Hodges said.

While this began as just a joke, it quickly became a hot topic.

“The buzz is just really ampted up around here and it’s a fun way we can all give back to our community,” Davis Geddings said.

You can purchase a calendar on The Real Mermen of Oak Island website. The calendars will be send out Black Friday.