Georgia Magazine - December 2019 - 17

COURTESY JEKYLL ISLAND AUTHORITY

winter magic of
Island Treasures

Jekyll Island's iconic
Driftwood Beach is
one place visitors can
explore while taking
part in the Island
Treasures adventure.

COURTESY JEKYLL ISLAND AUTHORITY

IT Y

and collectors value the unduplicatable
Silently they broke free from their tethdesigns, beautiful colors and individual
ers, and the waves carried them ashore. For
stamps.
decades they were a beachcomber's treasure:
In a friendly game of one-upmanship,
the hollow glass balls that fishermen used to
AU
D
"[Marcus
will] make one, I'll make one. We'll
float their nets. By the 1950s, they had been reAN
ISL
YL L
K
E
J
just
trade
off
all day," Ellinger says. "They [the JIA]
placed by steel, aluminum and later plastic floats, and
Y
COURTES
just let us have fun, experiment, try different colors. They
even the memories of them began to disappear like footalways seem beautiful, no matter what."
prints on the ocean's edge.
Meanwhile, the JIA selects employees to be members of its
In a bit of midwinter magic, beautiful glass floats have
Beach Buddies group. For the reward of a float to keep, Beach
returned to Jekyll Island. Since 2003, an adventurous game of
Buddies hide the clear plastic floats during their designated
hide-and-seek known as the Island Treasures event has taken
week. The JIA provides an overall strategy so that floats are
place from New Year's Day through February. Visitors scour the
distributed evenly over the island. For the public's safety and the
island for clear plastic globes that are hidden each day and then
health of the environment, floats are not hidden in the dunes,
exchange them for one-of-a-kind glass works of art.
marshes or golf courses or on private property. During the two"It is a fun little nod to the tradition and the history of the
month event, 300 of the plastic floats-each with a numbered
island," says Alexa Orndoff, director of marketing and commutag inside-are hidden in plain sight, but
nications for the Jekyll Island Authority
cleverly so as to invite discovery of all that
(JIA), the stewards of the island.
Jekyll has to offer.
Like Santa's workshop, the Glass
Like the glass floats for which they
Quest Hand Blown Art Glass Studio in
are redeemed, the plastic floats are
Stanwood, Wash., is bustling during the
large-4 inches to 5 inches in diameter.
holiday season. Each year, the JIA selects
They are bigger than a softball but smaller
one of its exclusive roster of glass artists
than a cantaloupe.
to create the next year's floats. This year,
"They are very large," says Erin Evors,
Glass Quest owner Mark Ellinger and son
a former Beach Buddy. "A smaller person
Marcus have been chosen again to create
could hardly hold it in one hand."
the floats for the 2020 event. In a process
that spans 24 hours, the Ellingers melt
clear glass, color it, blow the floats, stamp
An incentive to explore
each with a number and place the floats
In the National Historic Landmark
in a 950-plus-degree furnace, which is
District, Evors would place a float on a
gradually cooled.
bench or the steps of a cottage. This 240The original fishermen's floats were
acre area was developed in the late 1800s
made quickly and cheaply of recycled
for the members of the Jekyll Island Club.
glass, and the resulting imperfections
It was described in 1886 as "the richest,
A winner displays her glass float. Each plastic
globe hidden on the island contains a number
made each unique. Each of the Island
the most exclusive and the most inacthat corresponds to a specific glass float.
Treasures floats is one of a kind as well,
cessible club in the world" by Munsey's
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Georgia Magazine - December 2019

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