Today I had the absolute pleasure of speaking with Cayti Brinegar who, with her Husband Tim, founded the Seawolf Privateers. They work with their crew of fellow privateers to raise money, awareness, support and entertainment for foster families, and kids in Flagler County.
Cayti Brinegar, a 32 year resident of Flagler County, noted that when she first came to this area, there were very services for people. She got involved early on with some non-profits, especially ones that served single moms. She said that because she was a single mom for so long, that was an area she wanted to be involved in.
Cayti met her now husband Tim, 3 years ago. He lived in Jacksonville but used to come walk the streets of St. Augustine as a pirate in an attempt to entertain families and children. The love of kids has been a passion of both Cayti and Tim for years.
The Brinegar’s believe everyone should help the community in one way or another. They also believe kids should get to be kids and enjoy the mystical and magical that is in the world. They decided to start a pirate crew here to raise funds, provide support and entertain foster kids and families, because for so long, Flagler County foster kids were just lumped in with Volusia County.
Over time the Brinegar’s grew the crew, and in October of 2021, they were able to officially file the paperwork to be a registered and official 501 C 3 organization here in Flagler County. Last summer, in August, Seawolf Privateers held their annual Pirates and Mermaids festival where all foster families in Flagler County were invited; the whole family, not just the foster parents and kids but foster parents, bio-kids and foster kids. The goal of this event is to provide free entertainment to foster families, that fosters bonding between the family.
The pirate and mermaid festival is one of a few different annual events this organization puts on every year. They also hold their murder mystery event, which is a pirate theme, of course. This murder mystery dinner is held two times per year and the funds go to put on the pirate and mermaid festival.
They also hold a diaper and wet wipe drive, a school supply collection, and twice a month they run a food drive to help foster families offset the cost of food.
Seawolf Privateers is also adopting an event, which will be held in October, called DJ’s for PJ’s. This event originated in Las Vegas by Lee Filipe, who also serves on the board of Seawolf. This event is sponsored by local DJ’s and the community. There will be drop off points in parking lots around town, where brand new PJ’s can be dropped off. The purpose of this event, is because most foster care drop offs happen between 6pm and 5am. Which doesn’t leave time to run to the store to buy some nice new proper PJ’s for the child. Holding this drop off event allows Seawolf to collect PJ’s that will be given to the local Guardian Ad Litem’s. This way when a Guardian Ad Litem drops off a child with a foster family, the child is dropped off with some brand new PJ’s.
This organization is always looking for donations, volunteers, and so much more. If helping the foster families and children is something that hits near and dear to your heart, we urge you to reach out to the Brinegar’s.
Cayti is also looking to interview with foster parents, about their experiences in general. If you are or were a foster parent, you can reach out to her to find out more about what she is looking for interview wise.
Cayti Brinegar can be reached via email here: seawolfprivateersfl@gmail.com; on their Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/FlaglerPirates; or at their website: http://SeawolfPrivateers.org/
