Southport Central School students have filled in for the recently retired Southport columnist Leigh Sherrill this week by writing thank you notes to her for her 24 years of writing the column. Some of the cards featured wonderful drawn pictures of the newspaper, hearts, etc. Lead teacher Shawn Gallagher provided the following notes:

Dear Mrs. Sherrill, Thank you for your active support. I love the newspaper. I appreciate everything you have done. We will miss your work. Love, Cairine

Dear Mrs. Leigh Sherrill, Thank you sooooooooooo much for writing for the paper. We appreciate your love of Southport. From: Brock

Dear Leigh Sherrill, Thank you for writing for 24 years. You have worked so hard and we thank you for that. We will miss you. I hope you find a new hobby. From Duncan

Dear Mrs. Sherrill, It’s crazy that you have volunteered to write for our little island for 24 years. Thank you for donating to our forest playground. Also, again thank you for your dedicated service. Love, Shepherd

Dear Mrs. Sherrill, Thank you so much for the interest in what happens on Southport Island. We really appreciate you love of Southport and your active support. Your dedicated support is amazing! We will miss you so. Sincerely, Aurora

Dear Mrs. Sherrill, Thank you for writing the column about Southport in the newspaper. Thanks for writing for the last 24 years! We will miss your column in the newspaper. By: Ryder

Dear Mrs. Sherrill, Thank you for all of your support to the island. Your dedicated service to writing newspapers is amazing. Sincerely, Rivers

Dear Mrs. Sherrill, Thank you for volunteering for 24 of not getting paid. We appreciate you. Your work will be missed forever. From, Theo

Dear Mrs. Sherrill, Thank you for your dedication. I love your articles, it’s amazing. I love your love of Southport. Love, Lily

And last but not least – half cursive and half block script – Dear Mrs. Sherrill, Thank you for everything you do to support our island. It’s very depressing to hear that you will no longer be writing our newspaper column. We very much appreciate your dedicated service. Your friend, Aiden

Editor’s note: We at the newspaper also appreciate Mrs. Sherrill’s 24 years of dedicated service as the Southport columnist. She has been so good at meeting deadlines and keeping the island and region informed. We will miss her very much and if anyone wants to try and fill her shoes, please contact the newspaper.