About The GISC!

The Golden Isles Shag Club (GISC) was formed in August of 1989 by a small handful of Glynn County residents who all shared a mutual love for Carolina Beach Music, Shag Dancing and love of the Beach Lifestyle. In 1990 GISC joined The Association of Carolina Shag Clubs (ACSC) which is the parent organization for shag clubs located in nearly 100 cities with an annual membership around 10,000 members from all of the clubs combined. In 1996 GISC incorporated and is a non-profit organization.

Many of the people that showed up for the first GISC meeting (held in a conference room of a hotel on Highway 341 in Brunswick) had never seen the "Carolina Shag" much less how to dance the shag. R. B. Gentry, first President of GISC, asked all the ladies to line up on one side of the room and all the men to line up on the other side of the room and face the ladies. R. B. put a Jackie & Charlie shag video in the TV/VCR, everyone watched then started moving their feet and counting 1&2, 3&4, 5-6.

After a few weeks of meeting and shagging at the hotel on 341, we moved over to the Holiday Inn on the same highway. After a short time at the Holiday Inn, we moved back and forth between Brunswick and St. Simons Island. We played our shag music and danced at Mo-Jo's, Side Streets, Lily's (twice), Coconut Willie's and Emmaline and Hessie's (twice ). In 1994 Keenan Carter let some of our members know he was going to open Ziggy Mahoney's and would love to have us on Thursday nights. On March 16, 1994 GISC members began shaggin' at Ziggy's. You can find GISC members any Thursday night getting together at 7:00 pm to dance and socialize. Our club dj plays your favorite "shag tunes" until 9:00. Keenan comes on around 9:30 and will play/sing all types of music including shag. You request it, he will play it.

From modest membership beginnings, GISC has grown to a membership of 100 to 150 shaggers annually. Membership is open to those who have either taken shag lessons or can exhibit a basic skill of the dance and have been sponsored by an active GISC member. Prospective members are also encouraged to attend club functions prior to submitting an application to join. This is done in order to ensure that prospective members can make an informed decision about joining the club.

Although we get together often socially, the primary purpose of our club as described in our Bylaws is to "promote and preserve the Carolina Shag Dance". In that regard, the club offers Shag Dance Lessons, partakes in public demonstration dances and host dance events throughout the year. Since 1991 our club has hosted an annual party called "The Sand Gnat Shag-A-Ganza" in June on beautiful Jekyll Island. The "Gnat" draws a couple of hundred shaggers from Georgia, Florida, South Carolina and North Carolina every year.

But that's not all we are involved in. GISC members have contributed charitably to the community by raising funds for needy families, participated in the annual American Cancer Society Relay for Life fund raising event, have contributed to the Heart Association, March of Dimes and over $5,000.00 to the American Cancer Society. GISC members have helped the YWCA with their annual "Youth Day Olympics" for a number of years. In 2007 GISC added another charitable organization to our list, "Cowboys and Roses Renegade Ranch, Inc." www.cowboysandrosesrenegaderanch.com