The Pamlico Pin-Ups will make their first public appearance together at their calendar’s launch party Thursday evening. The calendar might raise a few eyebrows, but what these ladies hope to do is raise quite a bit of money for Open Door Community Center, the soon-to-be homeless women’s and children’s shelter in Washington.

The 2019 calendar, in which the ladies appear to “bare it all,” will be unveiled at the reception from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Arts of the Pamlico’s Turnage Theatre. The public is invited.

The idea took shape a few months ago, and when Bettie Bonner Bradshaw approached former ODCC president Dot Moate about the prospect, Moate promptly presented it to the ODCC board.

“The board said, ‘Hey, we think it’s a great idea. Let’s do it,’ Knowing the ladies involved, all of them, knowing they’re good, upstanding citizens, it would be something that everybody could get a laugh from and raise money for the ODCC,” Moate said.

Under Bradshaw’s organization, Carol Clark, Susan Dawson, Rosalyn Edwards, Ann Flanagan, Emma Howard, Virginia Jenks, Jane McCotter, Sue Nicholson and Mary Llew Roberts all volunteered to be Pamlico Pin-Ups. Photographs were staged across the county, from the Fossil Museum in Aurora to the Belhaven waterfront, Bonner Point in Bath, the Turnage Theatre in Washington and many points in between. Retired East Carolina University School of Theatre and Dance professor, and costume designer, Jeffery Phipps was enlisted to outfit the Pin-Ups and print-coordinator Jackie Everett propped them up behind the scenes.

“It has been a wonderful experience, and it’s been such a group effort. Everybody has come up with ideas,” Bradshaw said.

Ranging in age from mid-60s to 86, this group also made some waves with passersby and made some friends.

“At 72 years old, you’ve got to have a sense of humor, and it’s for a great cause. It’s a wonderful cause,” McCotter said, who posed as “Miss June” in the calendar. “It was great fun. Are you kidding? I loved it. I got to meet some new women, made some new friends. I think we did a good job of representing Beaufort County in this, too.”

During the reception, the Pamlico Pin-Ups calendar will sell for $15 and raffle tickets will be sold for $5 each for a framed print of the calendar’s cover photo. After the launch party, calendars will be available for purchase at a variety of locations across the county, including Arts of the Pamlico, local real estate offices, the Washington-Beaufort County Chamber of Commerce, Aurora Fossil Museum, Bath Visitors Center and Belhaven Chamber of Commerce.

Whether the Pin-Ups will redo their calendar in 2020 is uncertain.

“I think we’re going to challenge the men to do the next one,” McCotter laughed.

The Turnage Theatre is located at 150 W. Main St., Washington.