Sarah Welliver was hired as a staff photographer for The Island Packet in October 2008. She spent four years in the U.S. Marine Corps, rising to the rank of sergeant. She graduated from the University of Montana in 2007 with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism. She is well-versed in multimedia, first learning her video and audio skills through the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute. 
Jay Karr 
Delayna Earley was hired as a staff photographer in Summer 2012. Earley, originally from Virginia, graduated from Western Kentucky University in 2011 with a bachelor's in photojournalism and history. She worked at newspapers in Virginia and Indiana before coming to the Packet/Gazette as a full-time photojournalist. She nabbed a Hearst Journalism Awards Program first-place finish for her news multimedia piece "Grassroots," which documented two members of the Bowling Green (Ky.) Tea Party and their reasons for joining. The same piece was featured in zMultimedia/ZUMA Press.
Drew Martin came to The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette as the photo and graphics editor in 2005 after working at the Savannah Morning News. He grew up in Kenosha, Wis., and graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design with a degree in art. He spends his days working with section editors, reporters and the photographers to produce local visual content. 
Cpl. Russell Midori, right, fights back a smile Friday as Col. Brian Palmer swears in newly promoted Sgt. Archibald Hummer at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island.
Archibald Hummer, an English bulldog and the depot’s official mascot, sat inside the base’s Public Affairs Office to receive the promotion that has been more than two years in the making.
The dog was last promoted in March 2009.
All of it was put together by Cpl. Russell Midori, a 26-year-old Marine who since March 2010 has been responsible for caring for and living with the dog that now outranks him.
“He’s always been an ambitious Marine,” Midori said. “It’s been two and a half years since he picked up corporal, and that’s about 14 dog years. That’s a long time to have to wait to pick up a new rank.”
Hummer is the first mascot to earn the rank of sergeant in about 20 years, according to depot officials.
Photo by Jonathan Dyer, text contributed by Patrick Donohue, staff