The famous pirate of the high seas, Blackbeard, might be just a distant memory, but his legend lives on. Inspired by the tales of Blackbeard, a group of wannabe high sea fighters and pirates have gotten together to set sail on an adventure of a lifetime.

“We all at some point in time have thought of sailing the high seas and becoming like Blackbeard”, said Thomas Kind. “None of us knew how to get started until we met at a pirates gathering, and realized that alone we couldn’t make our dreams a reality, but together we could.”

The group of soon-to-be pirates held meetings every week for the past six months. On the agenda at these meetings was the idea of planning a course of action, creating a list of necessary supplies, and finding a ship that they could use for their adventures.

“The worst part of the whole thing was the planning”, said Greg Smart. “There would be times where we’d get so excited, only to realize that we needed to spend another six weeks forming a plan.”

Running low on money and with a dream in their heart the band of merry misfits reached out to a local thrift store to see if they were willing to sponsor their adventure on the high seas. Self-appointed leader of the group Thomas Kind reached out to Value Thrift to see if they would help them reach their goals.

“We thought that a thrift store was a great place to reach out to”, said Kind. “They have everything we need to set sail. They have clothing, supplies, items to create a sail, everything!”

Value Thrift agreed to help the soon-to-be pirates if they could find a living relative of Blackbeard to go on the journey. Blackbeard was an amazing pirate, but there is relatively little known about his personal life.

“I thought the task of finding a relative to go on the journey with them would be impossible,” said thrift store owner, Barry Clark.

The group of pirates spent day and night searching for a living relative of Blackbeard, and eventually found a distant nephew who lived in Chicago. After several phone calls and emails, the relative agreed to join the group as it would be what his uncle wanted.

“I didn’t think they could do it but they did”, said Clark.

The group plans to set sail in early July. Their destination is confidential as is their plan of action.