Good news

FOCUS: #GivingTuesday is just around the corner

FOCUS: #GivingTuesday is just around the corner

Staff reports  | After the frenetic shopping and pace of Black Friday and CyberMonday, you might want to set aside a little something to give back to others on GivingTuesday, which is marked around the world as a day for generosity.

“GivingTuesday was created in 2012 as a simple idea: a day that encourages people to do good,” according to the organization’s website.  “Over the past seven years, it has grown into a global movement that inspires hundreds of millions of people to give, collaborate, and celebrate generosity.

“Whether it’s making someone smile, helping a neighbor or stranger out, showing up for an issue or people we care about, or giving some of what we have to those who need our help, every act of generosity counts and everyone has something to give.”

In Charleston County, more than 200 organizations are taking part in the global giving effort. 

by · 11/25/2019 · Comments are Disabled · Focus, Good news
GOOD NEWS: 2 Lowcountry lawmakers want to define “consent”

GOOD NEWS: 2 Lowcountry lawmakers want to define “consent”

Staff reports  | Two Charleston County lawmakers are among a bipartisan group working to get a clear definition in state law of what it means to say “yes” to a sexual act?  State Reps. Lin Bennett, a Republican, and Marvin Pendarvis, a Democrat, are co-sponsors of a House effort to establish a definition of consent in a bill sponsored by Lancaster Democratic Rep, Mandy Powers Norrell.  Such a definition is in law in half of the nation’s states.

by · 11/25/2019 · Comments are Disabled · Good news, News briefs
Rice canals at Caw Caw. Photos provided.

FOCUS: McLeod Plantation, Caw Caw park win international honor

NOV. 18, 2019  | Two historic Charleston County parks are now internationally-recognized “Sites of Conscience”  by a worldwide network of 230 sites in 55 countries.

According to a press release from the Charleston County Park and Recreation Commission, Caw Caw Interpretive Center in Ravenel and McLeod Plantation Historic Site on James Island are now part of the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience — places that confront the history of what happened at the site and lasting impacts.

“You have done great work already reimagining the historic plantation experience and we are eager to be a part of your continued journey,”  International Coalition of Sites of Conscience Executive Director Elizabeth Silkes wrote in a letter to the parks commission.

According to release, “Sites of Conscience ‘face all aspects of history and also activate the historical perspective with dynamic public dialogue on related issues we face today and what we can do about them.’

by · 11/18/2019 · Comments are Disabled · Focus, Good news
GOOD NEWS: Nonprofit engages community to improve literacy

GOOD NEWS: Nonprofit engages community to improve literacy

Special to Charleston Currents  | Reading Partners South Carolina provides supplemental literacy instruction for students struggling to read in 17 under-resourced, Lowcountry elementary schools by recruiting hundreds of community volunteers. Pairing each volunteer with a student and providing a research-based curriculum, Reading Partners enables each volunteer to produce measurable gains in their students’ reading test scores.

“Our volunteers are the heart of our work with our students, and our volunteers will tell you that it’s the highlight of their week,” says Kecia Greenho, executive director of Reading Partners South Carolina. “This is the best way to actively engage the community in helping to solve the education crisis we have in South Carolina.” 

by · 11/18/2019 · Comments are Disabled · Good news, News briefs
FOCUS: Lights of Magnolia to feature Chinese lanterns, dragons, more

FOCUS: Lights of Magnolia to feature Chinese lanterns, dragons, more

By Herb Frazier, special to Charleston Currents  | Chinese lanterns will glow for four months beginning Nov. 15 at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens, illuminating America’s oldest garden at night for the first time in its 343-year history.

Magnolia Plantation and Gardens has partnered with the Zigong Lantern Group in China to present “Lights of Magnolia: Reflections of a Cultural Exchange.” The lantern festival includes custom-designed installations of large-scale thematically unified lanterns, a fusion of historic Chinese cultural symbols and images that represent the flora and fauna of Magnolia.

The lantern festival, the first ever at a public garden in North America for Zigong, places Magnolia in a position to play a prominent role in supporting Charleston’s tourism traffic, said Tom Johnson, the garden’s executive director. “We are expecting record-breaking attendance for this visually stimulating display of stunning Chinese art that will glow in the night,” he said.

by · 11/11/2019 · Comments are Disabled · Focus, Good news
Image provided.

GOOD NEWS: City wins $18.1 million grant for bike-walk bridge over Ashley

Staff reports  |  The city of Charleston received an $18.1 million federal grant for a standalone bicycle and pedestrian bridge over the Ashley River, an infrastructure project pushed by a broad array of politicians and leaders for years to broaden transportation options and boost safety on the highway bridges over the river. Also in Good News: Carolina music in Oxford American; Boone Hall conserved; More.

by · 11/11/2019 · Comments are Disabled · Good news, News briefs
FOCUS: Citadel military band to represent U.S. at Edinburgh Tattoo

FOCUS: Citadel military band to represent U.S. at Edinburgh Tattoo

Staff reports  | The Citadel Regimental Band and Pipes will represent the United States next year as the country’s designated military band at the at The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo in Scotland.  

The overseas honor will be the band’s fourth time performing in what is considered the world’s most famous military music festival.  Over the three-week event, millions of people will watch the band, which is the only U.S. military college band to have been invited to perform on behalf of the United States, according to a press release.    

“It would be an honour to welcome the Citadel cadets back to the Tattoo,” Brigadier David Alfrey, chief executive and producer of the Tattoo wrote in his invitation.  “The band performed with us to huge plaudits and it would be wonderful to present their talents to the Tattoo audience once more.”

by · 11/04/2019 · Comments are Disabled · Focus, Good news
GOOD NEWS: On home decorating, New local social network

GOOD NEWS: On home decorating, New local social network

Via Digit Matheny, Carolina One, special to Charleston Currents  |  Thinking about remodeling? You’re not alone. According to a report from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, home improvement spending in the U.S. is up more than 50 percent since 2010. Also inside: Meet the GoodSharing network …

by · 11/04/2019 · 1 comment · Good news, News briefs
FOCUS: Something a little different — jazz from Oscar Peterson

FOCUS: Something a little different — jazz from Oscar Peterson

By Elliott Brack, special to Charleston Currents  | How about a little something different today?

Let me introduce you to a 6.53 minute video with some of the most soothing music I have ever heard.  The work comes from the late jazz virtuoso Oscar Peterson, and it is a composition of his own, which he entitled, “Ode To Freedom.”

by · 10/28/2019 · Comments are Disabled · Focus, Good news
GOOD NEWS: MUSC’s DuBois earns major honor

GOOD NEWS: MUSC’s DuBois earns major honor

Staff reports  |  Dr. Raymond N. DuBois, dean of the College of Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina, has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine. According to a press release, that puts him in the company of an elite group of internationally-renowned scientists and doctors, including Nobel laureates, who are also members. With only 75 new members elected each year across a broad range of medical disciplines, becoming part of the 50-year-old organization is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine.

by · 10/28/2019 · Comments are Disabled · Good news, News briefs