GOOD NEWS: Bee Expo set for Oct. 30 at downtown library

Staff reports  |  Learn about the importance of honey bees in our daily lives, and find out things you can do at home to help out these busy little pollinators at the Main Library’s Bee Expo from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Oct. 30.

Visit the Main Library Auditorium for the Expo, and then stay for a screening of the Ellen Page-narrated Vanishing of the Bees documentary.

You can visit with representatives from the Charleston Area Beekeepers Association, the Bee Cause and more.  You’ll be able to observe a beehive, see a sample pollinator garden and look at a DIY bee house.   The event is made possible by a Library Services and Technology Act grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services administered by the S.C. State Library.

In other good news:

Book launch.  Local author Andra Watkins will speak at noon Nov. 1 at High Cotton restaurant (199 East Bay Street) to launch her new book, “Hard to Die.”  The launch, part of the Blue Bicycle Books Charleston Author Series, costs $31 for the author talk and a three-course lunch, or $58 for the talk, lunch and a signed copy of the new mystery.  What’s special about the talk is that it’s on the date of the international release of the new book by Watkins, a bestselling New York Times author.  Buy tickets; learn more.

More absentee voting locations. The Charleston County Board of Elections and Voter Registration today will open locations in West Ashley and Mount Pleasant for in-person, absentee voting.  You can vote absentee at these locations:

• North Charleston: Church of Christ at Azalea Drive, 3950 Azalea Drive.  Times:  8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday through Nov. 7; 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Oct. 29.
• West Ashley: Seacoast Church, 2049 Savannah Highway.  Times:  8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday through Nov. 4; 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Oct. 29.
• Mount Pleasant: Seacoast Church, 750 Long Point Road.  Times:  8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday through Nov. 4; 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Oct. 29.

Making Hay at CofC.  Congratulations to Hay Tire’s David Hay for being elected chair of the College of Charleston Board of Trustees.  Hay, a 1981 graduate of the college, has served on the college’s foundation aboard and is a past president of its alumni association board.  Father of three children, he is married to fellow graduate Mariana Ramsay Hay, who owns Croghan’s Jewel Box.

Elliott recognized.  Hats off to Center for Birds of Prey’s founder Jim Elliott, who was recognized with the Order of the Palmetto earlier this month during the center’s 25^th anniversary celebration.  Launched in 1991 as the Charleston Raptor Center, the conservation and education facility has evolved to a place where more than 7,000 wild birds have been treated.

Celebrating Philip Simmons. Eastside Day 2016 on Oct. 27 at Trident Technical College’s Palmer Campus near Columbus Street in Charleston will celebrate the life and legacy of master blacksmith Philip Simmons.  The annual event is part of the campus’s Spirit Week to celebrate the heritage of the Eastside community and students at the campus.  Thursday’s Eastside Day activities are open to the public and dedicated to celebrating Simmons, who lived in the Eastside Community from 1919 until he passed in 2009. His house, located in walking distance from Palmer Campus at 30 ½ Blake Street, is now the Philip Simmons Museum House with a gift shop and operating workshop, where the art of his craft is being continued by his nephew Carlton Simmons and cousin Joseph Pringle. Following a celebration in the park, interested participants will have the opportunity to tour the Museum House. The tours will leave from campus at 11:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 p.m.