GOOD NEWS:  Ketner to get inaugural Homeless to Hope Award

Staff reports  |  Local businesswoman and philanthropist Linda Ketner will be presented with the inaugural Homeless to Hope Award at March 11 Homeless to Hope Benefit Concert. Sponsored by the Mayors’ Commission on Homelessness and Affordable Housing, the concert will be held at 6:30 p.m. in the Gaillard Center Performance Hall.

Ketner

The Mayors’ Commission on Homelessness and Affordable Housing (MCHAH), led by Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg, North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey, Mount Pleasant Mayor Will Haynie and Summerville Mayor Wiley Johnson, established the award to recognize community members’ enduring contributions to alleviating homelessness.

Ketner is the president of KSI Leadership and Management Development and has served as president of Crisis Ministries, now One80 Place, as well as founder and chair of the MCHAH, chair of the S.C. Housing Trust Fund, co-founder of South Carolina Citizens For Housing, and co-founder of Charleston Affordable Housing. She has served on various boards, including the Hollings Cancer Center, Center for Women Advisory Council, Health Sciences Foundation, International African American Museum, Palmetto Project, and the YWCA of the USA.  Ketner is co-founder and former president of Alliance for Full Acceptance and S.C. Equality Coalition, and serves on advisory boards at the College of Charleston for the Riley Center, Women & Gender Studies Advisory Council, President’s Diversity Review Committee, and the Dean’s Council for the School of Humanities. Having established the Women’s Fund, Ketner Fund and Fund for Social Justice at the Coastal Community Foundation, she oversees grants to community organizations working to find solutions to various social problems.

“Linda’s incomparable achievements inspire so many people to take action, not only in the fight against homelessness, but in support of humanitarian causes of all kinds,” said Robert Clement, MCHAH chairman and president of Clement, Crawford & Thornhill, Inc., the donor of the Homeless to Hope Award created for annual presentation.

Proceeds from the concert, featuring music performances by Charlton Singleton, Quiana Parler, Heather Rice, Lowcountry Voices and a stage band of ten instrumentalists, will benefit the Homeless to Hope Fund,managed by the Palmetto Project. For more information on the March 11 concert and the Homeless to Hope Fund, visit www.homelesstohopefund.org.

Also in Good News:

Junior League celebrates 95^th birthday.  On Feb. 20, 1923, a dozen Charleston women met to form a club to promote community interest and help charitable organizations.  First called the Junior Circle, it became what is now the Junior League of Charleston, an organization with more than 1,000 members.  It has contributed millions of dollars and thousands of hours of volunteer hours to community needs.  Happy birthday.  More:  JLCharleston.org.

Welcome Frontier.  Hats off to the newest airline to arrive to ferry people in and out of Charleston International Airport.  Frontier celebrated its local launch last week with nonstop flights to Denver and Philadelphia with fares as low as $39.  In the months ahead, look for flights to Austin, Trenton and Chicago-O’Hare.  More:  FlyFrontier.com

Thank you.  A big community thank you to Trident United Way President and CEO Chris Kerrigan, who has transformed the organization in his 20 years of serving the Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester county areas.  Kerrigan has announced his retirement to take place early next year.

New director.  College of Charleston Professor Ezra Cappell will become the new director of the Yaschik/Arnold Jewish Studies Program on July 1, 2018. A native of New York and graduate of New York University, Cappell joins the Jewish Studies Program having spent the past 17 years as associate professor of English and founding Director of the Inter-American Jewish Studies Program at the University of Texas at El Paso.  Long-time Jewish Studies Director Marty Perlmutter will retire in July.  Founded in 1984, the Yaschik/Arnold Jewish Studies Program serves College of Charleston students and others with an interest in Judaism through offerings emphasizing academics, student life, and community outreach.

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