GOOD NEWS: Hootie hands help kids get ready for the return of school

(Photo by contributing photographer and Rotarian Rob Byko, Byko Realty.)

Staff reports  |  Burke High School on Saturday hosted Charleston County School District’s 13th annual Hootie’s Homegrown Roundup.  

The annual event provides K-12 school students with supplies and services donated by Hootie and the Blowfish, the Rotary Club of Charleston and local businesses striving to make an impact by giving kids a head start on the coming school year. Despite the threat of rain, the event was well-attended by hundreds of kids and their parents.  

In other Good News:

Welcome (back).  Just as elementary and secondary school students are headed back to the classroom this week, so are students at various colleges.  A big welcome to more than 3,000 freshmen at the College of Charleston, the Citadel, Charleston Southern University and the Charleston School of Law.  Trident Technical College is expected to have a similar number of first-year students at its campuses. All totaled, more than 25,000 college students call the Charleston area their home for higher education.

National Thrift Shop Day.  Palmetto Goodwill celebrated this special day Saturday with a reminder to patrons and donors that more than 90 cents of every dollar spent locally goes back into local services that provide job placement and training programs.  “Goodwill programs help people find jobs and advance their career, and serves anyone facing challenges to finding employment, including people with disabilities, older workers and youth, veterans and military families and people reentering the workforce after incarceration,” Palmetto Goodwill President and CEO Robert Smith said.  “Palmetto Goodwill annually provides such services to over 15,000 people throughout our territory. In fact, last year alone we helped place 3,094 people into new jobs.

Good. The city of Charleston joined several other jurisdictions on April 15 filed in a state lawsuit against manufacturers and distributors of opioids, seeking to end the destructive effects of the narcotic pain pills and recoup tax dollars spent to fight the abuse epidemic.  “Enough is enough,” Mayor John Tecklenburg said in a statement. “By bringing action against those who have contributed to this problem, we hope not just to recover the costs of our ongoing response to this crisis, but to help our citizens whose lives have been damaged by opioid use and to prevent this epidemic from wreaking further havoc on our community.”

Poet to be keynote.  Nikki Giovanni, a world-renowned poet and educator, will be the featured keynote speaker 2 p.m. Oct. 2 at Black Ink, Charleston’s African-American book festival.  It is a program of Charleston Friends of the LIbrary and a part of the MOJA Arts Festival. “She’s one of the most noted poets in America today and an inspiration for many,” said Friends Director Jeanell Marvin. “Whether she’s reading her own works or talking about contemporary issues, Nikki Giovanni has something to say that we all should pay attention to.”  Cost: Free. Location: Memminger Auditorium, 56 Beaufain St., Charleston.