Charleston Currents

Good news

FOCUS: County to open Charleston skate park

Staff reports | SK8 Charleston, a concrete skate park to be operated by Charleston County Park and Recreation Commission, will have grand opening events March 4 and 11 at its peninsular Charleston location, 1549 Oceanic Street, which overlooks the Ashley River.

“The Charleston County Park and Recreation Commission has always looked to provide world-class facilities for the public we serve,” said CCPRC Executive Director Tom O’Rourke. “SK8 Charleston is the next in a long line of great facilities.”

“The Charleston County area has been waiting a long time for the opportunity to enjoy a facility like this. We are all as excited about the opening of this park as any facility we have opened.”

by Andy Brack · 02/13/2017 · Comments are Disabled · Focus, Good news

GOOD NEWS: County seeks student art for “Recycle Right” Earth Day contest

Staff reports | Charleston County K-12 students can win a grand prize of $100 for original artwork that promotes a theme of “Recycle Right” in the 18th annual Earth Day contest by the Charleston County Environmental Management Department. Also inside:

* One80 Place celebrates center renovation
* Speth, George to talk conservation
* Big win for law school moot court team.

by Charleston Currents · 02/13/2017 · Comments are Disabled · Good news, News briefs

FOCUS: Palmetto Scholars Academy students to talk to space station

Staff reports | Students from Palmetto Scholars Academy in North Charleston are among those from eight schools in the country who will have a chance to talk this week via amateur radio with an astronaut orbiting the earth.

The International Space Station will pass over the school about 1 p.m. Feb. 10 and provide students with the opportunity to speak with astronauts for nine minutes. The school’s student body will assemble that afternoon in its gym to listen as astronauts answer student-generated questions via the school’s ham, or amateur, radio network K4PSA.

by Charleston Currents · 02/06/2017 · 1 comment · Focus, Good news

GOOD NEWS: New book out on S.C.’s Hollings

Staff reports | The University of South Carolina Press has published a new scholarly work about the early career of Isle of Palms resident Fritz Hollings, a former governor (1959-63) and longtime U.S. senator (1966-2005).

The book, “New Politics in the Old South: Ernest F. Hollings in the Civil Rights Era,” focuses on Hollings’ early life and his public service from his return from World War II as an infantry officer to serving in the Senate during the Watergate era in 1974.

by Charleston Currents · 02/06/2017 · 1 comment · Good news, News briefs

FOCUS: Lowcountry AIDS Services targets high-risk, rural areas

By Bradley Childs, special to Charleston Currents | We know one of the best ways to combat HIV in our community is go directly to the people most in need of our services. So, over the next 12 months, we will be expanding our HIV testing and prevention efforts into rural areas of Berkeley and Dorchester counties as well as into high-risk areas of Charleston.

To help fund the program, we received a $35,400 grant from the Roper Saint Francis Physicians Endowment, which, in a partnership with the Medical Society of South Carolina and Coastal Community Foundation, provides annual grants to nonprofit organizations for the express purpose of improving health, wellness and access for tri-county area residents.

by Charleston Currents · 01/30/2017 · Comments are Disabled · Focus, Good news

GOOD NEWS: Coastal Community Foundation awards $4.9 million over holidays

Staff reports | The Coastal Community Foundation, a grantmaking organization serving coastal South Carolina, today announced it awarded $4.9 million in grants in year-end giving season, November and December 2016, according to a press release. For the calendar year, the organization made $17 million in grants in 2016. More in Good News: Farmers markets to return; Immigration symposium; New parks chair.

by Charleston Currents · 01/30/2017 · Comments are Disabled · Good news, News briefs

PHOTO FOCUS: Thousands gather at Charleston Sister March

Staff reports (with 12 photos) | Up to 3,000 participants braved chilly, rainy Saturday weather to march from city parking garages to Brittlebank Park in Charleston to show local support for a national march for women’s rights in Washington. An estimated 500,000 marched in D.C. More than a million marched is events around the world, according to media reports.

For longtime Charleston leader Linda Ketner, the local march was a phenomenal start to future organizing to get more women in public office, including those who think, “not me.”

“The people who say ‘not me’ are generally those who will be motivated not by self-aggrandizement but by justice and public service,” Ketner told Charleston Currents. “Women need to be where the decisions are being made — now largely without our voices.

by Charleston Currents · 01/23/2017 · 2 comments · Focus, Photo Essay, Photos

GOOD NEWS: Chamber, Be a Mentor are partnering to help future leaders

Staff reports | Charleston Young Professionals, a division of the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce, is partnering with Be A Mentor, a nonprofit organization headquartered in North Charleston, to encourage young professionals’ involvement in the development of our region’s future leaders.

Also in Good News: Mount Pleasant’s new library; Remembering the late Sen. Clementa Pinckney; RiverDogs and reading; Romantic garden walk at Magnolia Plantation; Crafts deadline; Charleston Animal Society grant; Lowcountry AIDS grant.

by Charleston Currents · 01/23/2017 · 1 comment · Good news, News briefs

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivering a speech.

FOCUS: Poetry, politics, Dr. King and our beloved community

By Marjory Wentworth, poet laureate of South Carolina | I am guessing there won’t be a poem at this week’s presidential inauguration. Too bad, because now is the time to think like a poet.

Through empathy, precise language and imagery, poets connect us to the things of this world and to one another. No one understood this better than the late Winston Churchill, who hand-wrote his speeches in iambic pentameter. This five stress line of verse is essentially the length of the average sentence written in the English language and can be said in one breath. Churchill had to inspire a nation under attack, and he accomplished this in ways that will be remembered forever.

by Charleston Currents · 01/16/2017 · Comments are Disabled · Focus, Good news

GOOD NEWS: C of C’s study abroad program ranks 4th nationally

Staff reports | The Institute of International Education (IIE) has ranked College of Charleston as the No. 4 institution in the United States among the top 40 master’s level colleges and universities for the total number of study abroad participants for the 2014-2015 academic year, according to a press release.

by Charleston Currents · 01/16/2017 · Comments are Disabled · Good news, News briefs