Lowcountry Weekly

Like our beloved Editor, choirs have been a part of my life. My family sang, and growing up we sang both kinds of music: sacred and irreligious. Harmony in families is well known. Mother, even in her nineties with dementia, would pick the part we weren’t singing. She and my sister, who majored in music therapy and is a retired soloist, had/have perfect pitch. My dad met my stepmom as members of the choir. My maternal grandparents were gardeners, and Big Dale certainly sang to her petunias.

Walks on Sept. 19 and Oct. 3 raise money for access to clean, safe water Thousands of Beaufort residents and visitors will splash their way in, through and around all things water at the annual Water Festival in July — but that’s an unimaginable luxury for 2 billion people around the world who have no access to clean, safe water. The 10th annual Beaufort County Walk for Water aims to change that. Registration is open now at walkforwater.com/beaufort for walks on Saturday, Sept.

Happy Independence Day, y’all! At 250 years of age, our great nation is still a young one. I realize that I’m dating myself, but how many of you remember celebrating our Bicentennial in 1976? It seems like yesterday. When I was growing up in Wilson, North Carolina, our neighborhood had an annual Fourth of July picnic two doors up from my house at the Gillette’s home. Long tables were lined up in their back yard and friends and neighbors from Cavalier Terrace brought all kinds of good food to share.

A week-long exhibit returns to Art League Academy featuring local artists, themed classes, and a free Turtle Talk ‘Sea Turtle II’ by Molly Leech Halfway Home, a special sea turtle-themed art exhibit, returns to Art League Academy July 21–31, 2026, in partnership with Sea Turtle Patrol HHI. The exhibit showcases creative works from local artists celebrating the beauty and vulnerability of Hilton Head Island’s beloved sea turtles.

“The Toxic Avenger: The Musical,” a rowdy comedic story about an unlikely group of folks in New Jersey, comes to Sea Glass Stage at Coligny for a three-week run July 9-26. Melvin Ferd the Third is an earth scientist determined to clean up his hometown, Tromaville, New Jersey, and its toxic dump site. But the corrupt mayor sends her cronies to stop him. Her goons drop Melvin into a barrel of the green waste and leave him to die.

A tree in the road on North Street, in downtown Beaufort, SC (photos by Luke Frazier) There’s this tree, and it’s in the road. It’s on North Street, between Charles and Newcastle. Sitting right there like a parked car, taking up space. You must veer slightly over the double yellow line to continue driving west from Charles Street, unless you have some kind of super skinny car. It sits along the south side of St Helena’s Anglican Church, with some kind of office windows overlooking it.

Since the publication of my December 2024 column on grief, a number of readers have asked if I’d revisit parts of that piece that they’d found helpful. That particular column concerned holiday grief specifically, as numbers of souls seem to leave the earth during that time. Currently, I’m finding that as the years go by – and not only at holidays – more people I know, many of whom I care about, are passing away, while many more are losing those they care about.

Founder Justin Palmer with his son A Beaufort Marine Corps veteran and father of a child with autism has launched a nonprofit organization aimed at helping Lowcountry families obtain autism evaluations and connect with critical support services.

By Jill Horner, Executive Director of Memory Matters Memory Matters staff, Lowcountry Outreach Staff and volunteers celebrate the opening of the Beaufort location at Lowcountry Outreach. (L-R Michelle Frink – MM Program Director – Lisa Daly, Lowcountry Outreach Director, Gabby Wurmlinger – MM Program Specialist, Diane Naus, Volunteer & Brenda Hyleman, volunteer) When a loved one begins experiencing memory loss, families often don’t know where to turn.

With Independence Day upon us – not to mention America’s 250 th Anniversary – I wanted to write something heartwarmingly patriotic. I truly did. But as deadline approached, my heart just wasn’t feeling all that warm. Even the stories I was reading about World Cup visitors dazzled by the US were leaving me semi-cold. Or, at best, room temp.