SiP Magazine 2024

magazine SiP magazine SiP

photo by Holger Obenaus

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FOOD & DRINKS

Coffee, Breakfast, and Lunch

Grab N’ Go items for a day on the water. Beer, Wine, and soft drinks

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A nniversary

This year, we’re celebrating a big one! We’ve been helping people buy, sell, and vacation on the Charleston Coast for 35 years... and counting! Thank you to all the families and friends who have entrusted us with their most important investments and vacation memories. We are still proud to say -

Nobody knows the Charleston Coast better.®

INSIDE SiP

FEATURES

62 | TWO BLOKES, ONE BOAT, 3,000 MILES OF OCEAN

Two Charleston chefs took on the toughest rowing race in the world, crossing the Atlantic Ocean – and won. By Jennifer Tuohy

68 | LINKS LOVE

Wild Dunes’ director of sports shares tips on how to make a trip around the Links Course more enjoyable.

By Brian Sherman

76 | ISLANDERS ABROAD

The islands are home to three diplomats who have helped maintain America’s standing in the world.

By Brian Sherman

82 | MEET MARY ALICE

Isle of Palms’ reigning literary queen talks about 25 inspiring years living on Isle of Palms.

By Laura Anderson

86 | THE NEXT CHAPTER

Andy Benke, Sullivan’s Island’s longtime administrator reflects on the past 21 years. By Brian Sherman

90 | MARKING HISTORY

How the town of Sullivan’s Island is marking the history of a historically significant island.

By Mike Walsh

SIP SALUTES

42 | ALL THE COMMUNITY’S A STAGE

A chance conversation at The Windjammer turned into three decades of community theater for Jimmy Ward’s Crabpot Players

By Colin McCandless

46 | MAKING MUSIC

Vince Iwinski, manager of American jam band Umphrey’s McGee and hip-hop/ reggae group Little Stranger, reflects on life as a music man.

By Marci Shore.

48 | FROM CORPORATE TO CREATIVE

Sullivan’s Island’s Jeff Clark shares how he turned retirement into a second career as an artist.

By Marci Shore

52 | DIVING DEEP TO FIND THE WOMAN WHO FLEW

Sullivan’s Island’s Tony Romeo may have discovered Amelia Earhart’s missing plane. By Colin

McCandless

56 | RESILIENCE, REDEMPTION AND LAW

Kevin Cornett recounts his journey to become Isle of Palms police chief. By Laura Anderson

ISLAND LIFE

22 | BUILDING COMMUNITY THROUGH A CLUB

The revitalization of The Island Club, a time-honored Sullivan’s Island tradition.

By Carol Antman

26 | SEEING COMMUNITY THROUGH A CLEARER LENS

How the Law Enforcement Neighborhood Support Foundation of Isle of Palms is supporting a community.

By Laura Anderson

30 | GET OUT ON THE WATER

You’ve not seen Charleston until you’ve seen it from the water; these tips will help you best enjoy it.

By Michael Shuler

36 | KNOCKING IT OUT OF THE PARK

Sullivan’s Island Elementary school hosts its first ever mother-son kickball tournament.

By Susan Hill Smith

RISING STARS

98 | MARY WELCH FOX STASIK By Theresa Stratford

100 | PAUL COLEMAN By Theresa Stratford

102 | ASHLEY MARTIN By Katherine

Berry

SIP SCENE

104 | RAISING COSGROVE

A historic Sullivan’s Island beach cottage, thoughtfully renovated over two decades, respects the island’s heritage. By Jennifer Tuohy

110 | HOME IS WHERE THE ART IS

Celebrating its 25th year, Art on the Beach invites guests inside Sullivan’s Island homes.

By Jenny Peterson

114 | FREE, FUN THINGS TO DO ON THE ISLANDS

A host of activities that help you connect with your community and get outside. By Katherine Berry

118 | VIBES & VOCALS

A tour through the live music scene on the islands.

120 | SIP CALENDAR

Your essential guide to island events.

122 | LAST LOOK

EDITOR’S LETTER

It’s been a decade since the first issue of SiP rolled off the press and into the hearts and minds of the residents of Sullivan’s Island, the Isle of Palms, Dewees Island and Goat Island. Are we running out of interesting people to interview? Have we used up all the alluring places on the Charleston area’s barrier islands to take stunning photographs? Are we losing our enthusiasm for publishing a magazine that tells the compelling stories of some of the most fascinating residents in the Lowcountry?

The answers to those three questions are: no, no and hell no.

The 10th issue of SiP is living proof that our passion for publishing the only magazine dedicated to the people and places on IOP, Sullivan’s, Dewees and Goat Island has not gone stale. Though the magazine comes out annually, after each issue is completed, we spend the entire year tossing around ideas about who and what we will write about in the next edition. I hope that after reading SiP, you will realize that we’ve put a lot of thought and a huge amount of effort into producing a publication that truly tells the story of our barrier islands and the people who are lucky enough to live here.

For example, inside this issue, you’ll probably learn some things you never knew about longtime and soon-to-be retired Sullivan’s Island Town Administrator Andy Benke. Similarly, you might only know Jimmy Ward as a CPA and a long-serving member of the Isle of Palms City Council. But were you aware that he also writes and produces plays?

In this edition of SiP, we’ll take you inside the mind of bestselling author Mary Alice Monroe and explain how her family’s 1999 move to the Isle of Palms was a turning point in her life, as well as in her writing career. She has penned more than 30 novels and now hosts the ever-growing Wild Dunes Author Event and Weekend with Mary Alice Monroe, an idea she launched in 2004. None of this would have been possible without a promise she made to herself when she was 16 years old.

Isle of Palms resident Ted Kinghorn and Mayor Phillip Pounds also made a promise to the people of IOP and the first responders who serve and protect them when they launched the local branch of the Law Enforcement Neighborhood Support Foundation in 2021. Kinghorn, the self-proclaimed “LENS Whisperer,” has helped bring to life scholarships, internships, moraleboosting community programs and hardship assistance aimed at cementing the bond between the community and the IOP Police Department.

It’s entirely possible that you didn’t know that at least three barrier island residents have represented our country in the Foreign Service. In this issue, you’ll learn about career diplomats Jon Gundersen and Eric Schultz and about Edward McMullen, who spent four years as ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

There’s lots more to read about in this issue of SiP, including a closer look at the Wild Dunes Links Golf Course, a comeback for the Island Club on Sullivan’s Island and an arduous row across the Atlantic Ocean.

While you’re reading, we’ll be scouring the islands for people and things to write about for the 2025 edition of SiP. We won’t have to look far.

Brian Sherman Editor

Lynn Pierotti Publisher

Brian Sherman Editor

Cristina Young

Art Director

Denise K. James

Contributing Editor

Rob Byko

Photographer

Jeff Lovins

Marci Shore

Advertising Executives

Contributors

Laura Anderson

Carol Antman

Gamil Awad

Doug Barnard

Katherine Berry

Michael Blevins

Bobby Carrier

Rüta Elvikyté

Caroline Knopf

Colin McCandless

Jenny Peterson

Hector J. Salazar

Marci Shore

Michael Shuler

Mic Smith

Theresa Stratford

Zach Thompson

Mike Walsh

Jennifer Tuohy Editor at Large www.sipmagazinesc.com

Instagram / Facebook @SiPMagazineSC

About SiP

SiP magazine is published annually by Lucky Dog Publishing, LLC., 2205 Middle St., Sullivan’s Island, SC. SiP is mailed to all property owners on Sullivan’s Island, Isle of Palms and Dewees Island.

Contact SiP tel. 843.886.6397

mailing address: po box 837 Sullivan’s Island, SC 29482 for editorial inquiries brisherm@comcast.net for advertising inquiries lynn@luckydognews.com www.luckydognews.com

Cover Photo by Cristina Young

Copyright 2024

CONTRIBUTORS

Laura Anderson, a native New Yorker who turned Charleston enthusiast in 2015, boasts a dual degree in magazine journalism and English literature from Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. As the dynamic senior vice president of MyLo News and president of MyLo Marketing, she skillfully juggles writing, marketing and graphic design. When offduty, Laura swaps her creative cap for a sun hat, lounging on her beloved IOP beach.

Carol Antman is driven by creative curiosity. Her passion for travel has led to living on a kibbutz, hitchhiking the Pan American highway, vagabonding in Europe and Central America and camping throughout the United States to discover a home on Sullivan’s Island. As a travel writer, she is inspired by the idea that everyone has a story. A lifelong pianist, Carol was also the founder of Creative Spark Center for the Arts.

Gamil Awad is a freelancer, skilled both in photography and videography. Originally from Greenville, South Carolina, he has spent time living in Charleston and Mount Pleasant since the early 1980s. After a decade in Oregon, Gamil returned to the Lowcountry, where he raised his three children. Throughout his career, Gamil has explored various roles in different industries, transitioning from owning an art gallery to designing jewelry and even running a restaurant. Currently, he is dedicated to his work at Soul Shine Studios, a local production company. Gamil currently resides in Mount Pleasant.

Katherine Berry is a native South Carolina girl who graduated from Clemson University with a bachelor of arts degree. She flew the coop to pursue life as a business executive in California and Georgia and later ended up as a filmmaker working as a location manager throughout the United States. A pivot in life led her back to her homeland a few years ago, and she has since been pursuing her dreams of inspiring others through teaching yoga and writing.

Rob Byko is a freelance photographer and the founder of Byko Realty, an agent of ERA Wilder Realty. Rob serves as chair for the Charleston County Public Library Board of Trustees and is a member of the Historic Rotary Club of Charleston, where he serves as a board member, Membership Committee chair and Paul Harris Fellow +3. He and his wife, Karen, live on Sullivan’s Island with their two boxers, Finster and Kayli. Rob is committed to protecting our environment and working with area nonprofits to improve the lives of Lowcountry residents.

Caroline Knopf is a freelance photographer. After 26 years in New York, she returned to her Sullivan’s Island family home. She and her husband, Mark Stetler, both photographers, have opened The Space Studio in Charleston and have a sailing charter (alliancesailing.com). She is an advocate for preserving the historic and natural treasures of Sullivan’s Island, which are the inspiration for Maritime Outpost, a collection of clothing and accessories she developed.

Colin McCandless is a freelance writer and copy editor who lives in West Ashley. He has more than 17 years of writing and editing experience working for magazines and newspapers and developing blog and website content. He writes for several publications, including HealthLinks Magazine, Mount Pleasant Magazine and Fifty Plus Advocate. In his spare time, he enjoys reading, birding, traveling and playing tennis.

Jennifer Tuohy is a journalist and editor who has lived in Charleston since 2012. Formerly editor of The Island Eye News and The Island Connection, she founded SiP Magazine in 2015 and was editor in chief until retiring this year. She now works full-time for Vox Media’s Verge website and is home editor of Charleston Magazine. Originally from London, England, she has enjoyed getting to know the people, places and history of Sullivan’s and Isle of Palms and sharing their stories.

Jenny Peterson is a freelance editor and writer. She started out 20 years ago in community newspapers covering Sullivan’s Island and the Isle of Palms for The Moultrie News. Originally from New Orleans, she attended the College of Charleston and has spent her career editing and writing for magazines and newspapers in both The Big Easy and The Holy City, as well as a lifestyle publication in Boca Raton, Florida. She currently lives in downtown Charleston by The Battery, and, when she is not at her laptop, she enjoys taking walks through the South of Broad neighborhood and enjoying a beverage on an outdoor patio.

Hector J. Salazar has over three decades in the video/photography business. He has worked with mid-tolarge-sized companies and nonprofits, as well as high-profile VIPs. His company, MeanStream Studios, prides itself on making its clients’ vision reality. See his work at MeanStreamStudios.com.

Marci Shore has been a SiP Magazine feature writer for 10 years. A Wake Forest University alumni, she still spends part of her time in the foothills of North Carolina. She is a part-time musician, playing fiddle with various groups, and founder of the Ma’ Formulas artisan herbal topicals. She is also the publisher of a new monthly publication –Johns Island Living.

Michael Shuler is a Charleston native. Raised in East Cooper, he is an alumni of both Wando High School and Clemson University. Returning home to Charleston after college, he began a career in commercial real estate. In early 2008, he struck out on his own in the real estate development business, as well as the hospitality business. For the last several years, he has focused his skills in real estate combined with passion for hospitality into growing what is now the largest privately owned marina business in South Carolina. He lives in downtown Charleston with his wife, Kathleen, and spends most days traversing Isle of Palms to Seabrook and back, by both land and sea.

Mic Smith would quickly retire from photography and join the Senior PGA tour if not for his lack of golf talent. The opportunity to photograph the Wild Dunes Links Course was a fantastic second option, and Smith made sure to play the course a few times to scout out the best photo opportunities. When he photographed the moms-sons kickball story, he wished the jamboree had been in place when his kids went to Sullivan’s Island Elementary. He knows his wife would have dominated.

Susan Hill Smith believes in community spirit, which she found on full display at the first ever Sullivan’s Island Elementary School mother-son kickball jamboree. In addition to her work in journalism and corporate marketing, Smith leads the Isle of Palms Cleanup Crew, which engages volunteers in regular litter sweeps, and previously served on Isle of Palms City Council.

Theresa Stratford currently works as a writer for the Department of Energy, and she also is a freelance writer for various local publications. She graduated from the University of South Carolina in print journalism. In her spare time, she is the mother of three kids – ages 12, 9 and 7. Her fur baby is a 2-year-old pointer. She enjoys running and, of course, writing, and, on the weekends, you will find her on a Lowcountry trail with her dog and kids in tow.

Mike Walsh is a retired orthopedic surgeon and avid amateur historian.

Having married a native Charlestonian 52 years ago, he has been coming to Sullivan’s Island since then and lived here since 2005. He’s the president of Battery Gadsden Cultural Center and a volunteer tour guide for the National Park Service at Fort Moultrie, as well as serving on the Charleston County Historic Preservation Commission.

ISLAND LIFE

by Rob Byko.

Photo

BUILDING A COMMUNITY

The Island Club, a time-honored Sullivan’s Island tradition, is being revitalized by residents – both old and new – to continue its role as a central part of life on the island.

By Carol Antman

Photos by Rob Byko and Carol Antman

The Island Club has been a site for mingling and mischief since it became the property of the town of Sullivan’s Island in 1946. Eight men from the volunteer fire department formed the first Civic Club there and used it most famously for their Friday night poker games. Many were from large families of anywhere from five to 12 children, and they craved some male camaraderie.

Woody Wood’s father, Red, a longtime island councilman, was one of the first club’s original members. It was a friendly game, as Woody remembers: “You couldn’t lose $6 if you closed an eye.” But the guys enjoyed their 25-cent beers and their private time. The door was locked, and kids ran wild outside. They didn’t even allow a phone to be installed. Wood once asked his father why there wasn’t a phone, to which Red replied, “One day you’ll figure that out.”

Decades ago, there was a lot more recreation going on near the Club – a baseball field with dugouts and lights and a one-hole golf course. Until the 1970s, the Community Hall was where the fish fry shack is now. Anyone who has lived on the island long enough has fond memories of those places. Johanna Tapio taught everyone shag and fox trot for the frequent dances hosted in the Hall. There was

even roller skating and basketball. “When it rained, every kid on the island was at the basketball court,” Wood fondly recalls.

The now annual Fish Fry fundraiser for the Sullivan’s Island Fire Department started in 1956 as a fundraiser for Wood’s aunt. The fish was delivered straight from the ocean, so a call went out to the island kids to clean them – in exchange for being taste-testers for the hush puppies. They also earned the first batch of fried fish as it came off the wood fire.

After the Community Hall closed, there were small-town shenanigans as kids climbed through the air duct that snaked from outside to underneath the stage. Brian Cummings chuckles about the mischief he and his friends created as island boys: “We’d scale over the fence into Battery Jasper. Rangers chased us out several times.” He celebrated both his baptism at the age of 13 months and his college graduation at the Club.

Later, as young parents in the 1980s, my friends and I started the Sullivan’s Island Arts Council. Our children remember fun days making fish prints and pottery at art camps at the Island Club. Then, under the auspices of Creative Spark Center for the Arts, we held concerts, gingerbread house workshops, plays and summer camps there several times.

Gene DeAmicis is among the musicians who have performed at the newly renovated Island Club on Sullivan’s Island.

The Fourth of July parade often started outside, and, in those days, it was all decorated bicycles.

In 2003, Tom Proctor and his family hosted a memorable 80th birthday party for his mom, the ever-joyful Ms. Kitty. She had two regrets in life that she shared with him: She had never been a stewardess or a madam. “She didn’t want to work in the rooms – she just wanted to welcome folks,” Proctor clarifies. So they decorated the club like her Las Vegas namesake, Kitty’s Pussycat Lounge, and Ms. Kitty welcomed everyone – dressed in a Western saloon outfit.

Fast-forward a few years, and Darragh Simon has led yoga classes at the Club since 2009, where she’s been gratified to see “a room full of people doing poses they thought they’d never do.” However, for many of those years, there wasn’t much else going on in the building. Simon still teaches there and also helps by keeping the calendar of private parties that members have the privilege of hosting.

Today, the Island Club is being revitalized by an enthusiastic group of neighbors. That old poker table and shuffleboard are still there – along with a new Foosball game. Trey and Cintra Sedalick and Lake and Natanya O’Donnell live in the houses across the street. Trey Sedalick, who is in the real estate business, often wondered why the building wasn’t utilized more but struggled to find any type of explanation. “I’ve sold many houses on the

island, and people would ask ‘Where do we go to meet other folks?’” he says.

Similarly, the O’Donnells both grew up on the island and missed the days of when they were kids and everyone knew everyone. Thus, they recruited a board of directors consisting of Melissa Healy, Hunter Stunzi, Keith Wallace, Darragh Simon and Sam Moore and began the hard work of forming a nonprofit organization. The town agreed to rent them the building for $1 a year and pay the utilities. With the legalities in place, they created their vision: It would be a place to enrich the community, to learn, cultivate new skills, be entertained, exercise and have fun with neighbors. Its image would not be fancy but would instead reflect the island’s laid-back spirit and enduring history.

Their efforts have struck a chord, and 120 paid members have already joined. People often sign up at open mic nights, potluck suppers, yoga, mahjong, concerts, happy hours and holiday celebrations, all of which attract a wide age range. Unlike the good-oldboy memberships from the past, the board declared it is inclusive of all residents. In fact, membership is open to anyone who has ever lived on the island.

Barbara Lassiter has been very active and got involved because she found it hard to meet people when she moved to the island in 2011. “I went to a bar, but it’s not an environment

Clinton Carter and his son, Wells, play games at the Island Club.

Photo by Carol Antman.

Roland Wilson prepares to enjoy dinner at the Island Club on Sullivan’s Island.

Photo by Carol Antman.

to meet people,” she says. “The first night I went to the Club, I served mules. I even had the copper cups. Everybody enjoyed that. It’s a nice comfortable place.” Lassiter also leads the weekly mahjong games, is helping with fundraising and has aspirations to host square dances and craft classes there. Peter Coish was 4 years old when he came to his first art camp at the club and is now a key player in its revitalization. He plays lead guitar in the house band Lake Warhol, which includes Ron Coish, Philip Antman, Noodle McDoodle and Lake O’Donnell. They’ve added a new sound system, acoustic tiles and lighting for the frequent shows. The band gets the music started on open mic nights and encourages others to join in.

“Johanna Tapio taught everyone shag and fox trot for the frequent dances hosted in the Hall.

Preethi Machaiah says, “Our four boys – Adi, Adarsh, Akah and Akhil Ayandra –have been playing violin and guitar for five years now. They were sort of shy to perform in front of a crowd. The Island Club jam nights are providing them a platform to learn, grow and get inspired from the several musical talents on the island – which is a true blessing.” Lake Warhol drew a huge crowd for its CD release party and credits the new board with building enthusiasm. “As soon as they took it over, it began a cascade of events,” says Coish. “If someone has an idea for something, they say ‘OK; let’s do it!’”

Other local musicians have started noticing the intimate space the Island Club provides and are holding concerts

for members as well. The board hopes to add activities such as improv theater, art shows, crafting and kids’ camps as volunteers become involved to help. Noting that the town has no recreation department, Mayor Pat O’Neil says, “I’m enthusiastic about them continuing to sponsor activities to appeal to a broad section of the island.” Throughout its history, the building has mostly been maintained by its members – and maintenance is needed continually. The poker guys put a new roof on the building, rebuilt the floor and did numerous repairs themselves. Town administrator Andy Benke emphasized that the new lease arrangement calls for the organization to pay for all repairs without the town’s help, although members emphasized that the town has been supportive. Even before the club reopened, repairs were necessary just to make the building safe. There were holes in the floor, leaks in the roof, bad wiring and plumbing issues. But with sweat equity and money from dues, the members have managed to do plenty. They also extended the stage and painted the outside. Further improvements are planned, including adding a landscaped outdoor space and a better ADA-compliant entrance. Members hope to finance these through a fundraising event, Taste of Sullivan’s Island, in May. “People are very excited about the renovation,” Sedalick says. “The outpouring of enthusiasm makes the hard work worth it.”

Meeting seasonally at the 25th Ave Beach, IOP. Check our Social Media pages for ‘morning-of’ weather updates.

DeepWater Church exists to be a faith family passionately pursuing Jesus and deeply loving the islands and beyond.

Pastor Paul & Jessica Coleman

Photo by Lake O’Donnell.

ISLAND LIFE

SEEING COMMUNITY THROUGH A CLEARER LENS

Five years in, the Law Enforcement Neighborhood Support Foundation of Isle of Palms is supporting a community and building connections.

By Laura Anderson

Photos by Mic Smith and Bobby Carrier

On a picturesque barrier island, a little boy and his father learn the essentials of boating safety, possibly averting potential disaster on the water. A short distance away, a girl’s laughter fills the air as she pedals her bicycle for the first time, unsteady but triumphant. Elsewhere, a woman grappling with the financial strain of metastatic breast cancer finds unexpected relief, and a young pregnant mother, alongside her toddler, discovers sanctuary from the shadows of domestic abuse. These vignettes, each unique and deeply personal, converge on a singular source of hope and compassion: The Law Enforcement Neighborhood Support Foundation.

Established in 2019 by Isle of Palms resident George Reeth, The LENS Foundation Charleston emerged as a pivotal force, bridging the gap between the community and law enforcement through enriching programs, events and direct support to those in challenging circumstances. “We felt it was important for the community to let the police officers know that we appreciate their sacrifices,” Reeth says.

In 2021, Ted Kinghorn, together with Mayor Phillip Pounds, launched the IOP branch of the Foundation, bringing to life an array of initiatives ranging from educational

scholarships and internships to moraleboosting community programs and hardship assistance, all aimed at strengthening bonds within the community and providing crucial support both to families and officers of the IOP Police Department.

At the heart of LENS IOP is fostering a dynamic synergy between the police force and the community, nurturing a shared sense of unity and security. The Foundation frequently collaborates with the IOP Recreation Department and IOP Exchange Club to organize events centered around safety and education. These include the Wild Child Triathlon and the Bicycle Rodeo, which offers essential safety lessons and biking techniques to young cyclists. Additionally, through its water and boating safety programs, the Foundation actively engages community members, enhancing the overall safety and cohesion of the island community.

Central to these endeavors is the annual LENS IOP fundraising banquet, a pivotal event that not only celebrates the community’s spirit but also raises funds to broaden the Foundation’s impactful work.

The vitality and continuation of these events and programs hinge on support and feedback from the IOP and Sullivan’s Island communities.

Among the awards presented at the 2023 LENS banquet were, clockwise, starting at top left: Ted Kinghorn presented the Supervisor of the Year award to Sgt. Matt Storen; Kinghorn presented the Professional Staff Member of the Year award to Officer Jace Kowsky; Kinghorn presented the Volunteer of the Year award to Kathy Shook; and Mayor Phillip Pounds presented th Rookie of the Year award to Officer Sydney Kowsky. Photos by Mic Smith.

“Receiving a LENS scholarship has been a humbling honor.

–Kami Meekins

“ No amount of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.

–Ted Kinghorn

Recognizing the profound interest these initiatives stirred among community members, Kinghorn and the LENS advisory board introduced the LENS Lieutenants program, which enables young families and businesses on the islands to share their ideas and preferences for programs, directly influencing offerings such as the Wild Child Triathlon and Fishing with Friends – events born from community suggestions.

Kinghorn acknowledged that the success of these efforts owe a debt to the community’s fundraising support, which involves families and local businesses. He highlighted the critical role of the “Fab 50” founders, advisory board, scholarship champions and endowment participants, whose contributions have significantly shaped the Foundation’s achievements.

IOP Police Chief Kevin Cornett lauded the Foundation as a vital support network, acknowledging the array of challenges faced by law enforcement and the difference LENS

IOP has made. “It’s more than a foundation; it’s a promise to our officers and community that we’re not alone. LENS is that caveat for our neighborhood, our community, to say ‘hey, we realize you have a hard job, and we really want to be there for you to be that support mechanism.’ Whether that’s sending kids to college with a scholarship or helping first responders who might be in a situation where they’re struggling to even recognizing employees for the great work they’re doing.”

The LENS Foundation’s commitment to transparency and accountability shines brightly, ensuring donors that their contributions forge a tangible difference. With the introduction of the Education Scholarship Awards Program in 2021, LENS underscored the value of education, extending scholarships to law enforcement officers’ children and spouses, thus easing financial burdens and fostering academic aspirations.

IOP Police Department Capt. Jeff Swain,

Running was just one leg of the Wild Child Triathlon held in February 2024. Biking, right, and swimming were the other two. Photos by Bobby Carrier.

touched by the Foundation’s generosity, says, “LENS has provided both of my children with generous college scholarships over the past several years, helping them ease part of the financial burden. These scholarships are just one of the many ways LENS continues to support the Isle of Palms Police Department family.” Echoing this sentiment, Kami Meekins, a scholarship recipient, reflects, “Receiving a LENS scholarship has been a humbling honor.”

The Foundation’s spectrum of support extends beyond educational aid, also addressing critical needs. The real stories of individuals and families who have found solace and relief through LENS emphasize the profound impact of community generosity.

IOP Police Lt. Robert Forsythe marvels at the Foundation’s behind-the-scenes efforts: “Witnessing the extent of LENS’ support has been amazing. Their dedication to going above and beyond for the community is truly inspiring.”

LENS’ commitment to community support helps across a spectrum of needs, including a collaboration with a community fundraiser to aid Christina Summers’ longtime battle against cancer. Summers, facing the escalating severity of stage 4 breast cancer, found a lifeline in LENS’ generosity. “When the LENS Foundation became aware of my need, they awarded a donation for me, which greatly reduced my level of stress from worrying about financial matters related to costly treatments,” she expresses.

Further illustrating LENS’ commitment to supporting the community’s backbone, the Foundation extended a helping hand to

a police officer’s family plunged into financial despair by lengthy hospitalizations of the officer’s wife, who could not work due to medical conditions. LENS’ timely support covered medical bills, associated expenses and back-to-school necessities for their children.

In September 2022, the IOP Police Department encountered a domestic abuse case involving a family that was visiting the island. LENS responded swiftly, securing two nights at the Hampton Inn for a pregnant young mother and her 2-year-old child.

A poignant reminder of LENS’ impact was the call from a family shattered by the loss of a young daughter in a tragic automobile accident. “We provided modest financial support for the grieving family,” Kinghorn says. “Even during this grieving time, this mother took the time to write us a heartfelt thank you note. This is why we do what we do.”

Each of these stories illustrates the scope of LENS’ outreach, helping change lives through targeted support and embodying the spirit of community solidarity in the face of adversity. “Every thank you note, every heartfelt message we receive, reinforces why we do what we do. It’s about making a difference, one life at a time,” Kinghorn says.

As the LENS Foundation IOP continues to grow, its invitation to the community to get involved through donations or participation in its endowment program echoes the collective spirit of the islands. With a warm smile, Kinghorn shared his gratitude: “No amount of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. Thank you for putting others – most of the time, complete strangers – first. Thank you for mak ing a difference. Thank you for caring.” SiP SiP

GET OUT. . . ON THE WATER

They say you’ve not seen Charleston until you’ve seen it from the water. Michael Shuler shares memories from growing up on the water and how to best enjoy it today.

The Mount Pleasant of my childhood is a far cry from the city we know today. It was a quiet little community tucked between downtown Charleston and the beaches. In those days, there was only one main grocery – the Piggly Wiggly, of course – an old-school Krispy Kreme and a dine-in Pizza Hut that I sorely miss to this day. Shem Creek had almost as many cigarette boats as it did shrimp boats – think Miami Vice meets the Lowcountry, if you catch my drift.

Back then, there was no Isle of Palms Connector, the Wild Dunes Beach and Racquet Club was still brand new and the IOP Marina Store was nothing more than a dressed up single-wide sitting in a gravel parking lot with a gas pump.

Sullivan’s Island was a world apart from

what it is today. I’ll never forget tagging along with my folks after Hurricane Hugo to an open house at one of the only homes left standing on the back side of the island – a “four-bedroom home with deep-water dock, asking $350,000 or best offer.” If we only knew then what we know now.

And Dewees, of course, was for the most part an uninhabited desert island before John Knott came to town.

To be sure, each of the Islands was its own community, but all three towns, Mount Pleasant, Sullivan’s and IOP, were so small that they more or less ran together. Everyone went to school together. Everyone played sports together. It was our tightknit little coastal community “bubble.”

At the center of that bubble, those salt

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Left: Michael Shuler surf fishing on Capers Island, sometime around 1986. Below: Michael Shuler cruising the Intracoastal Waterway.

marshes and estuaries strung along the Intracoastal Waterway between Mount Pleasant and the barrier islands, heading north from the Charleston Harbor all the way to McClellanville, were some of our best-kept secrets, hidden in plain sight for any who ventured there to see. It was God’s country, truly a slice of heaven that was, for all intents and purposes, our private backyard – because, of course, you had to have a boat to enjoy it. Lucky for many of us locals, boating was part of our heritage. We were driving boats well before we were driving cars. It was part of our Lowcountry DNA.

Nothing quite compares to the untamed freedom of youth on the deck of an indestructible 1980 riveted metal jon boat turned loose on the Lowcountry. That’s where my first favorite memories were made, and, to this day, I’m still pretty sure it doesn’t get any better than: pluff mud squeezing up between your toes; salt-matted hair; sandwiches with a slight aftertaste of sunscreen and mullet; the anticipation of watching the string tighten as a blue crab takes off with your chicken neck;

surf fishing the barrier islands; filling coolers with fresh shrimp; flounder gigging at night; jumping off the old Pitt Street Bridge; camping on Capers Island; and wandering through the “boneyard” at Bulls Bay.

The memories on the water didn’t end there. High school and college introduced me to a whole new world of boating in the Lowcountry. Board shorts, bikinis and beaches were an irresistible combination. Let’s face it: You instantly became the most popular kid in class on a sunny Saturday morning if you had the keys to a boat. Just don’t forget a hard lesson learned by even the most seasoned boater: If you plan to be beaching it on the north shore of Dewees Island all day with a red Solo cup in your hand, don’t forget to occasionally check on your boat, or your day on the water will turn into a camping trip waiting for high tide to rescue you.

Into adulthood, I found myself traveling the world on boats and saw some amazing sights, but, for me, nothing ever quite compares to our Lowcountry waters. There was a time

Below: Michael Shuler Jr. and Michael Shuler Sr. fishing off Bulls Island.

when I lived on a boat, and I even met my wife on one. Over the years, the boats got bigger, and, of course, so did my dreams. One day, I had an epiphany – as a wise man once said: “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”

You might be thinking: “So you became a boat captain?” Not quite, though there are plenty of days when I wish I had. But with some patience, years of hard work and more luck than I deserve, fast-forward to present day, and I find myself to be the proprietor of some of the Lowcountry’s favorite marinas, from Isle of Palms all the way to Seabrook. Every day, I wake up feeling humbled and fortunate to be able to be a steward of these special places for our community and for the next generation to be able to appreciate our Lowcountry way of life on the water just like I did. I’m truly living my dream.

Needless to say, a lot has changed since the days of my youth in our coastal community bubble. Mount Pleasant has grown from a sleepy town into a full-blown city, and, after

Hurricane Hugo, the islands quickly rebuilt into the world-class communities they are today. And accolade after accolade for Charleston being the No. 1 city in America has driven more and more people here every year to experience in a long weekend what we are fortunate to enjoy each and every day of our lives.

But when high season sometimes gets to be too much for you, just remember that you can always take a page out of my book: Get out on the water. If you’re local, it’s an opportunity to reset and connect with your Lowcountry roots. If you haven’t been here that long, it’s a great way to see something new from a local’s perspective. After all, in a sense, its why we’re all here, right?

Whether you are solo, a couple or an entire family, the options are endless. Cruise the Intracoastal for a sunset cocktail hour. Don’t worry about parking; head to dinner by boat. Are the beaches too crowded for you? Go north, and, in 15 minutes, you can have a pristine beach all to yourself. Are the grandkids in

“ We were driving boats well before we were driving cars. It was part of our Lowcountry DNA.

– Michael Shuler

Left to right: Kathleen Shuler, Michael Shuler Jr., Suzanne Shuler and Michael Shuler Sr. aboard The Osprey.

Above: Kathleen Shuler flounder gigging off of Goat Island. Right: Cousins Ryan Bowie, Michael Shuler Jr. and Brent Bowie with crabs caught on the north side of Dewees Island, sometime around 1984.

“

If you really want to blend in with the locals, just give a slight nod and wave of acknowledgement as you pass other boaters – it’s good local boating etiquette.

– Michael Shuler

town? Take them fishing. You don’t know how? Charter one of our local guides. Do you want to learn more about conservation and the environment? Take an ecotour.

You don’t have a boat? No problem. Rent one for the day to explore, or join a Boat Club for all the fun without the hassle. Just remember: Try your best to be courteous while out on the water. Mind the no-wake zones, and, even if you’re not in one and you see a private dock being actively used, throttle back to idle as you pass. It’s the right thing to do.

If you try fishing, keep what you need but release what you can so there will always be plenty to go around. Bring the kids and try not to miss an opportunity to teach them about conservation. After all, what’s the point if the next generation isn’t prepared to follow in our footsteps?

If you really want to blend in with the locals, just give a slight nod and wave of acknowledgement as you pass other boaters – it’s good local boating etiquette. If you know, you know. With the season upon us, there is no time like the present to plan your next trip out on the water. As the age-old saying goes, “Time and tide wait for no man” – and the tide is coming in. SiP

ISLAND LIFE

KNOCKING IT OUT OF THE PARK

Sullivan’s Island Elementary School hosts the first ever mother-son kickball tournament.

By Susan Hill Smith

Photos by Mic Smith

Left: Kindergarten student Henry Krischer gets a kick out of kickball.

“

“It was a unique day that I don’t think anyone will forget any time soon.”

–Katherine Smith

Left: Shep Russell prepares to fire away. Above: A team of second- and third-graders. Right: First-grader Griffin Burgoyne is ready for action

They needed an annual event that could rival the always adorable father-daughter dance because, face it, past activities for moms and sons had been fun but didn’t deliver the same oomph. The Sullivan’s Island Elementary School PTA fixed that, staging an afternoon kickball tournament and knocking it out of the park.

Launched this spring at the Isle of Palms Recreation Center, the school’s first mother-son kickball jamboree packed multiple high-energy games into one afternoon. Dads served as umpires; school staff cheered from the sidelines, a DJ pumped up the volume and everyone celebrated afterward with pizza.

Altogether, 129 boys and 106 of the school’s moms and other special women – including Principal Susan King – turned out to play. “Pretty amazing for our first year!” says Lisa Marie Ferguson, the school’s parent educator and lead for the SIES magnet program. “The boys and their moms loved it,” says PTA event organizer Katherine Smith. “It was so fun watching everyone get so into the games. A lot of the players came to win.”

For the fourth and fifth graders, it was a much different ball game than what the kids in the other grades experienced. “The younger children played on teams with their moms and the older children played against their moms,” Presley explains.

Isle of Palms mom Mia Howe did a doubleheader. When she competed on the same team as her third grade son, Jude, they were “cheering each other on.” When she sprinted over to join a game with her fifth grade son, Flint, with his team as the opponents, she soon found they were playing for more than just kicks. “It was hysterical to see the boys’ competitive spirit, and they did not take it easy on their mamas,” Howe says. “We finally conceded in the final inning, knowing we had way too much ground to make up.”

“It was great to immerse ourselves in their worlds for a little bit,” Howe adds. “We got to be silly and competitive and active, and it really was a highlight of the school year.”

The PTA board “absolutely” intends to make the kickball jamboree an annual tradition, Smith says, and they were soon pinning down a date for 2025: “The camaraderie and good sportsmanship made for a truly special afternoon. I’ve never been part of an event quite like it with mothers and sons. It was a unique day that I don’t think anyone will forget any time soon.” SiP SiP

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All the community’s a stage

A chance conversation at The Windjammer turned into three decades of community theater for Jimmy Ward’s Crabpot Players.

By Colin McCandless Photos by Hector Salazar

Crabpot Players community theater presented its inaugural performance at the Windjammer in winter 1993. That may sound like an unorthodox location for a theater production, but it provided a perfect launching pad for one Isle of Palms resident’s passion project, which has now spanned more than three decades. The brainchild of accountant and City Councilman Jimmy Ward, who moved to Isle of Palms in January 1986, the idea for Crabpot Players grew out of a conversation Ward had with Malcolm Burgis, the Windjammer’s owner. Burgis mentioned at the time that while summer business was booming, he needed ideas on how to attract more customers during the off-season lull. Inspired, Ward brought up his theater background from college and suggested he put on a play. Burgis initially had his doubts, but he ultimately agreed.

The very first play was “The Last Meeting of the Knights of the White Magnolia,” a spoof on racism written by Preston Jones and set in the fictional West Texas town of Bradleyville. “We had auditions, and nobody showed up,” Ward recalls with a chuckle. Undeterred, he ended up plucking the bulk of his amateur cast from among his buddies who happened to be drinking at the bar, and, with that, the ensemble started rehearsing. Most of the people featured in that initial play had zero acting experience. “I think

Most

“ He was just so inspiring and so devoted to the younger generation finding a love of theater.

— EMILY BENNETT

a couple of them had never even been inside a theater in their life,” Ward says.

But despite minor setbacks, opening night was packed, and reviews were positive. When word spread about the play, friend and Post and Courier writer David Quick telephoned Ward and told him if he devised a name for the new theater company, Quick could write an article and help promote their performances. Ward wanted something reflecting the geographical location of the island and something that was “not too serious.” The result was the Crabpot Players. “It just kind of stuck,” he says.

Ward’s friend and former roommate at the University of South Carolina, award-winning cartoonist Robert Ariail, created the original logo: a parody of the gravedigger scene in “Hamlet,” depicting a crab holding a skull in its claw.

By 1999, the Crabpot Players had begun to gain traction. Another Post and Courier writer published a list of the 10 best shows in Charleston of the prior decade, ranked in no particular order. “The Last Meeting of the Knights of the White Magnolia” appeared in the No. 1 slot. “It was just a unique little show,” Ward recalls. “It was very funny.”

people know Jimmy Ward as a CPA and a long-serving member of the Isle of Palms City Council. He also writes and produces plays.

“ I’ll keep doing them as long as we have a place to perform. I’ve always enjoyed it. I love working with people, and I love giving back to the community.”

— JIMMY WARD

Naturally, The Windjammer invited Ward to return and stage more shows, which he did. Programming grew, and the founder added his own playwriting efforts – to date, Ward has penned 13 plays. And though he describes Crabpot Players as a hobby, Ward estimates they have presented more than 100 productions over the last 31 years.

One particularly popular staging was in 2003, when a performance called “Mayberry by the Sea” took place at the IOP Rec Center for the 50th anniversary of the city’s founding. “We probably had about 600 people a night come to that show,” Ward says. Around 12 years ago, the Crabpot Players presented full productions of theater for youngsters at the Rec Center, including “Peter Pan,” “Alice in Wonderland” and “The Wizard of Oz.”

One of the theater company’s most recent productions was “Tales of the Lowcountry,” a collaborative project involving a team of writers and original scripts. Ward’s friend, Emily Bennett, a New York-based actor and filmmaker who writes and directs psychological thrillers and horror movies, wrote “Annabel Lee” as part of the 2023 Halloween haunted history series.

Bennett is a Charleston native and acted with the Crabpot Players while she was a student at Wando High School. She appeared in Ward’s original play “Auburn Bliss,” presented at the Dock Street Theatre in 2000, along with many other shows. She spoke fondly of her mentor’s passion and commitment to fostering young Lowcountry talent. “He was just so inspiring and so devoted to the younger generation finding a love of theater,” she says.

I could,” Bennett says. She even directed her first play under Ward’s tutelage, describing him as “encouraging” and “demystifying the process for her at an early age.”

The two remain close and talk often. Ward even walked Bennett down the aisle at her wedding two years ago. Last year, when the “Tales of the Lowcountry” shows were performed on the beach at Wild Dunes Resort – which sponsored the event with bonfires and LED lights – Bennett attended one of the performances with her husband. “Crabpot is the true heart and soul of theater in the Lowcountry in my opinion,” she says.

Other plays have been held at the FAME Performing Arts Center in Mount Pleasant, including “Savannah Sipping Society” and “Misconceptions.” Ward also rented a building in Mount Pleasant for two years to house the theater company – until rent got too expensive. Other than the venues, he finances nearly every aspect of the productions himself. “I’ll keep doing them as long as we have a place to perform,” he says. “I’ve always enjoyed it. I love working with people, and I love giving back to the community.”

Ward estimates they have presented more than 100 productions over the last 31 years.

The theater’s actors are primarily volunteers, and all are local. Roles are open to all ages, and the material is always family friendly. Ward relishes working with local youth and seeing them flourish. “I’ve seen a lot of them go on to do some pretty successful things,” he says.

Ward helped Bennett audition for the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts. Later, she would attend the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London as the only American to be accepted into the program that year. “It all really started because Jimmy told me

Looking ahead, Ward hopes Crabpot Players will present some classics, such as “Our Town” by Thornton Wilder. He also plans to re-write “Malibu East,” an original play he presented at Dock Street in 1997. The title references a former IOP bar co-owned by Ricky Myatt and Barry McClellan, which was destroyed by Hurricane Hugo. “We perform comedy,” says Ward. “Our audiences are coming to see a good show, enjoy themselves and forget about their troubles.”

When Vince Iwinski isn’t managing bands or the Woodland Nature Preserve, he dedicates his time to his children: Ivy, 11, and Leo, 8.

“ We’re dedicated to making sure this area doesn’t get turned into a concrete jungle.

Making

Vince Iwinski, manager of American jam band Umphrey’s McGee and hip-hop/reggae group Little Stranger, reflects on life as a music man, dad and preservationist and the joys of living on Isle of Palms.

By Marci Shore Photos by Gamil Awad

Vince Iwinski left the “cold, dark winters of Chicago” to move to Charleston in 2012. The 26-year manager of the band Umphrey’s McGee, he was close friends with the members of the band from their college days at Notre Dame. And he once taught an artist management class at the College of Charleston. “Basically, being a manager involves being the hub of a wheel that keeps all the spokes together. We keep the wheels on the road,” he says, adding that an essential part of being a manager is hiring the right people to serve as all of those “spokes” of the wheel.

Iwinski was on the road with the band until 2004, traveling in a van and a trailer, couch surfing from city to city and playing poker with the guys in between gigs. These days, the band moves from place to place with two large buses and a semi, and Iwinski spends most of his time behind the computer and on the phone in his role as manager.

In 2006, he was part of an early movement toward destination festivals, long before the current trend of luring fans to exotic beach locations to see their favorite bands. A new project is his role as co-manager of a local duo, Little Stranger, a hip-hop/reggae group that is starting to gain a following; Iwinski has seen their audiences grow from 200 to 2,000 recently. Little Stranger also sponsors a little league team at the Isle Palms Recreation Center, and a concert and pizza party is planned for later in the season.

Another subject dear to his heart is the Woodland Nature Preserve, 6,000 acres of trails, lakes and swamp located just 25 minutes from Charleston – and where Iwinski serves as manager of music and events. “We’re dedicated to making sure this area doesn’t get turned into a concrete jungle. We support an ecofriendly event center where people can come listen to music and lay out under the stars,” he says.

When he is not managing bands or the Preserve, Iwinski dedicates his time to his children: Ivy, 11, and Leo, 8. They both attend Sullivan’s Island Elementary School, along with Ryan Stasik’s kids. Stasik, Umphrey’s McGee’s bassist, and his wife made the move to warmer weather around the same time Iwinski headed south, and together, he says, they are like a tightknit band family.

“I’m heavily involved in their school, and I just helped out at field day. I use my connections in the music industry to get passes and tickets to events to raise money to help fund programs at the school that the county can’t fund,” Iwinski says.

He discovered the Isle of Palms many years before he moved there while visiting with his sister’s family. “I remember being impressed by the vision of a young girl on the Isle of Palms riding a bike unsupervised down the street. I feel so fortunate I’m able to give my kids that – a place where they can roam and feel safe,” he says.

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From corporate to creative

Sullivan’s Island’s Jeff Clark shares how he turned retirement into a second career selling his art in Charleston’s City Market.

By Marci Shore Photos by Gamil Awad

Until 2013, Sullivan’s Island resident Jeff Clark was a regional manager for Georgia Pacific, supervising the packaging company’s Southeastern operations, which produced corrugated boxes designed to ship products for many iconic brands and proving that “a quality box really does make a difference.” Shortly after retiring from his 34-year career in the corporate world, he returned to his creative roots, joining a group on the island that painted together and quickly rekindling his childhood love of art.

Today, JD Clark paintings hang in homes and hotels throughout the world. What started as a way to pass the time when he no longer had a full-time job is now a labor of love. Last year, the 67-year-old Clark worked 145 days selling his prints at the City Market

“ I’m happiest when I’m not bogged down and when I’m just simply creating.

in downtown Charleston. “That’s a lot of work for someone who’s retired,” he says.

Clark’s artistic past remained mostly unexpressed during his executive career. He painted only for special occasions, such as when his mother asked him to create something just for her. Clark’s mother and father first noticed he had artistic talent when he was a young boy, and they signed him up for art lessons at the Toledo, Ohio Museum of Art. “We were fortunate to have one of the best smaller city museums in the country,” he says.

During the summers from fourth through seventh grade, Clark became a self-professed “museum rat,” attending the museum’s art program every Saturday, where he and his friends roamed freely in the halls lined with priceless works of art. “We often got yelled at by the guards,” he says, adding that years later, as an adult, he had a déjà vu moment when he got too close to a Van Gogh painting at the same museum and once again was reprimanded by a guard.

The museum introduced him not only to his love of art but also to the love of his life, his wife, Vicki. They had their first date at the

“ The paintings he was doing were really interesting and different. A lot of people try to paint in the style of Van Gogh. Jeff is one of the only people I know of who has to try not to paint like him.

— FRANK DELOACH

museum, and they now have three children and three grandchildren. They have lived on Sullivan’s Island for 11 years.

During his teenage years, other pursuits took priority, and he only “dabbled” in art while in college at the University of Toledo, where he took lessons from Miss Bell, who happened to be the same art teacher he had as a child at the museum summer camp. Though he never knew her first name, Miss Bell’s influence is still very much a part of his style

of painting. He recalls a lesson where she instructed him to draw an old paint brush that was well-loved and well-worn, with its bristles splayed out to the side and encouraged him to extend the lines out from a plane to create a ragged look. Many of his paintings still have elements of that technique.

Local artist Frank DeLoach – known for his paintings of the Angel Oak – influenced Clark in recent years and encouraged him to go over to “the dark side” and try oil painting. They share a love for the ancient tree on Johns Island, and Clark started joining him there to paint the tree together. “There is just something spiritual about something that has been around for that long,” Clark says. Independently, they each describe the other as being “a character.”

DeLoach, a retired scientist turned artist, says he noticed that when Clark first got back to painting, “he started getting really good, really quickly.” “He started going downtown and painting the carriage horses at the stables. The paintings he was doing were really interesting and different. A lot of people try to paint in the style of Van Gogh. Jeff is one of

Jeff Clark returned to his creative roots after retiring from a 34-year career in the corporate world.

the only people I know of who has to try not to paint like him,” says DeLoach. “He’s very innovative. He’s one of the better painters in town in my opinion.”

Clark has painted many versions of the Angel Oak, and the first oil painting he did of it now resides in a home in New York, which was purchased by a man who still keeps in touch with him. His Angel Oak print is one of his most popular ones at the Market, where Clark’s art sticks to a Lowcountry theme, with subjects such as Rainbow Row, horse carriages, the marsh, shrimp boats and church steeples.

While he seems reluctant to publicly embrace the role of a controversial artist, the walls of his studio reveal an artist interested in exploring world injustice as well as local beauty. A painting he created in response to the controversy over the origins of the COVID-19 virus got “noticed” perhaps a little too much, he says, when it was on display at a recent exhibit. It shows Chinese leader Xi Jinping masked at the top of the painting and unmasked with fangs at the bottom.

Another painting with a naked, screaming figure surrounded by the sunset colors of the Chinese flag has the caption “Save Uyghurs.”

The painting acknowledges the plight of the Uyghurs, a minority ethnic group of mostly Muslims that lives in the northwestern region of Xinjiang. According to research by BBC News in 2022, more than a million Uyghurs have been detained by the Chinese government and forced to work in labor camps that have a “shoot to kill” policy for those trying to escape.

Another painting is his take on a famous work by Edgar Degas, “The Little Dancer.” “Many people don’t realize the terrible way ballerinas were treated,” he explains. “Instead of having the ballerina appearing broken and submissive, I decided to make her bold and more like a superhero.” Clark says he likes to see this facet of the artistic expression as being less “controversial” and more about “public awareness.”

His unexpected second career has given Clark a platform not only to creatively address political topics but also to be able to stay integrated and network in the community with other artists, tourists and other vendors at the night market, adding out that “I credit my networking ability as being among the reasons I was successful in my corporate job.”

At the end of the day, Clark seems equally surprised and proud of being able to rise out of retirement, return to his roots and his dormant God-given talent and to create a new enterprise. “I hope this inspires other people to return to what they love to do. I’m happiest when I’m not bogged down and when I’m just simply creating,” he says. SiP

“They probed 5,200 square miles, more than all previous searches combined.

Diving deep to find the woman who flew

The story of how Sullivan’s Island’s Tony Romeo may have discovered Amelia Earhart’s missing plane

By Colin McCandless Photos by Hector Salazar

It’s the most legendary unsolved mystery in aviation history: the disappearance of Amelia Earhart. The pioneering pilot’s Lockheed 10-E Electra went missing in the Pacific on July 2, 1937, during her attempt to become the first female to fly around the world. Despite an expansive search spanning a year-and-a-half, Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, were never found.

Sullivan’s Island resident Tony Romeo, CEO of Charleston-based Deep Sea Vision, believes that his exploration team may have discovered Earhart’s longlost plane. Romeo, who has lived at Station 30 with his wife and children since 2015, described Deep Sea Vision as a “survey company with probably the best sonar system ever built.”

Utilizing its deepwater sonar system Hugin 6000 – referencing its ability to operate at depths down to 6,000 meters – the company provides underwater surveying services for laying cable, wind farm work, shipwreck and treasure hunting and the sea floor minerals industry. Romeo bought the $9 million system in June 2022 from the Norwegian company that built it. “What we’ve done with it is we’ve modified it so that instead of searching maybe 200 meters on each side, a quarter mile, we’ve modified it so it can search a full mile,” Romeo says.

Romeo’s family’s aviation background served as a major motivating factor in the search for Earhart’s plane. His dad worked as a pilot for Pan Am, and he and his siblings all have their pilot’s licenses. “It was

a mystery that intrigued me so much that I bought every book I could find on it,” he says. “Talked to as many folks as I could who were involved in the story and had done searches in the past. And I came to the conclusion, along with my brother, that this thing was doable and that we could actually solve it.”

One of the biggest challenges was the location’s remoteness – the middle of the Pacific, “four days from anywhere,” says Romeo. He assembled a team that included his brother, Lloyd, and sought to answer the question of how best to achieve success. He decided to keep the team small and use a fuel-efficient vessel from which to launch the Hugin 6000. “I wanted a system that was new and wasn’t going to break,” says Romeo. “And I wanted to make sure that the areas that we

“ I bought the system for the purpose of finding her aircraft. So we will continue searching.

— TONY ROMEO

searched were not only high-probability areas but also the difficulty level – based on the terrain and the sea floor – was also of a level that made searching fast and easy.”

They probed 5,200 square miles, more than all previous searches combined, says Romeo. The endeavor lasted more than 100 days, from August until November 2023. Deep Sea Vision examined evidence of six radio calls from Earhart, which might provide clues of her possible location when she lost contact flying from New Guinea to Howland Island on July 2, 1937. A fuzzy sonar image, combined with several other factors, leads Romeo to believe that his team has potentially cracked the case. “So based on where we found her, based on the dimensions of the plane and based on the characteristics of the sonar image, we feel

Examples of Anne Bivens’ jewelry collection Bivens is particularly fond of using turquoise

like we’ve got a really high candidate for her Lockheed Electra,” he says. However, if this turns out to be a false lead, Deep Sea Vision has two other promising targets. “I bought the system for the purpose of finding her aircraft,” emphasizes Romeo. “So we will continue searching.”

The next step entails returning to the area where the Hugin 6000 recorded the sonar image with a type of color camera, most likely using a remotely operated vehicle, or ROV. If they can see the numbers on Earhart’s plane –NR16020 – that will confirm that the aircraft is hers. “At 6,000 meters depth, there’s not a lot of free oxygen, so the plane is actually going to be pretty well-preserved,” says Romeo. “And even stuff inside the cockpit like papers, maps and charts should still be intact.”

collection displayed at the Sandpiper Gallery. turquoise in her pieces.

What would prove to Tony Romeo that his company has found the wreckage of Amelia Earhart’s last flight? He wants to find the numbers on her plane: NR16020.

Resilience, redemption and law

Kevin Cornett tells Laura Anderson about his extraordinary journey to become Isle of Palms Police Chief

By Laura Anderson Photos by Rob Byko

Encountering Isle of Palms Police Chief Kevin Cornett, one is immediately struck by the embodiment of authority and calm he presents. His uniform, meticulously kept, badges shining and a smile that radiates a tranquil assurance – a testament that under his watchful eye, all is well in this coastal sanctuary. But what lies beneath the surface is a tapestry of life experiences more complex than his serene demeanor might suggest.

Invisible to the casual observer are the deep emotional wounds that time has etched into his gaze – a past marred by being abandoned by his parents, the cruelty of abusive guardians, a cold, impersonal shuffle through the foster care system, the gnaw of severe hunger and the devastating loss of his brother’s suicide. These experiences painted a bleak landscape in his early years, when pain and loneliness were his constant companions. The horizon of his youth seemed devoid of light, with a future and past painted in equally grim hues.

Yet the trajectory of Cornett’s life unfolded in ways that defy the odds, marking an incredible journey of resilience and redemption. His survival and subsequent rise to become the picture of law, order and peace on IOP are a testament to his indomitable spirit. The stark contrast between the man he has become and the trials he has endured speaks volumes of his strength and character, shaping a narrative that is both remarkable and inspiring.

To appreciate Cornett’s extraordinary journey, it is essential to trace the contours of his origins. Born in Bismarck, North Dakota,

in 1982, he had two sisters, Susan and Kathy, and older brother Timothy. Abandoned at a hospital by his mother as a toddler, he briefly found safety with his grandmother in South Carolina before being taken to Indiana by his mother’s husband, not his real father, who had found a new wife.

The veneer of family unity quickly cracked, revealing the dark underbelly of an abusive home. The scars were physical as well as emotional. “I walked into school and my hair had blood in it from a wound on the back of my head,” Cornett explains. “It was from my stepmother.” When a vigilant kindergarten teacher refused to turn a blind eye, Cornett was ushered into the foster care system.

He found himself on a farm with an elderly couple, living a life of simplicity. He worked the land and learned from his Amish neighbors the value of community and diligence. His sisters, also victims of abuse, joined him, but the flawed foster system eventually returned them to their harmful origins.

Cornett’s life was a patchwork of siblings, some bound by blood, others by circumstance. Two sisters and a brother shared his mother’s lineage, while three others were daughters of a man she married. Tragedy struck when Timothy, 16, a beacon of potential with a passion for robotics and electronics, succumbed to his demons and took his own life.

The carousel of guardians continued to turn, and Cornett found himself oscillating between Indiana and the false promises of a mother who lured him with dreams of seeing

Disney World. “I was in second grade, and my mother popped into the picture out of nowhere. I hadn’t seen her, hadn’t heard from her. But she showed up and all I know is I was at a courthouse in a little bitty town, and she promised to take me to Disney World if I moved in with her,” Cornett shares.

He moved in with his mother, who had remarried. At just 9 years old, Cornett found himself on construction sites, subjected to the heavy hand and erratic behavior of his stepfather, a biker known for his alcohol-fueled outbursts. By the time he was 14, Cornett was living in his grandmother’s South Carolina home again – but stability continued to elude him. His great-grandfather and great-grandmother passed away, then his grandfather succumbed to emphysema, leaving Cornett and his sister Susan to bear the brunt of survival. They braved cold winters with plywood-covered windows and washed clothes in the bathtub, borrowing detergent and hanging laundry around the house to dry.

Their mother returned briefly but soon left for a new relationship. The cycle repeated, and, by the following summer, Cornett faced homelessness.

In the tapestry of Cornett’s high school years was a thread that glimmered with the unexpected – a moment that would subtly align the chapters of his life yet to come. Back then, Cornett was the embodiment of teenage rebellion: long hair, black fingernail polish and eyeliner were his armor against an unkind world.

In 10th grade, a casual challenge among friends led Cornett to a church youth group. His unconventional appearance drew the

attention of a stranger, who approached him with words of kindness: “Son, I don’t know you, but you need this.” It was a hug that felt like the final piece to a puzzle he didn’t even know he was putting together – a gesture of unconditional love that filled a void he’d long carried. “She handed me a Bible,” Cornett reminisces, a gift that would become a cornerstone in his life. It was a token of faith that he eventually would pass down to his oldest son, a symbol of the legacy of love and belief he wished to impart. “I found Romans 12:21, which says, ‘do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.’ And I kind of made that my goal. I wasn’t going to let my past or all the negative things I’d been through set me back or make me believe that I can’t be successful,” Cornett says.

Approaching high school graduation, Cornett decided to contact his stepfather. “I called him, and I was going to give him a piece of my mind,” Cornett recalls. “He said, ‘Son, I’m glad you called. I’ve changed. I cut my hair. I sold my motorcycle. I don’t drink. I’m building a church right now in Tennessee, and I want you to come help me.”

Their collaboration was less about construction plans and more about sharing a vision. They not only built a steeple but also bridged emotional gaps formed by past conflicts. His stepfather, expressing remorse for past actions, sought reconciliation. Beneath the rising church, forgiveness bloomed, signaling a renewed bond.

Cornett’s journey soon took an unexpected turn. As he stood on the precipice of adulthood, ready to enlist in the Air Force, an offer from Marion Military Institute diverted his

Kevin Cornett has earned many accolades throughout his career in law enforcement.

“Cornett had long believed he was the first in his family to don the badge, but destiny had a revelation in store. In 2021, a DNA test uncovered his true heritage: He’s a third-generation police officer, following in the footsteps of his biological father, Earnest Boyd, and grandfather.

path. Skeptical at first, the promise of a paid education and a commission as an officer was hard to turn down for someone from a family where college was not the norm.

Thus began his time with the Alabama National Guard, where he cultivated discipline and dedication. He emerged from college ranked fourth in his class and moved on to the South Carolina Army National Guard as a lieutenant at the tender age of 19, commanding a platoon of soldiers older than he was.

In 2005, Cornett’s phone rang with news from an attorney that would add another layer of complexity to his life: He had a newborn daughter, and he needed to decide about her future. With only 30 minutes to choose, without a support network and working part-time at a church and in the National Guard, he made the heart-wrenching decision to sign the paperwork for her adoption.

Cornett went to the hospital, held his baby girl and said goodbye. Soon after, he started regular patrol duties with the Columbia, South Carolina, Police Department, before taking on more intense responsibilities as a member of the community response team. This role included night shifts, court appearances and interventions in violent crimes, alongside SWAT duties. Eventually, Cornett initiated a fugitive team; tracking down violent offenders led to his promotion as supervisor of the narcotics unit.

During one of his night shifts, Cornett met his wife, Sarah, a student at the University of South Carolina: “She worked at a ‘Pop’s Pizza’ joint that gave out free pizza to police officers. She was beautiful, and I would eat that terrible pizza just to see her.” Their courtship was far from typical, with missed dates due to Cornett’s commitments to training with the Police Department’s SWAT team. Their relationship escalated from dating to engagement to marriage, all within the span of weeks. The whirlwind romance reflected the decisive nature that had guided Cornett through life’s challenges, leading him to seize happiness when it presented itself. “She’s my best friend,” Cornett shares. “And we’ve been

married 17 years.”

A few years later, a newspaper ad caught his eye – the town of Springdale was looking for a police chief. Initially hesitant, he applied after encouragement from his wife and colleagues and was offered the job in February 2012. Fast forward to 2019: Cornett applied for the same position on IOP because Sarah wanted to be closer to her hometown near Beaufort. Today, they have four sons: Skyler, 7; Zachary, 11; Chase, 13; and their oldest, Timothy, 14, named after Cornett’s late brother.

In December 2023, the daughter Cornett gave up for adoption contacted him. “I had been calling the attorney every year since her birth, seeking updates. She reached out to me the Tuesday before Christmas, and we met,” Cornett reveals. “She’s a remarkable 19-year-old attending the University of South Carolina. My boys have met her – they love her, too – and joke that she’s like my son Timothy but with long hair.”

The Cornett household exudes life and energy. Cornett finds joy in teaching his boys how to stack up on a door and “clear a room” – games that make him “like Superman” in their eyes. The family dubbed their minivan the UFAV, “urban family assault vehicle,” a playful nod to their adventurous spirit and Cornett’s law enforcement background. Parenting, for Cornett, is a journey of learning and improvisation, informed by his own experiences of “what not to do” and the creation of new memories with his children. “I constantly tell my kids I love them. I’ll randomly yell down the hall, making it a point to tell each of them individually, out of the blue, ‘I love you.’ It’s essential for them to feel loved and valued,” Cornett shares.

Cornett had long believed he was the first in his family to don the badge, but destiny had a remarkable revelation in store. In 2021, a DNA test uncovered his true heritage: He’s a third-generation police officer, following in the footsteps of his newly discovered biological father, Earnest Boyd, and grandfather. He met his father in July 2021, a meeting of profound significance because Boyd passed

away in December of that year. Cornett was gifted with a brief but powerful connection, learning of brothers he never knew he had. Today, Cornett, who will celebrate five years with the IOP Police Department in June 2024, proudly displays his father’s law enforcement badge next to his own in his office, and, despite age differences, he remains close with newfound siblings.

Cornett holds onto the philosophy that improving someone’s worst day, even in a small way, is a valuable service. Echoing sentiments from “The Dark Knight Rises,” he knows that “heroism isn’t always about grand rescues but often about providing a measure of comfort or a moment of kindness when it’s needed most.”

As Cornett looks to the future, he is considering a path that continues his commitment to public service beyond the sphere of law enforcement. His intent, upon retirement, is to enter the political arena, with aspirations of potentially running for Congress. “I am keenly aware of the significant influence legislators and members of Congress have in shaping our society,” he shared.

His years of service have shown him the impact of dedicated public servants, and he believes God has positioned him to serve the public in various capacities throughout his life. His vision for the future is not just about a change in career but an extension of his lifelong commitment to serving and improving the community.

Cornett’s life is a testament to the power of resilience, the capacity for redemption and the enduring spirit of service. From the depths of childhood adversity to the pinnacle of leadership, his journey has been marked by unwavering determination, integrity and compassion. With each chapter of his life, Cornett has defied the odds, emerging stronger, wiser and more committed to making a positive impact on the world. His legacy serves as an inspiration to all who encounter his story, reminding us that there is always hope for a brighter tomorrow. SiP

Two blokes, one boat, 3,000 miles of ocean

From tears to triumph, two Charleston chefs took on the toughest rowing race in the world, crossing the Atlantic Ocean – and won.

Jennifer Tuohy talks to Ben Towill, owner of Sullivan’s Fish Camp and former IOP resident, about his wild ride and the lessons he learned

Photos By Rob Byko and Zach Thompson

As Ben Towill glided away from the safety of shore toward the vastness of the Atlantic Ocean, tears streamed down his face. He gripped the oars that would be his constant companions for the next 40 days tightly in his hands as he propelled his small craft further from land. Aided in his efforts by his partner in this wild endeavor, Charlie Layton, the duo – dubbed The Dreamboats – were rowing into the unknown, powered solely by their own strength, driven by the whims of nature and protected only by a 25-foot rowboat.

“The first five to six days you just cry. A lot. Everyone does. And no one talks about it. Well, I’m talking about it now,” Ben, 40, says with a chuckle, sitting on the safety of dry land, basking in the warmth of the sun outside Sullivan’s Fish Camp, a restaurant he owns with his wife, Kate. He’s reflecting on the 3,000-mile trans-Atlantic rowing race that he and Charlie, the 32-year-old executive chef of another of Ben’s restaurants – Basic Kitchen in downtown Charleston – completed in 2023. Not only did they complete it, but they won the race.

“It’s just so wild. This moment, bobbing along in the ocean, alone, thinking ‘I chose to be here,’” he says of the flood of emotions.

“The Dreamboats” – Ben Towill and Charlie Layton in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean during their 40-day row.

Photo by Zach Thompson.

“After day five, Charlie and I were like, ‘We’ve got to stop crying.’”

“Rowing away from land and safety, watching it get smaller and smaller, thinking ‘Oh my God, the next stop is Antigua.’”

The vastness of the challenge – rowing 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean –hit them in every fiber of their being. The knowledge that they would face adversity along the way, not to mention the grueling physicality of rowing for 40 days and nights straight with only three to four hours of sleep a day, overwhelmed them. “It’s like therapy on steroids,” jokes Ben of those first few days. “But after day five, Charlie and I were like, ‘we’ve got to stop crying.’”

Are you crazy?

That’s the first question I ask Ben when we sit down to discuss his wild journey. A wide smile crosses his face: “It depends on who you ask!” The English-born restaurateur is a self-described “career adventurer,” and, while rowing the Atlantic might be the biggest adventure he’s undertaken, it’s by no means the only one.

He first arrived in America in 2006, toting a culinary career under the tutelage of such famous chefs as Raymond Blanc, Rick Stein and Gordon Ramsay. After co-founding the Silkstone Hospitality Group in New York City, he opened four successful restaurants there,

including The Fat Radish, before he and Kate relocated to Charleston in 2014. Shortly after, he embarked on a cross-country bike ride, cycling 4,500 miles from Virginia to Oregon over eight weeks and chronicling his local food adventures along the way for The New York Times.

That trip inspired him to seek out more adventures, and crossing the ocean felt like a natural next step. “I grew up in Cornwall, so I have always been fascinated by the sea. I love surfing, and I love maritime history,” he says. “That’s where the intrigue to learn what it felt like to cross an ocean comes from.”

The onset of the COVID pandemic in 2020 gave him the opportunity. “All the restaurants were closed. We’d laid everyone off. I’m totally overleveraged, thinking ‘this is it,’” he recalls. With his world falling apart, Ben looked for something he could control. A conversation with Charlie revealed that the chef also harbored the same nautical ambitions.

The duo quickly focused their efforts on bringing their dream to life – entering the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, a 3,000mile unassisted row across the Atlantic Ocean. The race begins off the coast of Africa in the Canary Islands and ends at English Harbour in Antigua.

Photo by Atlantic Campaigns.

The World’s Toughest Row: facts & figures

• Considered a premier event in ocean rowing, the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge is a 3,000-mile nautical race across the Atlantic Ocean going west from La Gomera, Canary Islands, to English Harbour, Antigua and Barbuda.

• The annual race begins in early December, with up to 35 teams participating from around the world.

• Entrants row in crews of fours, threes, twos and soloists – typically rowing for two-hour intervals. The journey ranges from 32 to 86 days.

• The fastest row across the Atlantic was a four-man team that finished in 29 days, 14 hours and 34 minutes.

• At its deepest, the Atlantic Ocean is 5.28 miles deep.

• There is no toilet on board– rowers use a bucket. Each rower uses around 800 sheets of toilet paper during a crossing.

• Crews will experience temperatures from as low as 50 degrees Fahrenheit to well in to the 80s as they approach the finish.

• Rowers burn in excess of 5,000 calories per day.

• The average rower loses around 18 pounds during a crossing.

Facts courtesy of worldstoughestrow.com/the-atlantic/

Charlie, right, and Ben on Polly Anne – a 25-foot Rannoch Adventure R25 Pairs ocean-rowing boat

But there was a problem. “Neither of us had ever rowed before.”

They got themselves on a rowing machine and after 20 minutes were in pieces. “We were like, ‘Oh my God, how are we going to do this?’” says Ben. “You row two hours on, two hours off. You’re rowing 12 hours a day for 40 to 50 days. The boat’s over a ton in weight. So you’ve got to be big and strong.”

Undeterred, they started training with professional row coach Duncan Roy and fitness trainer Jackson Metcalf. “My advice to anyone who’s thinking about rowing an ocean or doing something big is it doesn’t start at the start line,” he says. “There’s a million hurdles to get over first.”

The men slowly built up from a two-hour row to six, 12, 24 and then 48 hours. At first, they practiced in and around Shem Creek and Charleston Harbor, but soon it was time to try out the ocean. They drove down to Jekyll Island in Georgia and planned to row to Charleston. “We rowed 30 miles offshore and then we went left and literally everything went wrong,” says Ben.

A huge storm threw them off course, and, as they approached Savannah, they ran into a parking lot. “It was the middle of the night, we’re 25 miles offshore and these huge things are looming up ahead,” Ben says. “I asked Charlie, ‘What is that? An oil rig?’ Charlie rightly pointed out that there are no oil rigs off the coast of Savannah. The pair had stumbled into a floating cadre of container ships.

Due to COVID, there was a huge backlog of ships waiting to enter the Savannah port.

The only regular communication they had was a daily text message with position and a weather report. Otherwise, they were “unassisted and unaided.”

A hair-raising night found them dodging 200,000-ton container ships in a one-ton rowboat. “It was such a wakeup call,” says Ben. “We were so unprepared. We rang Duncan on our satellite phone and said we think we’re going to row into Savannah.” Duncan disagreed. “No you’re not,” came the reply. “Out in the ocean, you don’t have a chance to just go home. Have a cup of coffee, look at each other, get yourself together and row back to Charleston.”

Next stop, West Indies

After close to two years of planning, at just past noon on Dec. 12, 2022, Ben and Charlie set out from San Sebastián harbor in

La Gomera in the Canary Islands and began the race across the Atlantic. The Dreamboats were secured to a Rannoch Adventure R25 Pairs ocean-rowing boat named Polly Anne after their grandmothers.

Equipment on board included three sets of oars; solar panels to power batteries for a GPS system; four auto helms; a water maker; a satellite phone and iPad; food for two men for 40 days; and a whole lot of hope.

The only regular communication they had was a daily text message with position and a weather report. Otherwise, they were “unassisted and unaided.” No plane nearby ready to rescue them, no companion boat with medicine or supplies should disaster strike. “It was just the rules of the sea,” says Ben.

Forty days, eight hours and 59 minutes later, at 5:11 p.m. on Jan. 21, 2023, they were changed men as they pulled into Nelson’s Dockyard in English Harbour. Bruised, battered, significantly smaller and much hairier, they emerged from the ocean not only winners of the race but with an unbreakable bond and a newfound confidence.

“You don’t sleep for more than three to four hours a day for 40 days,” says Ben. “You row for two hours then you have two hours off, during which you have to get all the salt water and sweat off, get into the cabin, eat and sleep, get dressed and then start it all again.”

The pair needed to consume around 8,000 calories a day to sustain themselves and “sleep” in an airtight cabin about the size of one of the picnic tables outside Sullivan’s Fish Camp. “You can’t sit upright and all you hear

Photo by Rob Byko.

Ben Towill at Sullivan’s Fish Camp. The first thing he wanted to eat after the row were fish and chips from Fish Camp.

Blue Ocean, Green Heart

Blue Ocean, Green Heart

Ben Towill and Charlie Layton raised money for two charities during their row. The 2041 Foundation is dedicated to raising awareness around the upcoming renegotiation of the moratorium on mining in Antarctica and The Green Heart Project is a food nonprofit based in Charleston.

Ben Towill and Charlie Layton raised money for two charities during their row. The 2041 Foundation is dedicated to raising awareness around the upcoming renegotiation of the moratorium on mining in Antarctica, and The Green Heart Project is a food nonprofit based in Charleston.

The Dreamboats raised more than $150,000 for Green Heart, which “builds garden-based experiential learning projects and school garden programs to educate students, connect people and cultivate community through growing, eating and celebrating food.” There is a Green Heart Garden at Sullivan’s Island Elementary, where Ben’s son went to school.

More info: 2041foundation.org and greenheartsc.org

The Dreamboats raised more than $150,000 for Green Heart, which “builds garden-based experiential learning projects and school garden programs to educate students, connect people and cultivate community through growing, eating and celebrating food.” There is a Green Heart Garden at Sullivan’s Island Elementary, where Ben’s son went to school.

More info: 2041foundation.org and greenheartsc.org

is sloshing,” says Ben.

Over 40 days, each man rowed around 485 hours. But – as expected– it wasn’t all smooth sailing. “I was horribly seasick for five days,” Ben said. “I really didn’t eat; I lost a lot of weight.” Charlie stepped up, taking Ben’s shifts one night and rowing for six hours straight, giving him the chance to recover.

I asked Ben what he learned from the experience. “Ocean rowing teaches you to be kind to one another, be humble, be prepared–there’s no gas station, no Ace Hardware, everything that can go wrong you’ve got to think about. Finally, it teaches resiliency. Something is always trying to get you.”

Being prepared saved their lives. A huge weather system battered the boat for five straight days, the two men grappling with 30-foot waves. During the storm, their rudder snapped and they capsized. “Charlie and I were both on deck at that time. This big rogue wave broke at the top and we just rolled.”

Next thing they knew, they were in the water, tethered to the boat by a “jackstay,” a three-point safety harness. “You just never want to become untethered from that. The boat cannot sink – it’s watertight as long as the hatches are shut. As soon as you become detached, you’re gone,” he says. “You can’t swim back to the boat. The Atlantic Ocean moves so quickly.”

The broken rudder was another issue, but, thankfully, they had a spare. They had to swim under the boat to fix it – MacGyvering the solution with some duct tape because a crucial piece they needed had floated away

when they capsized.

The journey had its highs as well as its lows. The beauty was breathtaking. “We saw amazing cloud formations, spectacular rainbows, big sharks, orcas, lots of dolphins,” says Ben. But it was the nighttime that he loved the most. “I was surprised. I thought the nighttime would be so scary, but it was actually the most beautiful. The moon, the stars, the quiet. Somehow the sea was slightly calmer – well, not every night. But mostly, the night was really enjoyable.”

“It’s a lived experience,” Ben remarks, suddenly serious, the previous joviality in his tone gone. “There are certain things that no one can take away from you, right? It’s in you. An ocean crossing, especially rowing, because you’re so connected to that experience, it’s just like that. It doesn’t matter what happens next. I’ve got that in me.”

The experience brought with it a newfound confidence, he says. “I rode through a storm. I really faced fear – I capsized in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. These are like things no one needs to know about, but it’s in you.”

But people will know about it. Ben and Charlie filmed much of their journey on GoPros and iPhones and will soon release “Dreamboats,” a documentary about the voyage. “It’s a story about two pretty average guys, and no one believes they can do it,” he says. “All the trials and tribulations of making this happen. Rowing is part of it, but, if you want to do something big, you’ve got to start –and the hardest thing is starting. If you want to run 15 marathons, the first thing to do is run one.”

Speaking of running marathons, that’s Ben’s latest challenge. “I’m doing a marathon a month this year, 15 marathons total. I’ve done four so far and three in October.” He says he wasn’t into running so decided to give it a try. And just like he wasn’t a biker before he cycled across America or a rower before he rowed the Atlantic Ocean, he will soon be a consummate marathon runner.

One thing I took away from my time with Ben Towill is that I would not bet against this man completing any challenge he puts his mind to.

Ben, left, and Charlie were changed men after 40 days at sea – literally.

Brian Sherman shares tips from Wild Dunes Director of Sports Jeff Minton on how to make your trip around the Links Course a little more enjoyable.

Photos by Mic Smith.

o many people, golf is a source of great pleasure, an excellent way to leave their worries and responsibilities behind for four or five hours and enjoy what most of the time is the Lowcountry’s picture-perfect weather – not to mention the camaraderie of hanging out with others who share with them the love of the sport.

OK. That being said, golf can also be a completely complicated, utterly unforgiving and unequivocally frustrating pastime. Those issues apparently don’t cause all that many people to give up the game for good and stash their clubs forever in a deep, dark corner of the garage. According to GolfPlayed.com, 66.6 million people around the world play golf.

A good number of those golf enthusiasts, whether they play every day, once a week or five times a year and whether they are locals, residents or part-time residents, choose to tee it up at the Links Course. Opened in 1980, it is the oldest of the two courses inside the gates of the Wild Dunes Resort. And for those of you who really care what goes on your scorecard – and I suspect that’s just about everybody – Director of Sports Jeff Minton, who has been at the course since 2005, shared some tips on what to expect as you challenge each of the 18 Links holes.

Keep in mind that the yardages are for the black tees, which play at 6,503 yards. With four other sets of tees, the total yardage can be as low as 4,708.

Rumor has it that Edgar Allan Poe wrote "The Gold Bug" while sitting under this tree, which now guards the 14th green.

Let the big dog bark

HOLE NUMBER 1

PAR 5 • 529 YARDS • HANDICAP-11

The longer hitters will be tempted to go for the green in two, especially in the fall and winter, when the wind tends to howl from the north and northeast. The hole is a little more challenging in the summer because it’s usually played against the wind. Regardless of the season, you should turn your driver loose off the tee box, and, even if you miss your drive left or right, you can still play your second shot from the 9th or 14th fairway. Most of the trouble waits near the putting surface, with bunkers and a pond that can come into play on the left. The water became more of an issue when the green was relocated during a 2015 renovation of the course.

Danger on the right; trouble on the left

HOLE NUMBER 2

PAR 4 • 363 YARDS • HANDICAP-13

There’s danger on the right – marsh, of course – on this relatively short par 4, but trouble might find you on the left as well in the form of out-of-bounds markers. The fairway is reasonable wide, but your second shot, most likely a mid-iron, might land on the wrong level of a large and undulating green, making it challenging to get down in two once you’re on the putting surface. One trap guards the green; avoid it if you can.

Be happy with a par

HOLE NUMBER 3

PAR 4 433 YARDS HANDICAP-5

In Jeff’s estimation, you’ll be a happy camper if you come away from the second longest par 4 on the front 9 with a par. With marsh on the right and out-of-bounds markers threatening from the left, it’s imperative to find the fairway with your drive. The green is large, but its slope is significant, so there’s no sigh of relief until your ball is safely in the hole.

HOLE NUMBER 4

PAR 3 • 182 YARDS • HANDICAP-17

Your first par 3 is the second easiest hole on the course. However, if you don’t hit the largest green on the Links layout, you’ll need to at least do your best to avoid disaster in the marsh and some serious trouble in the deep bunker, both on the right. On the left side, a large oak guards the green.

little margin of error

HOLE NUMBER 5

PAR 5 • 508 YARDS • HANDICAP-7

Most players will be satisfied to take three shots to make the green on number 5, which bends slightly to the right. Stray too far right or left and you’re likely to find the dreaded outof-bounds markers, and the pond on the right will give you something to think about as well. The raised green poses another problem, forcing you to go to a longer club for your approach shot. You better be accurate, though. If you miss the putting surface, two bunkers in front are waiting to gobble up your ball, and there’s not much of a margin of error on either side or behind the green.

"Golf can also be a completely complicated, utterly unforGivinG and unequivocally frustratinG pastime."

Alligators are a common sight on the Links Course. It's probably a bad idea to try to pet them.

the pond is now in play

HOLE NUMBER 6

PAR 4 423 YARDS HANDICAP-3

The elevated tee box gives you an excellent view of the fairway, but it’s still difficult to see that the out-of-bounds markers pose trouble on the left and that the right side is really where you want to be. The 2015 renovation made this hole a little tougher by bringing the lake to the right and behind the green into play.

give your driver a rest

HOLE NUMBER 7

PAR 4 • 358 YARDS • HANDICAP-9

You might leave your driver in the bag for this short par 4 with a dogleg right. It’s possible that you’ll be tempted to get closer to the green on your drive by hitting over the trees, but that’s a risky proposition at best, according to Jeff. With a narrow green guarded in the front by a pot bunker, accuracy on your second shot is critical.

choose the right club –if you can

HOLE NUMBER 8

PAR 3 • 206 YARDS • HANDICAP-15

Club selection is vitally important here. Depending on where the pin is placed, if you play this hole three times, you might hit a different club on each occasion. The situation doesn’t improve much once you reach the putting surface – the two-tiered green might play havoc with your short game.

stay to the right

HOLE NUMBER 9

PAR 4 • 437 YARDS • HANDICAP-1

You’re almost halfway home, and you’re ready for a drink and something quick to eat. But first, you have to navigate the toughest hole on the course. Watch out for the fairway bunker and the trees on both sides. Once you get closer to the hole, you’ll have to deal with large bunkers short and right. And if that’s not enough to worry about, any shot that strays left tends to find an inconveniently placed pond.

Isle of Palms resident John Beall tees off on Number 17 as his wife, Cindy, looks on.

an uphill battle

HOLE NUMBER 10

PAR 4 • 351 YARDS • HANDICAP-10

This hole isn’t all that long, but it sure looks like it is. The tee is well below the green, and there’s not a flat lie in the entire fairway. Life doesn’t get any easier once you approach the putting surface, with bunkers left and right and a two-tiered green that makes finishing the hole a challenge.

don't visit bogie hollow

HOLE NUMBER 11

PAR 4 • 380 YARDS • HANDICAP- 6

From an elevated tee box, you’ll need to avoid “bogie hollow,” a deep indentation on the right side of the fairway. The green is protected by a bunker on the right, and landing on the same level as the pin is crucial on the twotiered green. Be careful with your club choice on your approach shot – there’s nothing but trouble behind the green.

get there in the air

HOLE NUMBER 12

PAR 3 • 192 YARDS • HANDICAP-18

The scorecard will tell you that this is the easiest par on the course, but it’s all carry to the green from the elevated tee box – the option of hitting a ground ball from tee to hole doesn’t exist. It’s better to miss right than left, where a bunker and the natural dunes wait to gobble up errant shots.

it gets mean near the green

HOLE NUMBER 13

PAR 4 • 427 YARDS • HANDICAP-2

The most difficult challenge on the back 9, you’ll find most of the trouble in close proximity to the putting surface. A three-tiered elevated green and a bunker on the left could kill your dreams of a birdie or par here, especially if your approach shot comes to rest on the wrong level. Pin placement probably will play a huge role in which club you choose for your second shot.

As the sun sets, Travis Wolfe completes his tee shot on Number 1.

Jeff Minton is the longtime director of sports at the Wild Dunes Resort.

something to write home about?

HOLE NUMBER 14

PAR 5 • 489 YARDS • HANDICAP-12

The fairway bends around to the left and there’s trouble on the right: out-of-bounds markers and a grand oak about 240 yards off the tee that “eats a few balls,” Jeff points out. Stay left to avoid having to deal with the ball-consuming tree on your second shot. A fairway bunker and a few trees near the putting surface could come into play. And, if you are into urban legends, there’s a rumor that Edgar Allan Poe himself wrote “The Gold Bug” while sitting under one of those trees. The golf course, of course, wasn’t around when Poe was stationed with the Army at nearby Sullivan’s Island.

stay away from the marsh

HOLE NUMBER 15

PAR 4 • 430 YARDS • HANDICAP-8

Here’s where the ocean breezes begin to come into play. Guide your drive left to avoid the fairway bunkers, then hit into a long, narrow and severely sloped green. Once you approach the hole, you need to be mindful of marsh on the left and long.

pay attention to the wind

HOLE NUMBER 16

PAR 3 • 198 YARDS • HANDICAP-16

The wind can be coming out of any direction here, which means “you could be hitting almost any club in your bag,” Jeff says. There’s a little bit of safe space right of the green, but, to the left, a bunker waits, and anything in that direction that doesn’t find the trap will probably end up in the marsh. So tell me again why is this hole rated as the third easiest on the course?

tough hole; great view

HOLE NUMBER 17

PAR 4 • 412 YARDS • HANDICAP- 4

HOLE NUMBER 18

PAR 3 • 185 YARDS • HANDICAP-14

That’s still the ocean on your left, and the wind is still a huge factor. The fairway offers a generous landing area, but those out-of-bounds markers lurk on the right, along with a large waste area near the green. The sloped green could make putting a chore, but the view of the Atlantic will make you forget about your four-putt. Or maybe not. did i mention the wind?

This was a par 5 when the course was built, a 525-yard hole that went all the way to the Ocean Club, but erosion took its toll in 2008 and again in 2014. It’s best to avoid the bunker along the entire left side of the hole, so if you must miss, miss right. Did I mention that the wind is a huge factor on the four holes that hug the ocean?

John Willoughby of Mount Pleasant hits his drive off the Number 17 tee box as the sun rises over the Atlantic Ocean.

Islanders abroad

Left to right: Edward McMullen, Jon Gundersen and Eric Schultz represented the interests of the United States as part of the Foreign Service.

Sullivan’s Island and Isle of Palms are home to three diplomats who have helped maintain America’s standing in the world. Jon Gundersen, Eric Schultz and Edward McMullen talk to Brian Sherman about their roles promoting and protecting our country.

Photos by Caroline Knopf.

According to the Department of State, “the mission of a U.S. diplomat in the Foreign Service is to promote peace, support prosperity and protect American citizens while advancing the interests of the United States abroad.” Three residents of the Charleston area’s barrier islands have done just that and more in countries as diverse as Russia, Switzerland, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Zambia.

Two of them were career diplomats, spending more than three decades relocating from one assignment to the next, while a third was appointed to serve for a single four-year stretch. Regardless of how many years they dedicated to these essential duties, their job – in times of war and peace and in economic prosperity and financial ruin – was to represent American interests in Europe, Asia, Africa and throughout the world.

The three diplomats, all retired from the Foreign Service, come from different backgrounds and lean toward contrasting political opinions and dissimilar thoughts concerning the most critical issues in today’s increasingly dangerous world. The glue that binds them together, however, is that they were willing to use their distinctive talents to help maintain America’s standing abroad.

Photo by Zach Thompson

Jon Gundersen

Born in New York, Jon Gundersen’s Foreign Service career spanned 31 years. Fittingly, his first overseas assignment was in Norway, where he lived during four years of his childhood. He served there again from 1998 to 2001, first as deputy ambassador and later as acting ambassador. He still has family in Norway and visits the Scandinavian country every year.

Today, Gundersen and his wife, Eike, live on Sullivan’s Island and have three grown children. He serves on boards for the Charleston World Affairs Council and the Forward Party and is a member of the U.S.Ukraine Foundation.

A 1966 graduate of George Washington University with a degree in international affairs – in the summers during his college days, he served as a deckhand on ships – Gundersen enlisted in the Army and spent a year-anda-half in Vietnam training mountain-based units and gathering intelligence on the Viet Cong. During this time, he said his outlook on world affairs evolved from pro-war to “it’s much more complicated than good and evil.”

Leaving the military, he hitchhiked around Europe for six months, paying the bills with various jobs, then took a position as a sky marshal, protecting commercial aircraft against hijacking. His career took its final turn in 1973 when he joined the Foreign Service, where his specialties eventually became Scandinavia, Russia and the political and military aspects of arms control. The State Department sent him to Stanford University, where he completed an intense six-month course in the Russian language and also earned a master’s in Russian studies.

Assigned to Moscow in 1979, Gundersen later participated in arms control negotiations between NATO and the Soviets – and he came to the prescient realization that “the Soviet Union may one day fall apart.” He also recognized the importance of making certain that neither the East nor the West would resort to using nuclear weapons. “You have to realize that we don’t have the same ideas. We need to find areas where we can cooperate. We don’t want to blow up the world,” Gundersen comments. “We need to do everything we can to avoid accidental wars.”

Gundersen says Mikhail Gorbachev, the leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 until it collapsed in 1991, was “somebody you could talk to.” He does not feel the same about Russia’s current president. “Putin is a different breed of animal and much more dangerous,” he says.

“You have to know when not to get involved.”

– Jon Gundersen

When the Soviet Union was about to dissolve in 1991, Ukrainians sought independence, and Gundersen was assigned to open the first U.S. mission to that evolving country. President George Herbert Walker Bush visited Kyiv and, despite advice to the contrary from Gundersen, voiced his support for freedom but not independence. Later that year, the Soviet Union fell apart, Ukrainians voted for independence and the United States recognized Ukraine’s nationhood. Gundersen was head of mission there for three different U.S. presidents: George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. He also served the Ronald Reagan administration as division chief for international security policy for arms control from 1986 to 1989.

Gundersen has a strong opinion on whether the United States should continue to support Ukraine in its current war with Russia. “It’s a clear-cut case of American interests to defend Ukraine. You defend your allies. They don’t ask for boots on the ground. If we give them enough support, they will win,” he says. “If they lose, they lose their country. They believe in their cause, and they’ve done a remarkable job. They are doing us a favor. If they lose, China will be in Taiwan in a week.”

Concerning another subject that has captured today’s headlines, Gundersen said Israel has a right to defend itself against the terror group Hamas, which murdered Israelis and took hostages on Oct. 7, 2023. He adds, however, that bombing Hamas strongholds in

civilian areas of Gaza is hurting Israel. “They need to work with the Saudis and Egyptians,” he says.

Gundersen has also served in Estonia, Iceland and Sweden, as head of a clandestine interagency counterterrorism unit in Europe and the Middle East and as a political advisor to the Special Operations Command. In addition, during his second stint in Norway, he facilitated talks concerning the Mideast peace process – a follow-up to the 1994 Oslo Accords – with Clinton, Ehud Barak of Israel and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, where Putin was an observer. Gundersen was a senior advisor on Iraqi reconstruction, and he had something to say about the two wars the United States fought in Iraq: “The first Iraq war, we did the right thing. The second, we had no international authority, no allies and we created a lot of chaos in the Middle East. Sometimes you have to know when not to get involved.”

A book Gundersen helped write, “Unity of Mission,” delves into how civilians and military personnel operate in zones of conflict and is used as a basic text at the Foreign Service Institute. In addition to English, he speaks Norwegian, German, Russian and Vietnamese.

Since retiring from the State Department in 2004, he taught Nordic affairs at the Foreign Service Institute prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and at the Joint Special Operations University until December 2023.

AMinnesota native, Eric Schultz completed his undergraduate work at Macalester College in St. Paul, then earned a master’s in international relations at Denver University. Though he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with the rest of his life, he decided to take the Foreign Service exam, passed the test, was offered a position and spent the next 32 years being “very proud to represent the United States overseas.”

Long before he launched his State Department career, Schultz knew what it was like to relocate on a regular basis. With his dad serving in the Navy, he said he attended 10 or 12 different elementary schools. His wife, Klaudia, and their two sons traveled with him wherever the Foreign Service sent him.

Schultz’ first overseas assignment was in Madagascar, an island country off the southeastern coast of Africa. His job there as a general services officer was to interview visa applicants “over and over.” His next stop was Paris, where he spent two years as vice consul and general services officer. After a year as an administrative officer in Martinique in the French West Indies, he returned to Washington, D.C., where he studied advanced economics and other subjects that would prepare him for his lengthy career in the Foreign Service. He also learned to speak Russian before being sent to Tbilisi in Georgia as a political officer. Georgia was part of the Soviet Union until April 1991, and Schultz points out that the people there “are extremely pro-American.”

From 1998 to 2000, Schultz was deputy

Eric Schultz

“Putin is a tyrant and an enemy of the United States.”

– Eric Schultz

politician who admires him.”

Schultz notes that Putin, who sees himself as a modern Czar, destroyed what might have been the vestiges of democracy and a market economy, put an end to any freedom the media might have enjoyed and started attacking his neighbors, beginning with the war in Crimea in 2014, to distract the people he was supposed to be leading.

director for Ukrainian, Moldovan and Belarusian Affairs. His next two-year assignment was in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, in Central Asia, serving as deputy chief of mission before 9/11 and charge d’affaires following the attack on New York and the Pentagon. “It’s a different place – a dictatorship. Some people compare it to North Korea,” he points out.

He returned to Washington to serve as deputy director in the State Department’s Office of European Security and Political Affairs, which deals with NATO and the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe. His 32-year journey continued two years later when he and his family left for Zimbabwe, a landlocked country in the Southern part of Africa. He was deputy chief of mission for three years in a nation that offered both advantages and disadvantages. “Nice houses, nice weather and nice people –but not the government,” he says. “They had an advanced economy that went downhill. There was hyperinflation when we were leaving. But it was a fun place to work.”

That might not have been the case at their next stop – Moscow – where Schultz served for two years as minister counselor for economic affairs. He says Klaudia, who originally is from Poland, “didn’t enjoy it very much.” Their reward for spending two years in Russia was a three-year stay in Ukraine, where he was deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv. His take on the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine is similar to Gundersen’s.

“My sympathies are with Ukraine,” he says. “Putin is a tyrant and an enemy of the United States. I don’t understand any American

“Ukraine is fighting to be European; Putin thinks they are part of Russia. If Russia wins, it’s bad for Ukraine, Europe and, eventually, for us,” Schultz says, adding that “the Biden Administration doesn’t want either side to win.” “We should be doing more to help Ukraine,” he concludes. “Russia has great people but terrible leaders.”

On the other major international issue dominating headlines today, Schultz says “neither side wants to compromise” in the war between Israel and Hamas and “we’re caught in the middle.” “Israel was the underdog and at some point, became the overdog,” he says. “October 7 was horrific, but what they’ve done is horrific.”

Weather played a role in Schultz’ final assignment. After two years in Russia and three in Ukraine, he and his wife were ready for a climate somewhat similar to that of Isle of Palms, where they had rented a home every year for more than a decade. They found just that in Zambia, the African country north of Zimbabwe. For the next three years, he served as U.S. ambassador to Zambia, and they enjoyed winters without snow and yearround temperatures a little warmer than those in the Carolina Lowcountry.

Schultz, who speaks or at least understands several languages besides English, including French, Russian, Polish and Ukrainian, retired from the Foreign Service in 2018. He and his wife bought a house on IOP two years ago, and now he says he “is trying to age gracefully.” He stays busy by doing consulting work, and he’s planning on getting into the master’s program in history at the College of Charleston. He says his thesis will be on Africa and the former Soviet Union, but he’ll “take a bunch of classes before that.” “The most daunting thing about returning to school is I have no idea what I’m going to encounter,” he says. “It’s been 40 years since I’ve been in school.”

Edward McMullen

Edward McMullen has a long and prosperous history with Switzerland. He traveled there with his grandparents when he was young and later attended the American Swiss Foundation’s Young Leaders Conference, which was established in 1990 “to create person-to-person exchange and foster mutual understanding among the next generation of leaders in Switzerland and the United States.”

The annual Conference includes approximately 50 Americans and Swiss in the 28-to-40 age group for discussions on important issues between the two countries and meetings with leaders in diplomacy, government, business and media. It also includes trips to Switzerland’s historic landmarks. A young leader in 1995, today, McMullen is the vice chair of the American Swiss Foundation board.

McMullen took his relationship with the European country to the next level in January 2017 when he accepted an offer from newly elected President Donald Trump to become the U.S. ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein, a position he held for four years. He said he’s been impressed with Trump since he met him in the early 1980s, in owner George Steinbrenner’s box at Yankee Stadium.

Years later, in 2014, McMullen was running a successful South Carolina-based advertising and public relations firm when the Republican presidential candidate chose him to play a key role in his campaign in the Palmetto State. When Trump won the election, he asked McMullen to serve as his ambassador to Switzerland.

Long before he helped raise funds for Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, McMullen got a taste of what it might be like to serve as an ambassador. His first job after graduating from Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia was with the Heritage Foundation, working under Shelby Cullom Davis, who served as ambassador to Switzerland during the Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford administrations. “He helped me understand things from an ambassador’s perspective,” McMullen explains.

One of his most important jobs in Switzerland was to increase the country’s investment in the United States. “Democratic administrations look to the Swiss to regulate the banking system. Republicans look at them as great partners and successful capitalists,” he says.

When he arrived at his new job, McMullen focused on increasing the Swiss manufacturing

“That was foreign policy at its best.”

– Edward McMullen

and product base in the United States. By the time he left, Switzerland had jumped from the eighth to the sixth largest investor in the United States. “I met with CEOs of companies there and became a vehicle for that investment,” he says.

He adds that there are times when political appointees to ambassadorships – Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin included – can be just as effective as career Foreign Service diplomats because they have direct ties to the president of the United States. As an example, he said that when Ueli Maurer was inaugurated as the president of Switzerland, he mentioned to McMullen that there had never been a meeting between Swiss and American leaders in the Oval Office. When McMullen relayed that information to Trump, the president asked, “When can they be here?” Three weeks later, the meeting took place.

McMullen has a different view of world affairs than Gundersen and Schultz. He says Americans no longer support sending large amounts of money to Ukraine and that without a quick solution to its issues with Russia, “it will be a 100-year war.” “Trump understands that Crimea is part of Russia

historically. It’s critical to get a diplomatic agreement and concessions from both sides,” he says. “Everyone is going to have to give. It’s a dangerous war.”

He believes Trump should have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for facilitating the Abraham Accords, which established full diplomatic relations between Israel and Arab countries including Bahrain, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates and Sudan. “That was foreign policy at its best,” he declares. “The Palestinians knew Trump was serious. They were fairly reserved in their aggressions. Today, there’s chaos and a real lack of leadership and respect. It’s a chaotic nightmare that can only be solved by a real leader in the White House. Vacillation is not going to get us there.”

McMullen and his wife live on Sullivan’s Island. He sold his public relations company when he became ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein and now serves as a senior policy advisor with Adams and Reese, a law firm with offices in Charleston and throughout the United States. And, as in 2016, he’s raising funds for Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.

Meet Mary Alice Monroe

Isle of Palms’ reigning literary queen – Mary Alice

Monroe – talks to Laura Anderson about 25 inspiring years living on the island and the future of her Wild Dunes author celebration.

Photos by Laura

Anderson and Patrick Brickman

.

In the comforting embrace of her office, where sunlight dances across a wooden deck and a bed swing beckons from just beyond French doors, Monroe unveiled the cradle of her creativity. Her workspace, mirroring the serenity of a calm sea with its palette of turquoises and blues, hosts her pet canaries, whose songs accompany the rhythm of her typing.

Amid the daily rituals of her creative process, Monroe’s desk is a tableau of personal and professional mementos: cups of coffee, vases filled with hydrangeas and orchids and a sprawling bookcase that houses an extensive collection of her works, books on endangered species, numerous accolades, heartfelt snapshots of encounters with baby sea turtles and decorative sweetgrass baskets. This space, adorned with gold sea turtle cabinet knobs, epitomizes Monroe’s essence as both an acclaimed author and a spirited environmental advocate.

Long before Monroe’s name graced the covers of 30 novels and her calendar filled with sold-out events and accolades, she was a teenager grappling with the universal trials of adolescence – struggling to forge connections and find her place in the world.

“When I was really young, at 13, I learned that books could save you,” says Monroe, her voice resonant with the conviction of her words. It was a time marked by discontent, with the tumult of middle school casting long shadows. Yet it was beneath the boughs of a tree in her backyard, a Charles Dickens

novel steadfast in her lap, where Monroe found solace. Immersed in Dickens’ worlds, she discovered not only an escape but a passion. “He takes you to another world and transports you,” says Monroe, her words painting the transformative power of literature, its ability to uplift and inspire belief in endless possibilities.

This devotion to Dickens’ oeuvre became a touchstone of her youth, a wellspring of inspiration she would return to time and again. It was this burgeoning talent that caught the eye of her third-grade teacher, Mrs. Crawford, who posed a question that would pivot Monroe’s path toward her destiny. “She asked me if I wanted to be a writer when I grew up. I was so confused. Jobs were doctors or lawyers, you know? So now, I had a name,” Monroe says, reflecting on her epiphany. “I had an answer when someone would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I would tell them a writer.”

This newfound identity was further cemented when Monroe, at 16 and while visiting a friend’s home, encountered a stack of books her mother introduced as “NYT bestsellers.” Unfamiliar with the term yet undaunted, Monroe harbored no doubt: She would one day earn that title herself.

Thus began the journey of a lifetime. Monroe dedicated countless hours to crafting stories for children’s magazines, confronting a barrage of rejections that tested her resolve. Her academic pursuits led her to Northwestern University for journalism, and, by the tender age of 20, she found herself embarking on a

new chapter of life, marrying her now-husband Markus Monroe, then a filmmaker. Their honeymoon in Japan unveiled a passion for the culture that would deeply influence Monroe. Graduating from Seton Hall in 1980 with a degree in Asian history and a minor in Japanese, Monroe reflected on their shared journey: “We grew up together.” Today, after 52 years, their partnership stands as a testament to their shared life and evolving dreams.

Monroe’s first gig wasn’t in fiction; she co-authored a book on molecular psychiatry, blending science with storytelling. And then life took her down a different path, into teaching English to Asian students through a program designed for quick learning to help them land jobs. She taught while raising her daughters, Claire and Gretta. Monroe found joy in this chapter, but writing called her back during her third and final pregnancy with her son, Zachary.

Bedridden and with time on her hands, Markus handed her a legal pad and a pen. Monroe jokes, “I gave birth to a baby and a book that year.”

Later, Monroe connected with a writers’ group in Washington, D.C., where she met Nora Roberts before Roberts became a household name. This community fueled her determination. Publishing her first book, “The Long Road Home,” wasn’t quick or easy, but the thrill of finally holding it in her hands was intoxicating, and it convinced Monroe to leave teaching behind for writing.

In 1999, Monroe’s family moved to the Isle of Palms for Markus’ job, which became a turning point, not only for her personal life but for her writing. Her involvement with the island’s Turtle Team awakened a fierce dedication to environmental advocacy, a theme that would become a cornerstone of her writing.

“Joining the Turtle Team taught me how much the island could lose,” says Monroe, acknowledging her earlier naïveté about the permanence of the Lowcountry’s charm, despite witnessing other regions succumb to development.

Her mission became clear: to write novels that subtly educate and enchant, not just preach. The idea was to surprise visitors to the Isle of Palms with stories that resonate deeply, making her books a must-pack for anyone’s vacation. This led to the birth of her beloved “Beach House” series, sparked by the fascinating life cycle of turtles – a creature that returns to its birthplace after 25 years. “It was the perfect metaphor for a mother-daughter reunion story,” says Monroe.

“The Beach House,” meant to be a stand-alone novel, quickly gained momentum through word of mouth, particularly among conservation circles thrilled to see such a spotlight on sea turtles. This unexpected success marked the beginning of Monroe’s prolific career, underscoring her belief in writing from the heart. “Goes to show, write what you love,” she says.

Monroe didn’t stop there. She dove deeper into environmental themes, each book targeting a different species. Her immersive research approach – be it breeding monarch butterflies or getting hands-on with dolphins – ensures her narratives are both engaging and enlightening. “It’s about showing, not telling, to foster understanding and care for these creatures,” she notes. “Only by working with the animals do I really understand the species and know what the book will be about.”

Looking back, Monroe values most the awareness she’s brought to endangered species. “If you care, you take care,” she says, affirming that caring leads to conservation. It’s this philosophy that’s driven her writing for over two decades, with the hope of inspiring both current and future generations to cherish and protect the natural world.

The bestselling author lights up when talking about her role in nurturing the next generation of writers in Charleston. “I’m thrilled to support new authors here. It’s a way of giving back,” she says, referencing the success of her Wild Dunes Author Event & Weekend. What started as a small gathering has exploded into a literary highlight, drawing crowds of nearly 700 over a three-day span.

The idea came to her in 2004, sparked by the simple wish to share the joy of books with others. “Why not invite Patti Callahan Henry and chat about her book?” Monroe thought. The response was overwhelming, setting a precedent for what was to become an annual

“WHEN I WAS REALLY YOUNG, AT 13, I LEARNED THAT BOOKS COULD SAVE YOU.”

During her prolific writing career, Mary Alice Monroe has penned more than 30 novels – and she isn’t finished yet.

“JOINING THE TURTLE TEAM TAUGHT ME HOW MUCH THE ISLAND COULD LOSE.”

must-attend event. But it was snagging Pat Conroy, famed author of “The Prince of Tides,” for a cozy gathering that really showed Monroe the appetite for intimate, deep-dive literary discussions. “It showed me people crave more than just book signings; they want real connections with authors,” she says.

Over the years, the event has grown, both in size and prestige, earning national recognition. Featured authors have include Nancy Thayer, Mary Kay Andrews, Dorothea Benton Frank, Lisa Wingate, Andie MacDowell, Debbie Macomber, Elizabeth Berg, Kate Quinn, David Baldacci, Kathy Reichs, and Diane Chamberlain.

The latest edition, held in January 2024, unfolded over three days. The event commenced with a Friday kickoff at the Islander 71 Fish House and Deck Bar, featuring an engaging gathering titled “Cool Local Authors and Their Hot New Books.” The weekend was filled with intimate sessions, including Saturday morning mimosas with Stacy Willingham, an afternoon boating excursion to Dewees Island with Shelby Van Pelt and an evening of cocktails and mysteries with William Kent Krueger. The highlight was Sunday’s main event in the Indigo Ballroom, where Van Pelt, Krueger and Willingham took the stage, with Monroe serving as the moderator.

The audience was deeply moved – laughing, crying and engaging with the authors through questions. Following the enriching discussion, attendees indulged in specialty cocktails, enjoyed a silent auction and savored desserts, hors d’oeuvres and more.

“It’s bigger than just me now. We’ve built a tribe, a community,” Monroe says with pride, pointing out that the Isle of Palms is on the map

as a literary destination, drawing attention from across the country.

Monroe and her team have broadened their literary celebrations beyond the flagship January event, introducing the Wild Dunes Author Series – a collection of seasonal gatherings, each imbued with its own distinct character. These range from spring author luncheons and summer pool parties celebrating children’s literature to a fall event tailored for adults,

“LOOKING BACK, YOU SEE HOW EVERY CHOICE, EVERY SEEMINGLY RANDOM DECISION, LEADS YOU EXACTLY WHERE YOU’RE MEANT TO BE.”

ensuring a year-round festival of reading.

As Monroe peers over the horizon of her illustrious career, she’s not one to rest on her laurels. With the ink barely dry on her 31st novel, she is already plotting her next chapters, both literally and figuratively. A memoir and a deeper dive into Dickensian studies are on her wish list, hinting at a yearning to explore both her own story and the literary roots that have long inspired her.

But it’s the revelation of a secret project, a book two decades in the making and inspired by Dickens, that catches the imagination.

Each Christmas, this work sees the light of day, a personal dream that Monroe cherishes. Inside her computer are more unseen worlds –stories completed but unpolished, sidelined by her dedication to environmental narratives. It’s a treasure trove of potential, awaiting just the right moment to shine.

This fall, fans of the Wild Dunes Author Series can look forward to a tartan-themed ball at the Wild Dunes Resort, highlighting bestselling author Signe Pike and her latest novel, “The Shadowed Land.” Also in the fall, Monroe’s journey takes her to Japan, a pilgrimage to the setting of what she once envisioned as her debut novel. Dismissed by early feedback, the idea remained dormant yet undiminished. “Looking back, you see how every choice, every seemingly random decision, leads you exactly where you’re meant to be,” says Monroe. It’s a testament to the serendipity of life and the wisdom that comes with time.

Next year promises to be a banner year for Monroe’s fans, with the upcoming 20th anniversary of the Wild Dunes event in January. Though Monroe is keeping the details close to her chest, she hints that it will be spectacular. “Just wait and see,” she says, predicting an unforgettable experience. Monroe’s latest novel will also be released in 2025, an epic story set in South Carolina on the horizon. “It’s classic Mary Alice Monroe,” she says, setting the stage for another captivating read.

As Monroe continues to weave her literary magic, it’s clear that her journey is far from over. With each new story, she invites us into worlds that challenge, charm and change us –reminding us that the best is yet to come.

Mary Alice Monroe, left, with her daughters, Gretta, seated, and Claire.

THE NEXT CHAPTER IN AN ISLAND STORY

Sullivan’s Island’s longtime administrator reflects on the past 21 years.

By Brian Sherman. Photos by Rob Byko.

Andy Benke was hired as Sullivan’s Island’s town administrator in June 2003 and served in the position for almost exactly 21 years.

“ I had to look up what a town administrator was. The main thing was that it was a job on Sullivan’s Island. Who wouldn’t want that?”

ndy Benke likens the job he has had for more than two decades to the eternal fate that befell Sisyphus, the sad soul from the annals of Greek mythology who was punished for his discretions by being forced by the gods to roll a huge boulder up a steep incline, only to have it roll back down every time he and the giant rock neared the top of the hill.

As Sullivan’s Island’s longtime town administrator, who has lived on the island he loves for virtually all his 68 years, Benke wouldn’t have it any other way. He will officially retire from the position he’s held for almost exactly 21 years at the Town Council’s June 18, 2024, meeting.

Then he will trade the responsibility of running a beach town that, on beautiful Lowcountry days, must deal with twice as many visitors as residents, for a far lessstressful life of surfing, boating, fishing and maybe some other activities unrelated to the water. “Once I get beyond the shock of not reporting to work every day, I am confident my time will be filled with obligatory ‘honey-do’ lists and long hours at the beach,” says Benke.

The soon-to-be-former town administrator decided at an early age that whatever path his life followed would have to meander somewhere near the water. It’s no surprise, then, that his first job, as a ninth grader, was at

“ There’s only one Andy. ”

—Pat

O’Neil, Mayor of Sullivan’s Island

McKevlin’s Surf Shop, which was located near where the current fire station stands on the Isle of Palms. It was wiped out by Hurricane Hugo in 1989.

A 1973 graduate of Moultrie High School, he worked at the surf shop until he earned a degree from the College of Charleston in 1977, a fact that he thinks might have caused his parents a bit of consternation. “My dad was getting a little worried that I wouldn’t get a real job,” Benke says.

He drove a school bus part-time while he was at C of C, and, when it was time to find that real job, he landed another position in the transportation industry, working for a large steamship agency and contract stevedoring company. He stayed there for 20 years, but, when the business was about to be sold, he determined that it was time to change professions. “I didn’t want to be transferred

Pat O’Neil, left, Sullivan’s Island’s mayor since 2015, says Andy Benke will be missed when he retires, not only by town employees and elected officials but by the entire island.

somewhere else. My number one objective was not to leave this area,” he says, explaining why, in 2003, he applied for what turned out to be his third and final full-time job. “I had to look up what a town administrator was,” he jokes. “The main thing was that it was a job on Sullivan’s Island. Who wouldn’t want that?”

Benke soon found out what being a town administrator on Sullivan’s Island was all about – everything from changing out the paper towel dispenser in the men’s room and defrosting the refrigerator to overseeing the construction of Town Hall and the fire station, as well as two $20-million bond issues. More importantly, though, it involves interacting with members of the Council, communicating their policy decisions to the town’s department heads and tending to the needs of Sullivan’s Island’s residents and visitors. He emphasized that he’s had a lot of help from his fellow town employees over the past 21 years.

“Nothing is really accomplished individually. The town has a great team of employees who are focused and dedicated to serving the public and keeping the island special,” he says. “To have been involved with them on projects such as building sidewalks and beach boardwalks, improving parking and traffic flow, protecting the accreted land and the Maritime Forest, continuous evolution of

the zoning ordinance and construction of a new Town Hall, fire station and wastewater treatment plant has been very satisfying and rewarding.”

Sullivan’s Island Mayor Pat O’Neil knows that great employees generally don’t excel without a great leader, and he’s certain that the town has had just that over the past 21 years. “He’s going to be missed by the entire town,” O’Neil says. “He’s smart, dedicated, phenomenally hardworking and capable, and he’s very devoted to the island and its people. He really knows the history of the island and has a better understanding of things on the island than anybody else could – and he has a good way of interacting with residents, visitors and other government agencies. He’s well-regarded by everybody he’s dealt with.”

“There’s only one Andy,” the mayor adds.

Benke points out that when he was hired to supervise the day-to-day operations of Sullivan’s Island in 2003, the town wasn’t all that different from when he was a youngster enjoying all the advantages of living in a small, tightknit community on the Atlantic Ocean. His parents moved to the island in 1947, into a house not far from the current Town Hall. The home was destroyed by Hurricane Hugo, but Benke still has fond memories of his idyllic childhood. “It was a simple time. There wasn’t much traffic, I could ride my bike around town and life revolved around the playground and the water,” he says. “For me, life near the ocean was all I wanted to do.”

Population-wise, Sullivan’s Island is still a small town, but Benke admitted that it has changed in the past 21 years, mostly because of the meteoric growth of the entire Charleston area. “More new people are moving to the island. They might not understand that the town doesn’t own the roads or the stormwater system. And we spend time educating people about hurricanes,” he says. “2003 was pretty much like the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, but there’s a big turnover in residents now.”

Benke and his wife, Ellen, a pharmacist at a local hospital, have been married 41 years and raised two sons – Christian, a teacher who graduated from the College of Charleston and Dylan, who earned his degree at Clemson and is now studying at the Medical University of South Carolina. A few years ago, the couple

“ I’m very fortunate I grew up here. People still love to come to Sullivan’s Island. It’s a very special place in a lot of people’s minds. ” —Andy Benke

and their 4-year-old Labrador, Lily, moved to Mount Pleasant, which has done nothing to dampen Benke’s deep connection to the island that was his home for so many years.

“It makes me feel good when someone says what a nice place Sullivan’s Island is, whether they come here for dinner or to make this their home,” he says. “I’m very fortunate I grew up here. People still love to come to Sullivan’s Island. It’s a very special place in a lot of people’s minds.”

Neither will retirement affect his enthusiasm for the pastime that was the epicenter of his life during his formative elementary school, high school and college years. Over the decades, he has surfed around the country and across the Americas – the U.S. East and West Coasts, Hawaii, Mexico, the Bahamas, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Chile, Costa Rica and Ecuador, emulating the two stars of “Endless Summer,” the 1966 surfing documentary that he says “changed his life.”

As Benke prepares to transition to retirement and the opportunity to spend more time on the beach and surfing – along with following College of Charleston, Duke and Boston Celtics basketball and Atlanta Braves baseball – he says he has no regrets related to his 21 years as Sullivan’s Island’s town administrator. “I’m looking forward to the next chapter, and I won’t have to walk up 16 steps to get in my house,” he says, referring to “the trek” from Middle Street up to the main entrance to Sullivan’s Island’s Town Hall.

Deputy Administrator

Joe Henderson, right, will replace Andy Benke as Sullivan’s Island town administrator in June 2024.

MARKING HISTORY

Island historian Mike Walsh shares how Battery Gadsden Cultural Center and the town of Sullivan’s Island are marking the history of a historically significant island.

Marshall Reservation

This year might well be considered the 350th anniversary of Sullivan’s Island. It was in 1674 that one of the original European settlers in this area arrived and bequeathed his name to our island. Capt. Florence O’Sullivan, the rather enigmatic Irish figure, somehow finagled his way into the position of surveyor general for the new colony of Carolina, despite having absolutely no experience as a surveyor and no surveying skills whatsoever.

But this article is not about O’Sullivan or about Col. William Moultrie and his brave band of patriots or Maj. Robert Anderson, who decamped from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter and suffered the first shots of the Civil War. Of course, we must mention the military and note the strategic importance of this island, which kept homeowners from having title to their property until the 1970s and allowed the Army to shoo residents off 300 acres of land between 1895 and 1910, leading to a continuation of 171 years of military activity at Fort Moultrie.

But the point is this: When you live in a place with such an incredibly rich history, how do you recognize that history? How do you remind, inform and educate?

Communities preserve and remember their history in several ways; one of the most common and most visible is by erecting historic markers. According to the Historical Marker Database, there are more than 4,500

historical markers and war memorials in South Carolina, 665 of them in Charleston County and 56 on Sullivan’s Island.

The island’s numbers are skewed somewhat because of those created by the National Park Service. Still, most islanders are aware of the marker for the African American Cemetery that stands on Station 22½, the collection of markers at Breach Inlet and those that are located at the intersection of Poe Avenue and Palmetto Street near Battery Jasper.

In late 2021, Sullivan’s Island’s Battery Gadsden Cultural Center was asked by the Public Facilities Committee of the Sullivan’s Island Town Council to identify locations, designs, vendors and costs for three additional markers. This was a trial for a new series of historic signage, carefully designed and strategically placed to catch the eye of residents and visitors and filled with images and littleknown facts. That trial was a success. The markers were erected, and, in early 2023, the Town Council authorized a second round of four new markers, followed late last year by yet another group of four.

Here is a brief description of the seven that have been installed, a preview of the two that have been designed and the final two that are being designed. Dan Roth of Athens Creative Design in Athens, Georgia, produced the panels, taking the Cultural Center’s ideas and making them pop.

Battery Logan

The Mound – Battery Capron/Battery Pierce Butler

(Located just inside the sidewalk at Stith Park, looking toward The Mound)

Beneath the hill in Stith Park, known locally as The Mound, lies the oldest of eight artillery batteries constructed between 1895 and 1910 as part of the Endicott System, a comprehensive plan for defending the U.S. coast. Completed in 1898, this battery was home to 12-inch coastal mortars, 16 of them, known as Battery Capron and Battery Pierce Butler. The batteries were deactivated in 1942 and acquired by the town of Sullivan’s Island after World War II. The structure was used as a potential fallout shelter during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Safety concerns led to it being filled in by the early 2000s.

Fort Moultrie Military Reservation – Rear Gate and Second Post Chapel

(Located on the concrete pillar on the north side of Middle Street at Station 18)

When the Army took over 300 acres of Sullivan’s Island between 1895 and 1910, Fort Moultrie became Fort Moultrie Military Reservation. Since the Cove Inlet Bridge was the only connection with the mainland, Station 12 was designated as the front gate and Station 18 as the rear gate.

With FMMR situated between two civilian residential areas, travelers from one end of the island to the other had to stop here for a pass. Adjacent to the rear gate, the last of some 250 buildings constructed by the Army was built to serve as the second post chapel. Now the Sullivan’s Island Baptist Church, it used a standard design favored by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt because it tended to remind GIs of the churches back home.

Battery Capron

Rear gate

Fort Moultrie Military Reservation – Parade Ground and Flagpole Area

(Located in the open field across Middle Street from Station 16½)

The heart of the Army post stood near the headquarters building on Station 17. The post commander’s home, the bandstand and the expansive parade ground were to the south and west. Across Middle Street was an extension of the parade ground where the post’s main flagpole stood and where the daily raising and lowering of the flag took place.

Interestingly, the Fort Moultrie flagpole has always appeared to be made in two parts, recalling June 28, 1776, when, during the Battle of Sullivan’s Island, Sgt. William Jasper retrieved the shot-down flag, tied the remaining flagstaff to a sponge staff and replanted it on the rampart of the palmetto log fort.

Battery Logan

(Located on the southwest corner of Station 16 and Poe Avenue)

Battery Logan is the third reinforced concrete artillery emplacement built as part of the Endicott System. Named for Capt. William Logan of the 7th U.S. Infantry, who was killed at the Battle of Big Hole Basin in Montana on Aug. 9, 1877, it was designed to mount two 6-inch breach loading guns. Five years after completion in 1899, one of the guns was removed and never replaced. The other served as part of the Charleston Harbor defenses through 1944.

Battery Gadsden

(Located immediately adjacent to the battery itself at the southwestern end of the complex)

Battery Gadsden is one of three Endicott batteries that were in civilian areas outside the limits of Fort Moultrie Military Reservation. Named for Revolutionary War colonel and vocal proponent of American independence Christopher Gadsden, the battery was constructed between 1904 and 1906. It originally housed four 6-inch guns on disappearing carriages.

However, by World War I, the technology was obsolete. The guns were dismounted and sent to France to be used on field carriages during that conflict. The battery was never re-armed, but, during World War II, two 60-inch searchlights were placed in wooden towers atop the structure.

Battery Thomson

(Located inside the public parking area in front of the battery, across I’On Avenue from the post office)

Battery Thomson is notable for three reasons: It was one of the three Endicott batteries located outside the fort grounds; it was one of the last batteries built on the island; and it was one of the last to be deactivated.

Completed in 1906 and named for Revolutionary War Col. William Thomson, it had electric hoists to bring shells up to its two 10-inch guns, and the guns were rotated by electric motors, making Thomson the most advanced of the Endicott structures. The battery was active through World War II. After deactivation in 1945, it has been used as a training facility for Sullivan’s Island Fire and Rescue.

The Marshall Reservation

(The location for this marker has not yet been chosen)

In 1905, the South Carolina General Assembly ceded 100 acres of land at the northeastern tip of the island to the Army to be used as a rifle range. Stretching from Station 28½ to Breach Inlet and from Front Beach to Jasper Boulevard, it was named after a Confederate battery that stood in this location during the Civil War.

During the 1920s, the hazard of small arms and artillery being fired here prompted the erection of a 6-foot barbed wire fence, the first physical barrier ever erected between civilian and military areas on the island. Before and during World War II, the Army operated an Overseas Discharge and Replacement Depot here, where GIs were processed medically and administratively.

In 1944, Battery 520, a 40-foot-high mound of dirt and concrete, was constructed to house two casemated 12-inch naval guns. Following the war, Battery 520 was converted into private residences, and this end of the island was opened to civilian use.

The Army Post Bandstand

(Located in Stith Park, immediately adjacent to the bandstand)

Military life includes marching, parades and ceremonies. Those in turn often require musical accompaniment, so it was natural that a bandstand be erected for Fort Moultrie. Built in 1902, the structure was 22 feet in diameter and elevated 5 feet off the ground with a tin roof. Situated originally at the northeastern end of the expansive parade ground, it was also conveniently located near the post commander’s home.

Legend has it that John Philip Sousa once conducted from this bandstand. After the Army left, the structure was incorporated into a house as a rental property, restored, severely damaged by Hurricane Hugo, restored again and finally placed in Stith Park where it is still used for performances and special events.

Battery Thomson

The Post Theater

(The text for this marker has not yet been finalized. It will be located somewhere near 1454 Middle St.)

With the expansion of Fort Moultrie between 1895 and 1910 came a major increase in personnel and a corresponding need for recreation. Soon after the production of the first motion picture with sound in 1927, the Army built a post theater. Completed on May 12, 1928, the facility featured an 11 x 15-foot screen and seating for 554 patrons.

Over the years, the theater hosted not only films but also USO shows, war bond drives and all types of ceremonies. After Fort Moultrie closed in 1947, attempts were made to convert the theater to civilian use, though newspapers reported the building “boarded up” in 1962.

The final attempt to make the old post theater a movie house came in 1968, when new owners created the Island Cinema. Popular films were shown that summer, but, despite notices in September 1968 that the cinema was “closed until Easter,” the theater had shown its last movie. It subsequently became a warehouse.

The Cove Inlet Bridge

(Neither the text nor the location for this marker has been determined)

Bridges connected Sullivan’s Island to Mount Pleasant during both the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. However, the first “modern” bridge was built around 1898 when Dr. Joseph Lawrence acquired Long Island, renamed it the Isle of Palms, and began developing it as a resort destination.

Lawrence founded the Charleston and Seashore Railroad Company, which built trolley bridges over Cove Inlet and Breach Inlet to provide convenient rail service from the ferry dock in Mount Pleasant, through Sullivan’s Island to the Isle of Palms.

That operation was replaced in 1913 by the Charleston-Isle of Palms Traction Company, which failed in 1924, leaving access to the islands to the government-based Cooper River Ferry Commission. The tracks of the original bridge had been covered with wooden planks so automobiles could use it, but neither this bridge nor the Breach Inlet Bridge was maintained, so, by mid-1924, there was no bridge connecting Mount Pleasant to either Sullivan’s Island or the Isle of Palms.

Public demand led to the construction of the final Cove Inlet Bridge. It opened to automobile traffic in June of 1925, but, by the

late 1930s, it was deemed a bottleneck and a traffic hazard. Community and congressional pressure led to an entirely different plan to avoid both the old part of Mount Pleasant and the need for traffic to move to Fort Moultrie and its two checkpoints.

The concept that developed was for a causeway crossing the marsh and intersecting with a bridge that entered Sullivan’s Island at Station 22 1/2. Ultimately named the Ben Sawyer Bridge, it finally opened in June of 1945. Simultaneously, the final Cove Inlet Bridge closed forever. A major portion of the old bridge burned in 1960, leaving only the part on the Mount Pleasant side, which is now known as the Pitt Street Bridge. The legacy of the trolley line running the length of the island is the reason the cross streets on Sullivan’s Island are known as stations.

Senior Officers’ Row

(Neither the text nor the location for this marker has been determined)

The major expansion of Fort Moultrie Military Reservation between 1895 and 1910 took place at the same time the “city beautiful movement” was flourishing. This philosophy of urban planning held that beauty in architecture and landscapes could lead to improved moral and civic virtues.

FMMR benefited from this movement with wide streets, generous sidewalks, streetlights and attractive landscaping. Nowhere on the post was this more visible than on the stretch of I’On Avenue between Station 17 and 18, where 11 senior officers’ homes were built around 1902. Designed in Colonial Revival and Queen Anne architectural styles, these homes varied in size according to officers’ ranks, ranging from around 8,700 square feet for the post commander at 1702 I’On to around 5,500 square feet for captains and 3,300 for lieutenants.

The row was anchored at the northern end by the bachelor officers’ quarters. All the current homes are original with the exception of 1710 I’On, which burned to the ground in 1986 and was meticulously reconstructed to its original look. SiP SiP

Marshall Reservation

RISING STAR

Catch a glimpse of locals following their dreams and passions into the stratosphere.

Photo by Gamil Awad

Mary Welch Fox StaSik

MAKING A HOUSE A HOME

When interior designer, host of HGTV’s “Breaking Bland” and Isle of Palms resident Mary Welch Fox Stasik started college back in the early 2000s, she did what so many young students do – she majored in a subject that has nothing at all to do with what she does now. For Stasik, that subject was biology. “I thought I wanted to be a doctor,” she says.

While she studied cells and anatomy at Colorado State University, she couldn’t deny her artistic talents. After a stint on what for her was the wrong career path, she discovered interior design, which “to me was the perfect mix of business and art.”

She graduated in 2006 but not before taking a position with a high-end furniture store, which led her to a dream job in New York City, where she not only worked in interior design but also dabbled in fashion for a bit. She moved to Peru to teach English, back to New York City and then she found herself in Chicago, where, she says, things just “weren’t the same” and she had a hard time finding a job. “So I waited tables and started working in the music industry,” she says.

Eventually, her career received a big boost in Chicago, where she landed her first interior design client. “I was so scared, but I did it and then I got other clients from that,” she says. “That was where my business started.”

It was in 2012, while pregnant with her first child, that she and her husband decided to move to the Charleston area. Although she is originally from Tennessee, she had family in the Lowcountry, and she grew up vacationing in the area. “That was when the design bug really bit me,” Stasik says.

To get her name out there, she handled some jobs at no cost just for the experience. That plan worked well enough that she attracted producers from HGTV, who asked her in 2017 to host “Breaking Bland,” which aired from 2020 through 2022. “The whole process, from doing interviews, creating a pilot and filming the show, took three years,” she recalls.

During that time, HGTV was adjusting to the trying times of COVID, she was adjusting to being a mom of two and, in 2018, she found a fixer-upper on the Isle of Palms that took a year to be move-in ready. It was, she says, an

experience and an opportunity of a lifetime. Although interior design is her passion, she can’t shake the exhilarating feeling of revealing a new look to a client, or friend, as Stasik refers to them. “They are the whole reason why I do this,” she says. “It is about forming these incredible relationships with people. I get to know them, and I am creating a home for them. How lucky am I to be able to do this for people? I get to hear their stories, they tell me special memories they have and I get to learn about their traditions and culture. And then I tie all that together. It gives me chills just thinking about it.”

When she’s not working, Stasik likes to spend time with her husband and two daughters – ages 10 and 6. She also enjoys hanging out with her friends, many of whom are former clients. Her repertoire of clients includes Shep Rose from “Southern Charm,” and she is currently working with Barbara Melvin, president and CEO of South Carolina Ports. “She is an amazing person and a great role model,” Stasik says. “She also has great style and is open to creativity.”

Stasik believes in staying in tune with what fills her cup. To stay grounded, she surfs, practices yoga and finds peace in creating custom artwork for her clients. “Think modern surf shack,” she says of her Southern coastal style, which she admits is quite different from her Tennessee and Colorado roots.

It was, however, those places, as well as her stints in New York City, Chicago and even Peru, that have inspired the unique and eclectic sense of style that defines her work today. It’s the life experiences – of hers and her clients – no matter how messy or beautiful, that ultimately make a house a home. And if you don’t believe me, just ask Stasik about her favorite place – her home on the Isle of Palms.

— Theresa Stratford

“

RISING STAR

Photos by Gamil Awad.

Paul cole Man

A SERMON ON THE BEACH

head over to Front Beach on the Isle of Palms on any given Sunday around 10 a.m. between peak spring and early fall, and you’ll find a congregation of more than 100 people, rousing gospel music, an inspiring sermon and even a small tent for children’s ministry – all right there in the sand along with the sunbathers and castle makers. And though you won’t find a building, it is indeed a church.

It’s called DeepWater Church, and its pastor, Paul Coleman, had the idea to start this congregation while on a run in the spring of 2016. At the time, he was working as an associate pastor for The Church at LifePark in Mount Pleasant. Coleman said the idea was a calling from God. “I was perfectly content at LifePark, but I couldn’t ignore what God was asking me to do,” he explains.

Coleman’s “aha” moment took about a year to come to fruition. During that time, he moved his family to IOP and created a team to help launch the new church. The concept was not typical. There was no building.

Coleman traveled to Fripp Island to study a similar model with St. Helena’s Anglican Church, which also meets on the beach. He explained that launching a church that meets outside for most of the year was a concept that seemed, at first, unknown and uncomfortable – but it was also one that intrigued many people.

The name DeepWater came from one of Coleman’s favorite Bible passages in the Gospel of Luke. “That particular passage spoke to my wife and me because we also feel called into the deep waters.”

With church attendance down nationwide, Coleman felt that meeting outdoors for church could resonate with many people because it’s more approachable. “You can walk up and just listen to the music or stay the whole time before spending the day on the beach,” he says. “There are no walls or doors to box you in.”

DeepWater is affiliated with the South Carolina Baptist Convention – specifically the Start Network, the church-planting team of the SCBC – and the Charleston Baptist Association.

During the fall and winter, from November to April, the church meets at the Isle of Palms

Exchange Club. About 100 people attend the service there, but the services that take place on the beach in the late spring, summer and early fall balloon up to almost 150 people on some Sundays. Coleman said they baptize people in the ocean every week as well.

But he’s quick to suggest that DeepWater isn’t just the church that meets on the beach. The congregation is involved in local charities such as East Cooper Community Outreach, and members also help out by serving as volunteers for programs at the Isle of Palms Recreation Center. DeepWater’s youth group participates in a youth mission camp every summer, where teenagers get to work with other kids who either live in poverty or have a disability. DeepWater will also travel to the Dominican Republic twice in 2024 to work with a mission group to help with various projects for the local communities there.

And some of the DeepWater group meetings, such as Bible studies, the Women’s Group, Men’s Group, Couples’ Group and Youth Group meetings, take place at a local Lutheran Church or at various members’ houses.

Coleman said that although he would love a building one day for the church, he will still conduct Sunday services on the beach from Easter to October.

“It would be nice to have a building of our own for team meetings and other programs, but, for now, we are managing just fine without one,” he says.

If you happen to find yourself near Front Beach on the Isle of Palms between Easter and Halloween, keep an eye out for the cross, listen for the music and stay for the word of God. Just don’t forget a beach chair and umbrella.

— Theresa Stratford

“ There are no walls or doors to box you in. –Paul Coleman

RISING STAR

by Rob Byko.

Photos

aShley Martin

EXPANDING TO A SHIP OF FOOLS

there are people we meet whose talent, along with their determination, drive and desire to propel their dreams forward, are an inspiration. Ashley Martin, the owner of the Goldbug store on Sullivan’s Island, is one of them – and soon she’ll be expanding her vision across the Ben Sawyer Bridge for her latest treasure box of trinkets – Ship of Fools. Her language of style and self-expression will be on display for even more of us to experience and enjoy.

Ship of Fools will open in early summer in the location formerly occupied by The Zoo. It’s long and narrow with exposed wood, which reminded Martin of a ship. If you’ve ever opened a new business, you know the experience can be chaotic, and finding just the right name can be difficult. She already had the word ship in mind. Insert fools, and, if the shoe fits, roll with it – a major hurdle is completed: You have a name for your store.

Martin mentions, “I had been looking for a place for a while, and, as soon as I walked into this one, I knew it. I could see Goldbug’s big sister coming to life within these walls and here we are.” The new location will be earthy and edgy, with a dash of elegance – and her love of vintage design and refurbished décor will add an element of bravura. One of the most exciting additions will be the outdoor patio where she’ll finally be able to host pop-ups and more community events.

“I’m so excited Ashley gets to take her dream and make it even bigger by opening her new shop,” says Theris Thurpis. “She has put her heart and soul in every detail. There aren’t many stores where you can walk in and say, “Wow that’s so cool!” You feel like you’ve found a treasure, worth the value as a forever piece. In my opinion, it’s all because of Ashley’s superb eye for fashion, fun and uniqueness! She has been a style icon for me personally, like having a little bit of NYC in little ole Charleston.”

Ship of Fools will present an experience for anyone who walks through the doors, offering more clothes than Goldbug has been able to in its

small footprint on Middle Street. She’ll exhibit clothes from designers such as B Sides Jeans, Hofmann Copenhagen and Maurizio Mykonos, to name a few. These aren’t designers you see everywhere. In fact, she left no stone unturned as she sought independent brands, mostly from Europe and not readily available at every shop in town.

Martin says her inventory will be limited on special pieces to avoid the awkward moment of bumping into the same outfit around town. Martin has always wanted to expand her variety of offerings to her loyal clientele, and now she’s making the next big step in living her dreams out loud.

The journey has been demanding but, in her experience, “It’s when you’re scared to death that you know you’re growing and finding out what you’re made of, and this has been one of those moments!” Goldbug will always be her root, continuing to carry her signature jewelry, accessories and clothes, while Ship Of Fools will stretch into more staples and the pieces that make you shine brightly in your individual you-niqueness.

— Katherine Berry

“ It’s when you’re scared to death that you know you’re growing and finding out what you’re made of, and this has been one of those moments! –Ashley Martin

Raising Cosgrove

A Sullivan’s Island beach cottage built in 1890 and thoughtfully renovated by its owner over two decades provides a blueprint for respecting and preserving the island’s heritage while fitting in with modern life. Jennifer Tuohy explores the history and future of this iconic home. Photos by Michael Blevins.

Walk almost to the end of Middle Street on Sullivan’s, and you’ll come to a cluster of homes around two streets on the narrow western tip of the island. The closest point geographically to Charleston, this was the first neighborhood built on the island. It was called Moultrieville.

Today, 18 of the original buildings from this first residential settlement on Sullivan’s remain, forming part of the Moultrieville Historic District, one of several sites on the island listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Among those buildings is the Cosgrove House.

Today owned by David Russell and Jamie Brownlee, the house has had only four owners in its 130-year history. Russell purchased it in 1985 from the Doughty Family, who in turn bought it from the Venning family, who – at some point lost in time – procured it from Matilda Cosgrove. Matilda was the widow of James Cosgrove, who built the house as a summer retreat from his King Street home. Records vary, but the house was most likely completed at some point in 1890.

Like Cosgrove, Russell was looking for a summer retreat from his busy city job; he was a lawyer in Atlanta. Having lived in Charleston as a teenager, while his father, Robert L. Russell, helped open the VA hospital in 1965, he had fond memories of the city and its beach towns.

The house Russell bought was not that far removed from the one Cosgrove built: a rectangular structure with hipped dormers and a front porch flanked by solid heart pine columns. At some point in the first decade, Cosgrove added the two conical porches with their decorative cupolas. Other than that, three owners over a hundred years had done little but maintain this historic home.

However, since Russell and Brownlee bought the house in 1985, they have shepherded it from near ruin to modernization. Two major remodels have turned the humble home – built before the town of Sullivan’s Island even existed – into a shining example of how the island’s heritage can be respected and preserved while still fitting in with modern life.

The front entrance to the historic home still retains the original door, transom and glass from 1890.

“During the renovation, we found many beautiful surprises, including a subfloor constructed of antique heart pine, handmade brick from an old cistern and solid pine beams.”

– Steve Herlong

Below:

spread:

Opening

1102 Middle St. in 2023. This page, from top: The house circa 1890 (courtesy Marshall Stith); the house in the 1980s, when David Russell purchased it; the house in 2009, following Herlong’s first remodel.

The rear of the home today, following the addition of two wings.

CHRONOLOGY OF THE COSGROVE HOUSE ALONGSIDE THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE TOWN OF SULLIVAN’S ISLAND

The history of the town of Sullivan’s Island has been largely shaped by eminent domain. Institutions, not people, owned the land of this island until the early 1950s, when residents could finally officially own their property.

This timeline of The Cosgrove House at 1102 Middle St. shows how the island’s unique political and geographical location shaped its development.

1791 • The South Carolina General Assembly permits people to build cottages on Sullivan’s Island and have exclusive use of a half-acre, on the understanding they would remove the cottage if the government needed the land for coastal defense. No land titles were issued.

1817 • On Dec. 17, the South Carolina General Assembly incorporates the town of Moultrieville.

1805 • South Carolina cedes most of the land around Fort Moultrie to the U.S. government.

1855 • Residents of Sullivan’s Island have to pay property taxes for the first time.

1857 • Residents are finally allowed to hold legal, transferable titles to their property to occupy half-acre lots from “year to year” as “tenants for years.”

1861 • The Civil War begins in Charleston in April.

1861 • James Cosgrove is born on Aug. 26. Of Irish decent, his father owned a merchant store in Charleston, once called Cosgrove Wholesale Mineral Waters.

1885 • Cosgrove marries Matilda G. Forsythe.

1890 • Cosgrove builds the house on what is now 1102 Middle St. The couple’s main house remains on King Street.

1891 • An advertisement in The Charleston News and Courier on June 13 says, “TO RENT, THE COSGROVE House on Sullivan’s Island: furnished.”

1893 • A Sanborn Fire Insurance map of Sullivan’s shows the house fronting Middle and bordering Quarter (now Station 11) and Main (now Osceola).

From Hurricane Hugo to raising a family

A few years after buying the modest home, Russell had to deal with the damage wrought by Hurricane Hugo. The Category 5 hurricane bore down on Sullivan’s Island on Sept. 22, 1989, wiping away many of the island’s homes. “A third of the house was gone,” says Russell. “Twelve of the historic columns were found two or three blocks away. A large section of the roof was blown off. There was substantial damage to it, but it came back together.”

Russell had the columns retrieved and put back into place and replaced the roof but didn’t substantially alter the home, keeping it close to its beach house origins – there was no central air or even a proper kitchen. The arrival of Brownlee on the scene heralded some more substantial upgrades. Russell married Brownlee, also a lawyer, and, as their family grew, so did the amenities necessary to make the home suitable for a family getaway from the big city.

However, it wasn’t until 2009 that they decided to give the home a serious facelift. Enlisting the services of Sullivan’s Islandbased architect Steve Herlong, they expanded the home to 3,400 square feet, creating space for a “proper” kitchen while enclosing some of the porch to create a larger bedroom suite.

Cognizant of the home’s heritage, Herlong worked carefully to preserve and re-create the historic texture of the structure, reclaiming many original materials. Heart pine columns from the porch were moved indoors

to flank the addition of the new kitchen, which expanded to the rear of the home to keep the front facade in its original historical context.

“During the renovation, we found many beautiful surprises, including a subfloor constructed of antique heart pine, handmade brick from an old cistern and solid pine beams on the ground floor that would no longer be structurally necessary for the renovation,” says Herlong. “We decided to intermix the antique heart pine flooring with newer pine throughout the home’s interior so that the original flooring would be in each room of the home. The brick was used to surround the fireplace and hearth, and the beams were ripped to fabricate the dining table, mantle and bar top on the kitchen island.”

From retirement to raising a home

In 2020, with retirement close, the couple decided to relocate to Sullivan’s permanently. This would require a more substantial remodel, one that would turn the beach cottage into a permanent home for Russell and Brownlee – somewhere they could house their impressive art and antiques collection from their home in Atlanta and welcome their grown children.

The couple once again enlisted Herlong’s expertise. He put together a team of his associates, including project manager Brooke Gerbracht, interior architect Layne Nelson and interior designer Theresa Bishopp. Together with Jeff Mathis of Sea Island

The classic Southern porches are original to the home and are owners David Russell and Jamie Brownlee’s favorite feature.

Overall, the Herlong architecture team kept true to the home’s historical heritage. However, the two new wings afforded an opportunity for creativity, including this stunning vaulted wooden ceiling in the new family room, which helps showcase the couple’s art collection.

Builders and landscape architect J. R. Kramer of Remark Studio, the entire team worked to bring the historical Cosgrove House firmly in line with modern life while maintaining its heritage and beauty.

Herlong designed two wings for the home that – from the front – would be mostly hidden from view by the signature conical porches. The additions provided the extra space the family needed while maintaining that beautiful historical façade. Adding a total of 1,600 square feet of living space, the team created space to incorporate an office/library, a family room, a much-enlarged primary bedroom suite, a bigger laundry room, a bigger dining room and a pool. Bishopp, who had worked on the previous remodel, helped coordinate the furnishings and incorporate Russell and Brownlee’s antiques and art into the home.

While crafting the ideal family home was front and center in the project, a driving force behind the remodel was literally to save the historical structure by raising it. “We were frequently getting water intrusions from heavy rain and high tides,” says Brownlee.

Flood waters had come up 2 feet above the slab during a 2017 tropical storm. Persistent flooding due to climate change meant that to protect the home and property they needed to raise the house and also the adjacent grade. “We raised the house about 30 inches,” says Russell. “We couldn’t go any higher because of town limits on roofline.”

Rusty Shumpert of Carolina House Movers undertook the project of raising the home.

“It was amazing to watch,” says Russell. They had to gut the entire ground floor, detach all the utility lines, gas, water and electricity and then situate 10 pneumatic pumps at strategic points and control it all by computer, raising the house up a millimeter at a time. “I remember Rusty saying, ‘Ma’am, you can keep your saltshakers sitting right here on the counter. And they will be just fine,’” recalls Brownlee.

Kramer’s landscape design broke up the large lawn in the front of the house using strategically placed brickwork to create a grand entrance to the home. Surrounding it, a collection of charming garden rooms house a variety of native grasses and plants, as well as well-tended vegetable, herb and flower gardens. The raising and terracing of the garden creates a subtle effect so the house doesn’t look like it’s on stilts, thus maintaining its historical proportions.

In the rear, a pool, covered deck and fireplace offer plenty of idyllic spots for relaxation. The couple was able to put all these spaces to excellent use within a few months of moving in, hosting their son’s wedding at the house.

However, for the couple, the home’s main appeal still lies in those precious porches. “We live out here,” says Russell. “It’s just perfect: the breeze, the view.” As the couple sits under the picturesque cupolas enjoying the island’s charm, they can’t help but feel like the fortunate stewards of what Cosgrove built so many years ago. SiP

1898 • A trolley car railroad begins service from Mount Pleasant to Sullivan’s and Isle of Palms, which Cosgrove helped to fund.

1900 • An ad in the Charleston News and Courier “By James Cosgrove. For sale, delightful Sullivan’s Island RESIDENCE on trolley line, seven rooms, completely furnished: cistern and outbuildings. House in excellent order. Half-acre lot. Will be sold with or without furniture.”

1906 • A board of commissioners to administer the new “Township of Sullivan’s Island” is established.

1911 • A Charleston city directory lists Cosgrove as real estate agent and broker, auctioneer, stock and bond broker, general insurance agent and secretary of the Sanitary and Drainage Commission of Charleston County, with an office at 36 Broad St. He also served four terms in the South Carolina House of Representatives, founded the Catholic Library Association and was mayor of Moultrieville for two terms.

1911 • In March, at age 49, Cosgrove dies at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. He is buried at Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston. His wife, Matilda, continues to rent out the Sullivan’s house to boarders, including Father Bernard Fleming, the priest at Stella Maris.

1912 • A Sanborn Fire Insurance map shows the addition of a larger front porch to the house that wraps around the sides and has two rounded ends on the front, likely with the conical roofs that exist today.

1940 • The Census shows the house is occupied by Rachael (39) and Elias (39) Venning and their children Elias Jr. (13) and Louise (10).

1947 • Fort Moultrie is “honorably discharged” from the U.S. War Department.

1948 • A picture of the house shows E. Venning as the owner. A “hitching post” half-column is in front of the front steps.

1949 • On Dec. 28, the United States War Assets Administration sells all former military property to the Sullivan’s Island Township Commission.

1953 • Occupied lots on Sullivan’s are finally granted the option to convert ownership from leaseholds to freeholds, allowing owners “fee simple titles.”

1985 • David Russell purchases 1102 Middle St. from the Doughty Family.

Sources: David Russell, Cindy Lee, “A Tour of Historic Sullivan’s Island” (2010 / The History Press), and Nic Butler (ccpl.org/ charleston-time-machine).

Home is where the art is

Celebrating its 25th year, Art on the Beach is an annual fundraiser that invites guests inside Sullivan’s Island homes to enjoy beautiful art and great food for a good cause.

By Jenny Peterson Photos by Rüta Elvikyté

Part home tour, part pop-up art gallery and full-on sophisticated afternoon of supporting a worthy organization, Art on the Beach lets members of the community mingle, sip and peruse artwork inside stunning residences on Sullivan’s Island.

Now in its 25th year, the popular fundraising event brings together members of the community to gather inside beautiful homes and enjoy local food and libations while supporting the nonprofit organization Charleston Pro Bono Legal Services.

This year’s Art on the Beach is scheduled for Nov. 10, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., keeping in the event’s tradition of being held annually on the second Sunday in November. New this year, VIP tickets will be offered, and ticket holders will get access to the event an hour earlier than everyone else.

“We’re going into the 25th year making it bigger and better than ever,” says Sydney Ford, development director with Charleston Pro Bono Legal Services. “The VIP ticket allows extra access for those who want to spend more time in the homes and do a little more perusing. There will be a little something extra – a special VIP area with drinks, food and little gifts.”

The self-guided tour of around 10 homes throughout the island will feature several artists in each home, as well as a local chef preparing food tastings. Past participating chefs have included those from Sullivan’s Fish Camp and Salthouse Catering, serving up a range of dishes from caviar to a charcuterie spread perfect for grazing. As for beverages, past events have featured Cathead Distillery and High Rise Beverage Company.

For the past quarter century, Art on the Beach has provided the opportunity for an up-close look at Sullivan’s Island homes and the chance to enjoy a variety of dishes ranging from caviar to charcuterie.

“There’s nothing better than art by the sea.

— SYDNEY FORD

Art on the Beach is capped at 500 tickets and it sells out quickly. The first tier of tickets will go on sale June 1, Ford says. A map of homes is provided to attendees a week before the event.

In addition to gracious hosts and local restaurateurs and caterers offering top-notch hospitality, local artists will set up their work in the homes and will be on hand to discuss their art and sell items that attendees can take home that day.

“We’ve had everything from fine art painters to jewelers, leather bag makers and woodworkers,” Ford says. “A percent of their sales that day go to Charleston Pro Bono Legal Services. A lot of artists have gotten a lot of commission pieces off of the event.”

A history of support

The long-standing Art on the Beach fundraiser began 25 years ago to support Creative Spark Center for the Arts, which offered music, theater and art lessons in Mount Pleasant.

“ In addition to enjoying Southern hospitality, local art, bites and sips, attendees learn more about Charleston Pro Bono Legal Services.

Founder Carol Antman came up with the idea for Art on the Beach to help raise funds for the organization while allowing members of the community to peek inside beautiful homes and connect with their island neighbors and the arts community.

When Creative Spark closed in 2015, the fundraising event designated a new beneficiary. This is the ninth year that Charleston Pro Bono Legal Services has taken over planning and hosting the event. The organization provides free legal services for low-income members of the community in a wide range of civil cases.

“It has grown tremendously over the years,” Ford says. In fact, to keep up with demand for the event, Charleston Pro Bono Legal Services added “Art in I’On,” a sister event held in Mount Pleasant in the spring. “So many people came to Art on the Beach and said they wanted a second event because tickets sold out quickly and people loved it so much,” Ford says.

Left: Shoppers take a look at Armsway Forge & Metal Designs.

To purchase tickets, which go on sale June 1, or to learn more about the event, including volunteering, sponsorships or becoming a participating artist or chef, visit artonthebeachchs.com or email artonthebeachchs@gmail.com.

“ We promote equal access to justice and make sure that everyone, regardless of their financial situation, has access to legal remedies.”

— SYDNEY FORD

The generosity of the homeowners to open their doors for this worthy event is tantamount to its success. “A lot of it is word of mouth. A lot of homeowners have either been on the tour themselves as an attendee, or they had their home on the tour previously, and they referred their friends. Some people call us and say, ‘I heard about this. I want to place my home on the tour,’” Ford says. “We make sure that it’s easy for the homeowners and that they also have a fun experience that day.”

In addition to enjoying Southern hospitality, local art, bites and sips, attendees will be able to learn more about Charleston Pro Bono Legal Services, which serves some of the most vulnerable members of the community, including survivors of human trafficking and those facing eviction. “We run the gamut of services in the civil legal aid community. When you are low-income and you have a criminal law case, you get appointed a public defender – but you don’t if you have a civil case. It’s not covered under the law,” Ford says.

Art on the Beach is Charleston Pro Bono Legal Services’ largest fundraiser and provides

an essential boost to support the staff of 11 –including four attorneys – to continue their important work. “We promote equal access to justice and make sure that everyone, regardless of their financial situation, has access to legal remedies,” Ford said. “The legal system is very complicated and can be very hard to understand and navigate, even for something as simple as filing for a birth certificate or death certificate. We were the first nonprofit in the state to have an attorney for civil legal aid for survivors of human trafficking.”

Ford says a homeowner who participated in a past Art on The Beach event was so moved by the mission of Charleston Pro Bono Legal Services that she ended up volunteering with the organization in housing court. “After hearing what we do for the community, she’s continued to volunteer, and the event makes connections that we might not otherwise make,” Ford says. “A lot of chefs and artists continue to come back because of the networking at this event – and there’s nothing better than art by the sea.”

At last year’s Art on the Beach, attendees were able to enjoy Southern hospitality, local art and excellent food – and they also had the chance to interact with 2023 featured artist Karin Olah, center.

Free things to do on the islands

The Isle of Palms Recreation Center offers a host of activities that help you connect with your community and get outside.

By Katherine Berry

Today’s world of computer screens and innovative interactions on various social media platforms can leave you wondering which way is up and which way you need to go to retain what sanity remains. Are you feeling lonesome and confused and even thinking about tossing your computer, phone and watch off the nearest bridge? Maybe that will bring a smile to your face, but, before you head to the apex of the Isle of Palms Connector or even to the walking path along the Ravenel, perhaps you should consider another option.

Why don’t you take a break from anything that connects you to that impersonal, brain-cell-destroying monstrosity we call the internet, and step outside to enjoy an array of free community events hosted throughout the year by the IOP Recreation Department? Each of these activities offers an excellent way to enhance your health, challenge your mind or simply try something, side-byside with like-minded people who share the urge to expand their horizons. The strength of our web comes from the resilience of each fiber. Through collaboration within our community, we can deepen self-awareness, facilitate growth and contribute to overall well-being and fulfillment.

BEACH YOGA

Tuesdays, 7:30 a.m. at 25th Avenue May through October

May brings warmer weather to our serene coastline, as well as the second installment of IOP’s Beach Yoga class in the sun-drenched sand at 25th Avenue. Most of us are familiar with research reflecting the stress-reducing qualities of yoga. When paired with the sound of crashing waves, salty air and the feel of sand between your toes – along with a group of happy people – you’re already winning the day.

Tuesday morning Beach Yoga is an all-levels class focusing on strength, balance, endurance and flexibility. The class is led by Kathy Berry, who is RYT-500 certified and teaches at the IOP Rec Department, offering private and small group sessions. She is dedicated to sharing her passion because yoga’s philosophies have helped her navigate the inevitable imbalances of her life.

It’s time to unfurl your mat in preparation to embark on a journey of wellness and serenity to set you right for the day ahead. Grab a friend, a towel, a mat or all or none of the above, and get your toes in the sand to find your favorite yoga pose. You’ll leave feeling invigorated and connected to both your body and the natural world. Plus, it’s one of those bucket list activities, so why not go ahead and check the box?

If inclement weather threatens, Beach Yoga classes will be held in the Magnolia room at the Isle of Palms Recreation Center, located at 24 28th Ave.

“Community is the fabric of human society; it’s what holds us together in times of need and celebrates with us in times of joy.

— UNKNOWN

Photo by John Llewellyn Cottingham.

Photo by John Llewellyn Cottingham.

SEA STROLL & LEARN

7:30 a.m. at 25th Avenue

Second Thursday of each month

May through November

South Carolina offers an abundance of natural wonders and the opportunity to learn all about a thriving ecosystem. Sea Stroll & Learn is an educational series held monthly for those interested in finding out about the many natural mysteries of the Lowcountry. Each month will feature a field expert who walks and talks with like-minded individuals during a casual stroll in the sand. Each month is different, so repeat offenders are welcome.

June will cover common South Carolina coastal birds, including shore birds, wading birds and birds of prey – and where to find them, their habitat and how best to interact with them. Abbi Cochran of Coastal Expeditions will lead the way, with a mission to educate anyone interested in expanding their awareness on how best to cohabitate with our diverse landscape.

The Island Turtle Team takes over in July, with Mary Pringle, who has been a valuable member of the team for more than 20 years. On this stroll, she’ll talk about the role of the team and what they do as volunteers, while discussing nesting facts, hatching behaviors and characteristics, predators and how we can respect this delicate species. During last year’s stroll, there was an opportunity to see the team in action relocating loggerhead eggs that would have otherwise been flooded out. Pringle reveals, “There were so many questions. The participants also got to see how we take DNA samples for each nest in order to identify the mother turtle. It was

perfect timing.”

Cochran and Coastal Expeditions continue the series in August by rocking the reptiles. She’ll bring bones and pieces of tetrapods, including alligators and other reptiles found in our waters. September goes “under the sea” to talk about fish, including sharks, stingrays and other marine mammals, including our beloved dolphins. Barrier islands are October’s topic. Since many of us live on one and are surrounded on all sides, it’s important to understand their role – specifically, when it comes to the powerful storms that often impact us. Cochran will discuss why our barrier islands play such a large role when nature hits our doorstep and also touch on the surrounding islands, what each contributes and their role in our environment. Lastly, we’ll take a look at creatures in the sand. On the final stroll in November, participants will have an opportunity to learn about invertebrates, which don’t have a backbone, as well as echinoderms, urchins, starfish and sand dollars, plus gastropods and Bivalvia – oysters and clams or, simply put, creatures that live in seashells.

The more we know about where we live, the better we can cohabitate respectfully and safely. When you care about something, you learn about it, and Sea Stroll & Learn is the perfect opportunity to gain knowledge and ask all the questions you can think of about life in the Lowcountry.

Photo courtesy of the IOP Rec Department.

Photo by Barbara Bergwerf.

FARMERS MARKET AND FOOD TRUCK JAM

4

p.m. to 7 p.m. at the IOP Recreation Department

Third Thursday of the Month

June through October

The Isle of Palms Farmers Market has come a long way from the days of volunteers leading the charge to the IOP Recreation Department taking over in 2021. Recreation Director Karrie Ferrell took on the assignment a few years ago, and, at that time, “we had about 20 to 30 vendors and now we have over 70.” The success comes from the community’s support and desire to have more options available on the island, especially in the busier months, when leaving the island can be overwhelming.

“If you build it, they will come” is an understatement relative to what the community can look forward to this summer. Assistant Director Tammy Cox was passed the baton last year and has helped the Farmers Market flourish. “This year, we’ll have over 70 vendors, more food trucks and music from the Blue Plantation Band and the Travis Allison Band, plus a surprise DJ sprinkled in for September’s IOP Emergency Services Safety Event.”

There’s an option to suit every interest and extend another first-class, free event to our island community. Each month, the market delivers a little something special. The shaded grounds of IOP’s Recreation Department offer a reprieve from the heat. Under the oaks, participants will find fresh foods, fruits and vegetables, arts and crafts vendors, specialty foods, shopping, face painting, balloon art, fairy hair, take-n-bake foods and on and on. The Farmers Market will be canceled only if there is extreme weather.

Vendors who have participated for many years are now thriving, thanks in part to the success of the market. Bella Mack Jewelry owner Molly Hatfield explains: “The Isle of Palms Farmers Market is one of my favorite places to be a vendor. My jewelry is inspired by treasures in the sand, and the market is a great place to meet people who share a love of the beach. The turnout is great, and it’s helped grow so many small businesses.” The trend of promoting local artisans continues; June’s market will feature community businesses, highlighting their goods and services, including a fine art exhibit by local artists Mimi Wood and Giselle Harrington.

The IOP Farmers Market is an event developed from the community’s wishes and fueled by its enthusiasm. It falls in line with the vision of what the IOP Recreation Department’s mission is, Ferrell says: “We want to deliver what’s best for our residents.” SiP

VIBES & VOCALS

Musician Marci Shore takes a tour through the live music scene on the Isle of Palms and Sullivan’s Island.

COCONUT JOE’S BEACH GRILL coconutjoesbeachgrill.com 1120 Ocean Blvd., Isle of Palms, 843.886.0046

Vibe - Serving up dining with a view since 1997, there’s also Tequila Ted’s Rooftop Bar – quite possibly the most scenic spot in the Charleston area to listen to music with the ocean breeze in your face and the sunset behind. There’s an assortment of satisfying fried food, as well as salads topped with chicken, mahi and shrimp. Pimento cheese grits and Southern style green beans with bacon are some uniquely Southern sides. This is the fourth season of Joe’s new beachside bar, Colada Swings, featuring hammocks where you can socialize, sip and swing with sand between your toes.

Vocals - Tequila Ted’s Rooftop Bar hosts music Wednesday through Sunday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. More time slots may be added as the season progresses. Rotating acts include instrumentalist Chris Tidestrom on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

THE DINGHY TAPROOM

AND KITCHEN

dinghyiop.com, 8 J C Long Blvd. Isle of Palms, 843.242.8310

Vibe - Many locals describe the Dinghy as a casual dive bar with some eclectic menu items and a sophisticated craft beer selection. The menu includes wings with a variety of flavors, alligator bites and sweet potato fries. They have a kids menu and sides that include hummus and veggies and fried plantains. Drink specials on weekdays from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Vocals - Live music seven days a week, typically featuring a mix of acoustic folk/ country solo, duo or trio acts from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. No cover. Rotating groups include soulful songwriter Mel Washington, multigenre performer Dave Landeo, fun favorites by the Jeff Bateman Duo, solo rocker Donnie Polk and husband-and-wife duo Gracious Day, among others. The online music calendar is updated regularly.

PAPI’S TAQUERIA

papisiop.com, 1012 Ocean Blvd. Isle of Palms, 843.926.7274

Vibe - Papi’s boasts a rooftop bar with beach views. Taco Tuesday features $5 house margaritas, $5 Mexican beers and 25% off all Cachita’s Tacos all day long. The restaurant is a collaboration between Wyatt Durrette, who has penned many No. 1 hits for the Zac Brown Band, and Rusty Hamlin, the executive chef for the Zac Brown Band. Creative tacos include a sesame seared tuna taco, a Nashville hot chicken variety, a chorizo meatball taco and a pork belly, sunny side up and sweet potato taco. Locally sourced seafood tacos and specialty margaritas are a good reason to check out Papi’s. They have a rotating mix of Mexican beers and local beers on tap and a variety of top-shelf tequilas. There’s a children’s menu and a menu attachment listing all possible allergens, making Papi’s a go-to spot for everyone.

Vocals - Weekly music is admittedly “random” in terms of days and times, says the manager. The genres range from rock and reggae to singer-songwriter and country. The restaurant also features a pop-up songwriters’ series and a new pop-up comedy series. Follow Papi’s on social media for the latest announcements. Durrette might even pop up for surprise performances on occasion.

THE REFUGE

refugeiop.com, 1517 Palm Blvd. Isle of Palms, 843.242.8934

Vibe - The Refuge is classy, quaint and come-as-you-are all at the same time. With a full list of barista classics, signature whipped coffee blends and a hot tea menu, the breakfast and brunch menu includes pan -

The stage in Islander 71’s outdoor courtyard is the venue for a variety of musical acts and also offers plenty of room to dance.

cakes topped with berries, steak and eggs, and shrimp and grits, among other options. There is steakhouse night on Tuesdays, prime rib night on Thursdays and lobster night each Sunday, and bingo and taco night on Mondays, with prizes to winners. The Refuge lives up to its name as a place to seek comfort morning, noon and night.

Vocals - Live music on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. and for Sunday brunch. The music tends to have a “chill” vibe and usually includes acoustic covers of Indy/Americana artists or acoustic versions of songs from many genres. The Sunday brunch vocal vibe is usually a solo or duo act.

SMUGGLER’S-ISLAND EATS & RUM SHACK

smugglersiop.com, 1122 Ocean Blvd. Isle of Palms, 843.885.7009

Vibe - This is Smugglers’ third year in business after taking over the former location of Island Joe’s coffee and ice cream hut. It has outdoor bar seating mostly, with a few tables on the patio. Every Tuesday is Kenny’s Fried Chicken day. Mondays feature half-priced smashburgers and Sundays feature rotating app and drink specials. They claim to have the best brunch on the island, and they’re proudly dog friendly.

Vocals - There is no set schedule for live music, but you are likely to find a multigenre mix of live entertainment on the patio throughout the season, including local singer/ songwriter Dave Landeo and steel drum island sounds from Sam McCoy. The best place to find music announcements is on Smugglers’ Facebook page. No cover for live music.

THE WINDJAMMER

the-windjammer.com, 1008 Ocean Blvd., Isle of Palms, 843.886.8596

Vibe - The “Jammer” is a legend locally and on the East Coast, known as being perhaps the best beach bar. They have resisted the trend to raise prices very much, and you can still get a cheeseburger and brew without breaking the bank. There are pool tables, beach volleyball and the Budweiser Bikini Bash on Sundays to liven up the weekend. In business for over 50 years, it is a must-see for newcomers to the area.

Vocals - It’s double the fun for live music at the Jammer with the addition of its outdoor stage within earshot of the surf, sponsored by NUTRL Vodka Seltzer this year. The outdoor music starts at 6 p.m., and, if there is a concert indoors, the doors open at 9 p.m., with the concert starting at 10 p.m. The Jammer is known for helping launch the careers of nationally known acts such as Hootie and the Blowfish and Edwin McCain.

Scheduled to appear outside on the NUTRL Beach Stage: Steve Earle; Rumours ATL – a Fleetwood Mac tribute band; Drivin N Cryin; Collie Buddz; Wilderado; The Stews; Moon Taxi with Claire Wright; Futurebirds; Corey Smith; Niko Moon; Yacht Rock Revue; Edwin McCain; Bumpin Uglies and Ballyhoo; Stop Light Observations; The Vegabonds; Dispatch; SUSTO; Muscadine

Bloodline; and St. Paul & the Broken Bones.

DUNLEAVY’S IRISH PUB

dunleavysonsullivans.com 2213 Middle St., Sullivan's Island, 843.883.9646

Vibe - The pub had its start with a brother and sister’s dream of co-owning an Irish restaurant. Dunleavy’s is known for its loyal, local clientele and is the only place around to get a proper pint of Guinness. Acclaimed for its burgers, grilled wings and rotating blue plate specials, it recently added more gourmet fare with a new chef onboard. Each year on New Year’s Day, Dunleavy’s raises money for the Special Olympics with its Polar Bear Plunge. Free popcorn. No fried foods. Cash only.

Vocals - During the summer, there may be some weekends with a solo or duo act, but, more predictably, there is the long-running “Vintage Country Night” the first Tuesday of each month. Seats fill up early for these shows, so arrive by 7 p.m. for a good spot. Lowcountry Music Hall of Fame vocalist/ guitarist Carroll Brown brings his own local following along with his three-piece band and guest performers. He often plays late into the night, accommodating requests.

HOME TEAM BBQ

hometeambbq.com, 2209 Middle St. Sullivan's Island, 843.883.3131

Vibe - Fiery Ron’s famous barbecue can be found in seven locations, including one in Aspen, Colorado. The Sullivan’s restaurant was the original and is located in the building formerly housed by the island’s iconic bar –Bert’s. If you’ve tried their pulled pork plates and wings, you know what has helped Home Team to spread nationwide. The crowd is always a lively mixture of the young and young at heart, and it may be the most popular spot on Sullivan’s to watch your favorite team. The Gamechanger frozen cocktail is legendary, and there is a new frozen drink –the Frozen Irish Coffee – featuring Tullamore D.E.W., coffee, cacao nibs and sea salt.

Vocals - Music returns in May, with one concert a month planned for the summer season, including artists Black Dawg; Ryan Bonner and The Dearly Beloved; Something Different From…Jordan Igoe; and Holler Choir. Every Tuesday is Team Trivia Night.

MEX 1 COASTAL CANTINA

mex1coastalcantina.com/sullivansisland, 2205 Middle St., Sullivan's Island, 843.882.8172

Vibe - With three locations in the Charleston area, Mex 1 features Tex-Mex cuisine with a surf bar theme. Salsas, sauces and dressings are made in-house daily. Freshly squeezed juices and 100% Blue Agave tequila are used in all margaritas. Tacos, salads, quesadillas, brown rice bowls and house-infused margaritas are menu highlights. The upstairs patio and outdoor bar seating offer a great late night space to catch a breeze and watch fellow bar hoppers stroll by down below.

Vocals - Mex 1 Cantina hosts live music Friday nights from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. with fan

favorites like Jaykob Kendrick, who plays everything from the Beatles to the Black Crowes, the five-piece dance and party band, Return of the Mac, popular covers by Chief Brody and Americana music by Hans Wenzel.

THE CO-OP

Thecoopsi.com, 2019 Middle St. Sullivan’s Island, 843-882-8088

Vibe - The Co-Op started as a place to grab and go with coffee, a breakfast sandwich, a turkey club or a bottle of beer, but once they cranked up the fruity frose adult slush puppy machines several years back, this end of the Middle Street commercial district has never been the same. The Co-Op now has seven locations. Pour yourself a $1 drip coffee in the morning and add an avocado toast or heart-healthy egg sandwich with cheddar, spinach and hummus. There is a rotating cast of flavors, and there are flights and to-go containers as well. Note that alcoholic beverages are not allowed on the beaches of either Sullivan’s Island or the Isle of Palms.

Vocals - Guitarist and singer Chris Cordaro performs inside at the Co-Op every Friday from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Chris’ jam sessions on the island are legendary, and they bring out many of the artsy locals who either want to sing along or play along as guest performers. Bring an instrument or a song you want to sing, but, most importantly, bring your desire to have a good time.

ISLANDER 71

Islander71.com, 80 41st Ave. Isle of Palms, 843-885-6463

Vibe - At the former Morgan Creek Grill location, Islander 71 brings back dining on the rooftop overlooking the Intracoastal Waterway, as well as the more private dining area on the ground floor. The restaurant’s name is a tip of the hat to the IOP island life of the 1970s, and the menu items are inspired by simple beach fare of that era, including fresh salads, she-crab soup, a chilled shrimp cocktail app, fried seafood platters and burgers. The multilevel establishment boasts three outdoor decks, a courtyard and two outdoor bar areas to watch ships passing through or the sun going down. The space is available to rent out for private events.

Vocals - Live music throughout the season on Fridays and Saturdays from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., featuring classic rock, fun, popular covers, jazz and a rotating ensemble of acts performing country, funk and Americana, as well an occasional DJ spinning tunes. The outdoor courtyard has a small stage with plenty of dance room. There is music on some Sundays, as well on some holidays. Check their website and Facebook page for current updates. SiP

CALENDAR

Ongoing Events

Lifeguarded Beaches

Isle of Palms County Park is lifeguarded on weekends beginning May 13 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Beginning June 7, lifeguards are on duty daily through mid-August and weekends through the last weekend in September.

IOP Beach Sweeps

Isle of Palms Beach Cleanup Crew holds weekly litter sweeps during the beach season on Monday nights (6 p.m. to 7 p.m.) and Wednesday mornings (7 a.m. to 8 a.m.), Memorial Day through Labor Day. In the off-season, they are held the second Monday of the month, 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. No advance registration is required. For more information, email susanhillsmith@gmail.com.

Mount Pleasant Farmers Market

Discover South Carolina-grown produce and local food vendors while enjoying live music. Tuesdays, 3:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., April through September on Coleman Boulevard, next to Moultrie Middle School. ExperienceMountPleasant.com.

IOP Farmers Market

Enjoy local produce and arts and crafts, every Thursday, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., June through October on the front lawn of the Recreation Center, located at 24 28th Ave. iop.net.

Sunshine Academy

Aug. 13, 2024 – May 29, 2025, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to noon. The Isle of Palms Recreation Department will offer a play and learn curriculum-based program for children ages 3 and 4. Iop.net.

May 2024

Spoleto Festival

The annual international performing arts festival returns for its 46th season, running May 22 through June 9. Spoletousa.org, 843.579.3100.

IOP Bike Rodeo

May 20 at 10 a.m. The IOP Rec Department hosts this free event for all ages that focuses on teaching proper bike safety. There will be giveaways for new bikes and helmets, along with free snacks, snow cones and water. Register in-person or online at the Recreation Center, 24 28th Ave., iop.net/recreation, 843.884.7031.

June 2024

Sand Sculpting Competition

Saturday, June 1 at 9 a.m. Registration at 8:30 a.m. Front Beach Isle of Palms behind public restrooms and Coconut Joe’s. For more information, call the Recreation Department at 843.886.8294 or email sandsculptures4fun@yahoo.com.

Floppin’ Flounder 5K Run/Walk

This community-wide group run hosted by the Charleston Running Club has had a faithful following for more than 25 years. It takes place Saturday, June 8, at 8 a.m. and starts in front of the Sullivan’s Island Elementary School. Registration is $45. floppinflounder.com.

Sullivan’s Island Fire Department Fish Fry

The annual Sullivan’s Island Fire Department Fish Fry will make a comeback after two years of absence due to COVID. The fundraising event will be held on the evening of June 22 at the Fish Fry Shack, 1459 Hennessy St.

Carolina Day Recognition

Battery Gadsden Cultural Center’s annual Carolina Day recognition on the plaza in front of Sullivan’s Island Town Hall. Speakers will be followed by the raising of the Moultrie flag. Check BatteryGadsden.com for this year’s date.

Battle of Sullivan’s Island Musket and Artillery Demonstrations

Fort Moultrie National Historical Park observes the anniversary of the Battle of Sullivan’s Island, known locally as Carolina Day, on June 22 and June 23 with ranger talks and cannon firing demonstrations. 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., nps.gov/fosu.

July 2024

Fourth of July Golf Cart/Bicycle Parade Deck out your golf cart or bicycle for this annual parade celebrating America’s independence. Start at the Sullivan’s Island Elementary School; end at Stith Park. Meet at SI Elementary. The parade begins at 9 a.m.

Fourth of July BBQ at Wild Dunes Resort

Enjoy live music and the best barbecue around at the Fourth of July BBQ on the Village Plaza. 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. seatings, $40/ adults, $15/kids, $23/drinks package. Book online at destinationhotels.com/wild-dunes/ events/4th-of-july-bbq.

Isle of Palms Beach Run

On July 27, choose from a Youth Fun Run, 5K or 10K run, or a 5K walk on the beach. Start at The Windjammer, 1008 Ocean Blvd., at 8 a.m. Registration closes July 26. Race day registration and packet pickup begins at 7 a.m. at The Windjammer. Race starts at 8 a.m. iop.net/recreation, 843.886.8294, raceroster.com.

August 2024

National Lighthouse Day

A special ranger program on the Charleston Light and the Historic U.S. Life Saving Station District will be held on Aug. 7 at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. at the Life Saving Station at 1807 Atlantic Ave., Sullivan’s Island. nps.gov/fosu.

Half Rubber Tournament

This annual tournament takes place at the IOP Recreation Center on Saturday, Aug. 10. Register by calling Aaron Sweet at 843.886.8294 or email asweet@iop. net. Three and four-person teams, $25 per person. Check-in/captain’s meeting at 7:30 a.m.; games begin at 8 a.m. halfrubber.com.

September 2024

Beach Sweep

The National Park Service participates in the 34th annual cleanup of South Carolina’s beaches on Sept. 21. Volunteers are encouraged. Meet at the Fort Moultrie Visitor Center at 9:30 a.m. nps.gov/fosu. Join your community and country in a clean outdoors.

October

2024

Community Wellness Fair

Free cholesterol screen/blood test and vaccines, Friday, Oct. 4, 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the IOP Recreation Center. Games and prizes will be given away throughout the event. Over 20 local health care professionals and health-related vendors will be available to answer questions and allow participants to become familiar with the services that are available in the area.

Isle of Palms Connector Run & Walk

Fundraiser for the IOP Exchange Club’s programs for the healing and prevention of child abuse takes place Oct. 5 at 8 a.m. IOP Connector. Registration is $35 or $40 on the day of the race. ioprun.com.

Fire Prevention Celebration

Look for a SI/IOP parade of engines in October at the Sullivan’s Island Fire House, 2050 Middle St., Sullivan’s Island.

Ghostly Tide Tales

Bring a blanket, flashlight, chairs and friends for spooky stories by bonfire light on the beach at Isle of Palms, Friday, Oct. 19, 38th Ave. Free. iop.net/recreation.

IOP Halloween Golf Cart Parade

The parade starts at 11 a.m., lineup at 10:30 a.m. at 27th Avenue. Pre-register at IOP Recreation Department, 24 28th Ave. Check the website for date: iop.net/recreation.

November 2024

Art on the Beach/Chefs in the Kitchen

The annual fundraising event for Charleston Pro Bono Legal Services takes place Sunday, Nov. 10, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Tour Sullivan’s Island homes, see art from local artists and eat dishes prepared by Charleston chefs. Charlestonprobono.org/artonthebeach.

Blessing of First Responders and Veterans

Saturday, Nov. 2, at 11 a.m. St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, 300 Palm Blvd., Isle of Palms.

Wild Dunes Resort Thanksgiving Golf Cart Parade

Golf cart parade down Palmetto Drive on Thursday, Nov. 28, at 10 a.m. The parade starts in front of the Swim Center and is led by the Isle of Palms Fire Department and followed by Santa Claus. This parade is fun for drivers and spectators alike. Rent a cart for $40.

December 2024

IOP Holiday Festival

Celebrate the season on Front Beach, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. Enjoy the 25-foot Christmas tree, arts and crafts vendors, food trucks, children’s activities and live entertainment, plus a visit from Santa Claus. iop.net/holiday-street-festival.

Sullivan’s Island Holiday Fireworks

Light up the night at Sullivan’s Island Stith Park, 2050 Middle St. on Dec. 7. Enjoy a fireworks display, the Wando Chorus and the lighting of the town holiday lights. Sullivansisland-sc.com.

Owls By Moonlight

The Center for Birds of Prey in Awendaw hosts an evening in the nocturnal world of owls on Dec. 5. This program includes a reception with refreshments and experiences with nearly 14 different species of owls. $125. thecenterforbirdsofprey.org.

January 2025

Dunleavy’s Polar Bear Plunge

“We’re freezin’ for a reason.” Jump into the chilly waters of the Atlantic on Jan. 1. Meet at 2 p.m., 2213 Middle St., Sullivan’s Island, dunleaveyspubpolarplunge.com, 843.795.5316.

Charlie Post Classic 15K/5K

Charleston Running Club hosts the 39th annual Charlie Post Classic 15K and 5K on Jan., 25. Start is 8:30 a.m. in front of the Sullivan’s Island Fire Department, 2050 Middle St. charlestonrunningclub.com.

February 2025

Southeastern Wildlife Expo

SEWE is a three-day showcase of everything we love about wildlife, nature and artistic representations of them. Various locations, Feb. 14 through Feb. 16. sewe.com.

March 2025

Front Beach Fest

Look for this annual party on IOP’s Front Beach, celebrating the start of the season with local musicians, food vendors, jump castles and other entertainment. Free admission. iop.net. 843.886.8294.

Credit One Charleston Open

The professional women’s tennis tournament returns to the Charleston Tennis Center at the Credit One Stadium on Daniel Island from March 29 to April 6. Watch world-class tennis and enjoy fun family activities at this long-running event. creditonecharlestonopen.com.

April 2025

46th Annual Cooper River Bridge Run

The annual run across the Ravenel Bridge takes place April 5. A world-class 10K foot race that begins in Mount Pleasant and ends in downtown Charleston. bridgerun.com.

Isle of Palms Annual Yard Sale

Residents of IOP sell their gently used items in an island-wide yard sale at the IOP Rec Center in mid-April. iop.net or call 843.886.8294.

Isle of Palms Easter Egg Hunt

Hunt eggs and get your photo with the Easter Bunny at 10 a.m. sharp. IOP Rec Center, 24 28th Ave. iop.net/recreation.

Lighting the Way

“Charleston Light,” officially the Sullivan’s Island Lighthouse, is among the barrier islands’ most popular photo opportunities for visitors and locals alike – and for professional photographers such as Doug Barnard. Built in the early 1960s to replace the Morris Island Lighthouse, it was originally painted white and bright orange, but, according to the town of Sullivan’s Island website, “After some complaints, however, about the glaring orange hue that could be viewed from almost anywhere in town, the orange was repainted to a more discreet black.”

Photo by Doug Barnard

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