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JANUARY 4–10, 2024
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14th time is a charm
Hundreds turn out for FOHI’s annual Pelican Plunge
Hundreds of brave swimmers entered the cold surf at Hunting Island State Park during the annual Pelican Plunge on Monday, Jan. 1. Bob Sofaly/The Island News
LOWCOUNTRY LOWDOWN
By Bob Sofaly and Delayna Earley The Island News The Friends of Hunting Island held their 14th annual Pelican Plunge on Monday, Jan. 1, 2024, and by all accounts it was a huge success. Even the weather warmed up after the sun came out, though the water remained a chilly 55 degrees.
Sherri DeFoor, membership director for the Friends of Hunting Island State Park, said this year’s participating “plungers” exceeded last year’s count. “We had 452 registered plungers,” she said of the record-breaking turnout. There were 401 plungers in 2023. Briana Robles and her husband Brandon participated in the
plunge in 2023 for the first time and loved it so much that they came back again this year. “It was freezing. You could feel the tingling in your body as you got deeper into the water,” Robles said about the experience this year. “My husband managed to stay out in the freezing water for about 15 minutes, and I’m not sure
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Happy New Year!
LOLITA HUCKABY
So what does your 2024 calendar look like?
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BEAUFORT here’s something almost glorious … liberating about starting a new year with a brand-new wall calendar. The prospects of the next 365 days are laid out there in front of you, waiting to be filled with meetings and doctor’s appointments, birthday parties, weddings and project deadlines. True, the more sophisticated have their on-line calendars synched with watches and iPhones and other digital devices, but some of us rely on a paper calendar lying on the kitchen counter, or desktop, to tell us what the day or week schedule is like and what we should be doing. Reflecting on the past year in this community’s calendar, who would have predicted the city of Beaufort would have wound up with a new mayor after the former mayor called it quits. And the campaign that followed to find his replacement actually lasted less than two months before a very small number of city voters went to the polls and elected another new mayor for the next 11 months. We saw the city attorney step
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OOOHs” and “AHHHHs” could be heard throughout the crowd as a patriotic series of red, white and blue bursts showered the Beaufort River with pink light on Sunday night, Dec. 31, 2023. Hundreds of people of all ages braved the chilly weather and gathered at Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park to usher in the new year with a festive fireworks show. Bob Sofaly/The Island News
NEWS
ARTS
MILITARY
INSIDE
A marathon reading of the 1619 Project comes to Beaufort.
A musical celebration of life on Fripp Island.
New military museum to open in Sumter with $23 million in state aid.
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Lowcountry Life A2 News A2–7 Arts A7 Local Events A8 Sports A9 State News A10–11
Health A12–13 Military A14–15 Voices A16–17 Directory A18 Classifieds A19 Legals L1–8
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