NOVEMBER 23 - 29, 2017
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COVERING BEAUFORT COUNTY
New foundation recognizes past, looks to future
little ones
GIVE THANKS
By Sally Mahan
Too often, young people are victims of being stereotyped as undisciplined, rebellious and defiant. But the reality is that there are many, many teens in Beaufort County who make good choices, who are motivated, creative, responsible and concerned about making their community a better place to live. The question is, how do you take those qualities and develop future leaders? A group of prominent community leaders in Beaufort County has been formed to do just that. The Foundation for Education Excellence was created in August to identify and support future leaders and to recognize leaders in the community who are setting or have set an example for young people. According to Dan Durbin, head of school at Beaufort Academy and a board member of The Foundation for Education Leadership, the idea for the foundation came about after several local leaders had a discussion about recognizing, supporting and developing young leaders from public and private schools throughout Beaufort County. “Part of our conversation early on was about leadership in this county,” Durbin said. “We knew we had to get programs in place that teach young people organizational development, leadership and other things so that when they leave us they will have the foundation to be leaders in college and beyond.” Several very prominent community leaders are on the board, including people like Durbin; W. Charles Tumlin, of Tumlin Levin and Sumner Wealth Management; and Alice Beddingfield Moss, the former executive director of the Beaufort Memorial Hospital Foundation, among others. There are currently seven board members, and the goal is to bring that number up to nine. “We really wanted folks who make or have made a big difference in the community,” said Durbin. He said that after much dis-
Parker Mitchell, center, portrayed the “minister” and shouts “HALLELUJAH” during his class’ song.
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eaufort Academy Preschool held its annual Thanksgiving play entitled “The Pilgrims Come to America” on Nov. 20. The traditional play came complete with pilgrim men, women, turkeys, corn and Native Americans. Following the play the children invited their family and friends indoors for a roasted turkey lunch with all the Thanksgiving fixings. For more pictures, see page A7. Photos by Bob Sofaly.
Community Thanksgiving
Wild turkeys from Angela Barnes’ 2-year-olds class shout “Gobble, Gobble” during the annual Beaufort Academy Preschool play.
The Native Americans from Melissa Meinel’s fourth-grade class helped the pilgrims by showing them how to plant corn.
COMMUNITY THANKSGIVING There are two community Thanksgiving dinners around town on the holiday: • 11 a.m., Union Baptist Church Community Thanksgiving Dinner, Fellowship Hall, 1708 Old Shell Road,
Port Royal. All are welcome to this free Thanksgiving dinner. For more information, call 843524-8604. • Church of St. Helena Community Thanksgiving Dinner, The Parish Church of St. Hel-
ena parish hall, 507 Newcastle St., Beaufort; worship service: 11 a.m., dinner from noon-2 p.m., take-away dinner from 9 a.m. to noon. For more information, call 843-522-1712 or visit www.sthelenas1712.org
CHRISTMAS
GIFT GUIDE
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Queen of The Sea Islands
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Following are this year’s Foundation for Education Excellence winners of the Lowcountry Lifetime Achievement Awards: • Dr. Charles Aimar • Dr. Emory Campbell • Henry Chambers • Charles Fraser • Richard and Joyce Gray • Brantley Harvey • Russell Jeter • Harriet and Dr. Herbert Keyserling • Dr. Lawrence Rowland • Agnes Sherman • Laura Towne • Dr. Elijah Washington
cussion, the group talked about specific ways to help develop leadership in young people. “We talked about things we would really like to happen to promote leadership among young people, like providing college scholarships and helping them go to leadership conferences.” “We might be able to raise money for a dinner to recognize students, but to raise money for scholarships you have to do more than that,” said Durbin. “So after that, we realized that now we need a foundation.” He added that the group would also like to create a youth leadership conference, maybe every other year, for young people throughout South Carolina, Florida and Georgia. “We would like to bring in speakers so that the kids can hear and learn from their experiences,” said Durbin. “Having a foundation allows us to bring all these missions together into one.” Durbin added that it’s important that the foundation has geographical representation. “We want to make sure North of the Broad and South of the Broad are both well represented. As leaders we want to make sure that as a community people will look at it and say, ‘That’s good stuff.’ ” The foundation will hold its first banquet on Jan. 5 at Tabby House, where 12 local leaders See FUTURE, page A7
INSIDE
GRATEFUL FOR LIFE They say timing is everything, and for Mike Binkowski, timing saved his life.
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AND THE WINNERS ARE …
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