SAVE THE DATE
Friday June 27th - Founders Night
Spring Lake Pavillion - Hilton Head Plantation
More details to come
RECENT MEETINGS
May 13
This year's scholarship winner, Mia Diamond was in attendance. Mia thanked the club and shared her plans to study Finance aat USC.
Previous scholarship winner Chris Crosby is on summer break and updated us on his school year. Chris is doing well but is not doing an internship this summer as he has done in the past. He is studying sports entertainment and is considering studying law to branch into the sports managements area. Wonderful to see Chris.
Speaker was Roy Austing who is the founder and president of Libraries for Kids International.
The mission of Libraries for Kids International is to help rural schools with limited resources establish libraries, broadening educational opportunitities for their students. The situation is dire in some communitites, often 20 students must share 1 book. Books for Africa has shipped over 62 million books since 1988. The impact has been: enrollment is up; scores are up; students come in early to read The vision is to help all rural schools in Kenya, benefitting 5 million children. Long term vision is to send books to 55 countries. They raise money through donations- it costs about $.63 to get one book to a school so a $100 donation funds 160 books! Volunteers are needed to help awareness, sharing information and speaking. You can learn more by visiting libraries4kids.org
May 20
John Farrenkopf and John Cummingham were recognized with certificates for being members of the End Polio Now Society.
Speaker Valentrina Palacio presented interesting information about Storm water.
What is stormwater runoff? It is rainfall that flows over the ground surface. It is created when rain falls on impervious surfaces that prevent the water from soaking into the ground. Such surfaces are: parking lots, streets, driveways and roof tops. It is the #1 cause of stream impairment in urban areas. Everything that goes into the storm drains comes out in our marshes. This includes pollutants going into the marshes - like fertilizers, oil and chemicals leaking from cars, pet waste bacteria. This can harm aquatic organism and cause humans and land animals to become ill. Our proximity to the coast causes our problems to be more impactful. Best practice solutions include rain gardens, retention ponds, permeable pavements, public education, proper disposal of hazardous waste, minimizing impervious surfaces. Residents can help by planting native plants, reduce impervious surfaces and use fertilizers sparingly. Visit www.beaufortcountysc.gov/stormwater website for more information
May 27
Amber Kuehn from the Sea Turtle Patrol was our speaker
The Sea Turtlle Patrol provides monitoring, support and awareness of sea turtle nesting to promote the continued existence of these endangered species. This is the 27th season that the patrol had been checking the nexts at 5 am on the beach. This year, on May 27, there are more than 50 nests already. The average number of nests in a year is 411.
New beach regulations which are geared to protect the turtles are: Only small plastic shovels are allowed; dig holes less than 1 foot deep, fill them when you are done, and remove all personal property by sunset. This is in addition to the lights out rules.
Fill it Forward is another new program - which is 3 easy steps to help sea turtle peservation - 1. fill your reusable bottle, 2. scan the code (sticker on the bottle) 3. give it (every time you reuse, donation made).- get the Fill it Forward app for free (Hilton Head Island Chamber invested in the app), place the sticker on your water bottle and scan every time you fill it - support the turtles and the environment.
Don't forget Amber does turtle talks every Monday night in June, July and August at Celebration Park
President Jacob pulled the winners of our Spring Raffle. Winners are:
1 - Kevin Courtney; 2. Nancy Riedel; 3. Dean Huntley; 4. Elizabeth Arbie
The club made (so far as there is still some outstanding money) $9850 from the raffle.
June 3
Speaker on June 3 was Amanda O'Nan - from the Heritage Academy.
Heritage Academy received the highest SCISA and COGNIA Accreditation score in all 30 standards, topping all private schools in the state.. This year's enrollment of 137 students in grades 6 through 12, had a graduating class of 29. The goal of the Academy is to "graduate a life champion - one who demonstrates academic excellence, a zest for life and strong character" According to Ms. O'Nan, every kid must develop a passion. The school is unique in many ways which allows the student to follow their passion while getting a quality education and credits for further education. Teachers just want to teach and all the teachers (24 ) are independent contractors. No class is larger than 15, average student/teacher ratio is 5:1, there are 7 athletics teams, 7 clubs and organization, and 8th grade students are eligible for high school credits. The Academy also is a dual enrollment affiliate with USCB and Technical College of the Lowcountry. It is the only school in the state that is for profit. Learn more about this awesome school at: heritageacademy.org