Oh What A Night!  The Rotary Club of the Lowcountry held their year end annual Change of Watch celebration on June 27th with a great crowd of members and friends.  We had a cocktail reception followed by a delicious buffet provided by Jim & Nick’s BarBQ.  

Our program followed with much fanfare, led by President, Pinky Harriott:
Katz ( Katsuhiro Fujino) was honored as Rotarian of the Year - a much deserved award as he has exemplified Service Above Self - being involved with almost every volunteer opportunity available.

Kerry Bunton, Foundation Director and Assistant District Governor, presented Kathy Crowley with her 5th Paul Harris recognition;  her husband, Doug, pinned her with her new PH pin.  Kathy is a true mentor, serving as Club Service Chair, and a member of the Paul Harris Society. 

Scott Shipsey (with his wife, Dawn, by his side) was sworn in as the new President by Kerry Bunton - Pinky was all smiles as she passed the gavel to Scott!  Scott presented the Rotary International Theme for 2025-26: " Unite for Good.”  He also highlighted his “wish list” for the club for the upcoming year; and he praised Dawn for always being a great assistant/helper with so many of our functions and activities.   

We closed out our evening with the Four Way Test. Another fantastic year has come to a close, and a new one begins!   

 

How exciting to recently welcome four new members to our club — Olivia Richardson, Jodie Martinez, Drew Smith and Scott Marshall. Membership Chair Chuck Raynor had the pleasure of inducting them. They are here, pictured with their sponsors and spouses along with club President, Pinky Harriott.

At a recent Friday morning meeting, we were honored to have Dr Marie Julie Gibbs of the Penn Center Museum (and her husband) present a wonderful and informative program. Thanks to
Matt D'Angelo for making the arrangement.
 

Randy Otto presented President Pinky with a flag from his former club, Rotary Club of Lake Mills, Wisconsin, which he recently visited. It is a great custom to do a flag exchange between Clubs.  

Kerry Bunton, Foundation Director, recognized Randy Otto with a Paul Harris pin/designation.

 

Thanks to Bill Suter for keeping us on task with Adopt A Highway, once monthly. Any and all are welcome to join in - March had a small but hardy crew!

What a great afternoon having fun with fellow club members enjoying an oyster roast at the home of Mark and Terri Stokes.  The weather was perfect for steaming/eating oysters, having a bowl of chili and enjoying great desserts.  About 30 people participated in a lowcountry tradition of Southern hospitality better known as eating, sipping and talking around a fire.

 

To top it off, a beautiful Southern Gates necklace was raffled off to raise funds for the CART fund.

Change of Watch Social was a huge success!  We enjoyed libations, a wonderful  meal of salad, shrimp and grits, baked chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans and a variety of pies.  
 

 President Bob Bible named two members as Rotarian of the Year - Doug Crowley and Terri Stokes (always an honor and a very humbling award).

 

 Kerry Bunton, Assistant District Governor installed Pinky Harriott as our Incoming President, along with the new Board of Directors.

 

We had a terrific year with many committees recognized by their Chairs.   We had several big accomplishments to be proud of with much participation from club members.  Happy Trails to Bob and Cheers to Pinky!!

The Show Must Go On!  Despite the rainy weather, the Interact Club and the Rotarians had their year end trash pick up and picnic at Whitehall Park.  Under the leadership of Cindy Lewis, the Interact Sponsor, and Dick Deuel, Rotary Sponsor - the Beaufort High School had a very active club.    The officers were engaged and dependable, active in our community and their school.  Bob Bible, President, presented the annual Scholarship winner to Annabelle Nelson - a big congratulations to Annabelle!

We were so fortunate to have Wendy Hilty, Master Gardener, speak to our club recently about flower gardening for our area.  She had such an informative and interesting program that many Rotarians said they could have listened for hours!  The good news is she writes a column for Island News and has written a book entitled Lowcountry Gardening for Newcomers.  Also, you might see her often at the Clemson Ext booth at the Port Royal Farmers Market.  Thanks to Terri Stokes for inviting Wendy!

We had a very interesting program led by Rebecca Burgess, the Executive Director of the Beaufort County Alcohol and Drug Abuse Dept.  It was very eye-opening to learn about drug overdose, and fentanyl, etc and how this can possibly happen to anyone!  We also learned about Narcan and how to use it.  We are so fortunate to have the prevention program available to our residents - I encourage you to ask them to come speak to your club!  It could be lifesaving.  Thanks to Jeff Althoff for inviting Rebecca to share this valuable information.
The Rotary Club Magazine had a very interesting article on this timely topic in the January 2024 edition.  I encourage you to read it.  

Did you have to do a double-take?

 

 

Our awesome club member, Randy Otto, performing as Winston Churchill for our regular meeting recently.    Bravo!! 👏👏

Scott Shipsey is having so much fun with Rotary Reader!! 
Scott has been actively reading with the school children at not one but three different schools — St Helena, Lady’s Island and Coosa Elementary Schools. 
If you would like to be a volunteer, see Scott for more information- it’s easy to sign up and so rewarding!