Over the Christ­mas Hol­i­days,  a group of 20 Uni­ver­sity of Geor­gia stu­dents spent two full days of com­mu­nity ser­vice at BSH.  They are one team in UGA’s “Project Impact”, which is an alter­na­tive to Christ­mas and Spring break.  Not only were they an unbe­liev­able help , but were truly an inspi­ra­tion and “ener­gizer” for all of us.

They folded and orga­nized cloth­ing, loaded and unloaded boxes and boxes of food, and gen­er­ally kept every­one laugh­ing and enjoy­ing every minute they were with us.

At left if the note they pre­sented to us upon their departure.

We should be thank­ing YOU… Uni­ver­sity of Geor­gia students!

After our FOOD SOS went out yes­ter­day, we were delighted to arrive this morn­ing to a crew of sup­port­ers from Col­leton River Plan­ta­tion, who brought all of these fresh eggs! And, they aren’ t done. After see­ing the bare shelves, they headed off to stock up on cere­als.… As board mem­ber John Orth noted, “Mir­a­cles hap­pen every day. Some­times we just don’t rec­og­nize them.”

Thank you Col­leton River Supporters!

And for those of you out there who still want to help… please stop by with your food dona­tions! Thanks!

Amaz­ing things hap­pen when peo­ple in this com­mu­nity set a goal. And Berke­ley Hall’s Fri­day Morn­ing Men’s Golf Group is no exception.

With the prompt­ing and plan­ning of the group’s leader, Bill Tyler, they orga­nized their first annual Santa Claus Invi­ta­tional Golf Tour­na­ment to pro­vide toys to BLuffton Self Help for dis­tri­b­u­tion to chil­dren in need. Con­tinue Reading…

Thank You Super­cy­cles! Your gen­eros­ity in orga­niz­ing over a hun­dred rid­ers to bring toys to BSH today, with a police escort, was a fab­u­lous and appre­ci­ated event! In addi­tion to the 100 or so toys donated today, you also did a 50 / 50 raf­fle for us this morn­ing that raised a $1,000, and you haven’t stopped! You are still col­lect­ing dona­tions for another deliv­ery to BSH. We appre­ci­ate you so much!

From our Board Pres­i­dent Peter Brom­ley, “I know I speak for many of us there when I say how impressed and touched we were by this group.   Most all toured the build­ing and took time to ask us ques­tions and how they can help.  They were a great bunch of men and women from the area and the orga­nizer told me they already have plans to dou­ble the event next year!”

Brit­tany Shane, the WSAV TV reporter on loca­tion for the story, said, ” I was deeply touched by what hap­pened today and had “goose bumps and chills as I was film­ing the car­a­van arriv­ing with the police escort and all of you clap­ping and cheer­ing”.  A real Kodak, or should I say Fuji, moment!“
Donate directly to BSH: www.blufftonselfhelp.org

We thank our friends at Covert Air who are cur­rently spon­sor­ing a Canned Food Drive to ben­e­fit Bluffton Self Help. Covert Aire is a local busi­ness owned and oper­ated by Mike and Teresa Covert Air. Their motto has always been “Com­plete cus­tomer sat­is­fac­tion is not only our goal.….its OUR busi­ness”. Con­tinue Reading…

Inter­act Mem­bers pre­sent­ing Lili Cole­man with the Dona­tion. Front row: Wei Wang (Vice-President), Lili Cole­man (Exec­u­tive Direc­tor, Bluffton Self Help), Erica Bur­ton, Chris Davis (Pres­i­dent), Alex Bai­ley (Treasurer)

Inter­act Mem­bers serv­ing Jack Frost Ice Cream to cus­tomers at the Okatie Rotary Polo Match

Bluffton High Inter­act Donated $167.50 and sev­eral con­tain­ers of canned goods to Bluffton Self Help.  Most of the money was made at the Okatie Rotary Polo match thanks to Jack Frost Ice Cream’s gen­eros­ity, allow­ing Inter­act mem­bers to sell ice cream for a por­tion of the prof­its.  The remain­der of the dona­tion came dur­ing a canned food drive at Bluffton High the week before Thanksgiving.

We are for­tu­nate and grate­ful to work with Sec­ond Help­ings, a local orga­ni­za­tion who pro­vides us with fresh food sev­eral days a week. Because of Sec­ond Help­ings, we are able to pro­vide our clients with fresh meats and veg­eta­bles when­ever they are available.

Our deliv­ery today was quite unusual. We received so much less than expected; only 15 to 20 pack­ages of hot dogs or bologna were avail­able. Since we knew 150 peo­ple would be lin­ing up tomor­row for per­ish­able and non-perishable food, our con­cerns were ris­ing. We knew the best we would be able to offer is one can of tuna per family.

And then a Christ­mas angel appeared at BSH. At 3:15, a kind gen­tle­man names Char­lie Aslund arrived with four cool­ers of processed veni­son meat. His brother had shot three deer, so they decided they could process it and donate it to BSH. We received 240 pounds of ground veni­son from Char­lie and his brother, and we are so grate­ful! Char­lie reminded us that it is excel­lent for chili, cubed steaks and hot and mild sausage.

So every­one who wants it will have meat tomor­row. Thanks Charlie!

FWDG (The Fur­ni­ture Ware­house Design Gallery) of Beau­fort, has kicked off it’s 21^st annual Coat Drive – along with a goal of col­lect­ing 4,500 jack­ets, coats and sweaters to dis­trib­ute to needy in Beau­fort County. More than 37,000 gently-used coats have been dis­trib­uted to fam­i­lies in need since the annual project began 20 years ago.

Jack­ets, coats and sweaters can be dropped off at local col­lec­tion sites through Decem­ber 31. Bluffton Self Help will then dis­trib­ute the dona­tions to fam­i­lies in need.

“In these tough eco­nomic times, there are more and more local fam­i­lies who need help, and that includes help keep­ing warm through the win­ter,” said Larry Mark, pres­i­dent of Fur­ni­ture Ware­house Design Gallery, also known as FWDG.

“Recy­cling jack­ets, coats and sweaters is good for our envi­ron­ment, but more impor­tantly, it’s good for our com­mu­nity. The econ­omy has put thou­sands of fam­i­lies in a posi­tion where a used coat or jacket can make a big dif­fer­ence in being com­fort­able this win­ter,” he said.

Dona­tions can be dropped off now through Dec. 31 at the fol­low­ing local locations:

• FWDG, Perime­ter Walk, 745 Robert Smalls Park­way, (Hwy 170), Beaufort
• Bluffton Self Help
• All Beau­fort County BB&T branch offices
• Car­olina Stam­per, 203A Carteret Street, down­town Beaufort
• Bat­tery Creek High and Hilton Head Island High

Busi­ness, civic clubs, churches and other orga­ni­za­tions often hold Coat Drive blitzes from one day to sev­eral weeks within their orga­ni­za­tion. They can des­ig­nate a cen­tral coat col­lec­tion point at their busi­ness or organization.

The Coat Drive was started 21 years ago by the Marks, long­time Low­coun­try res­i­dents and busi­ness own­ers. Located at 745 Robert Smalls Park­way in Beau­fort, one mile east of the Broad River Bridge, FWDG at Perime­ter Walk is the only one-stop-shop for home fur­ni­ture and fix­tures in Beaufort.

FWDG and its own­ers have received numer­ous awards rec­og­niz­ing the busi­ness and their involve­ment in the com­mu­nity. Awards include: Beau­fort Regional Cham­ber of Com­merce Small Busi­ness of the Year, Small Busi­ness Per­son of the Year, Beau­fort Gazette’s Reader’s Choice Award for best Fur­ni­ture Store for 12 straight years, and the Mar­tin Luther King, Jr. Human­i­tar­ian Award for Business.

For addi­tional infor­ma­tion about FWDG or the Coat Drive, please call Larry Mark at 843−524−8695.

Thanks to John Rush & Asso­ciates who spon­sored a Canned Food Drive on behalf of Bluffton Self Help. Their request for non-perishable canned foods like canned corn, peas, green beens, yams, cran­berry sauce, and chicken broth was a huge hit and came just in time for the Thanks­giv­ing rush. The team also col­lected boxed mac­a­roni and cheese, stuff­ing, corn­bread mix, and instant mashed pota­toes. Frozen turkeys were included on the request sheet.
All of the food items were dropped off at Ameriprise Finan­cial in Moss Creek Shop­ping Cen­ter.
Accord­ing to Lili Cole­man, Exec­u­tive direc­tor of BSH, “We are so grate­ful for our friends at John Rush & Asso­ciates. When groups like this take it upon them­selves to orga­nize and host food dri­ves like this one, we ben­e­fit greatly. We thank them for all they have done for Bluffton Self Help.”

40 rid­ers joined the
THE RIDE TO 39
On Sat­ur­day, Octo­ber 29
Thank you for par­tic­i­pat­ing and
Thank you to all the donors
Who pro­vided bicy­cles for our clients!

IMPORTANT REMINDER

One week remains in the old loca­tion.
Novem­ber 7, Bluffton Self Help
Opens for busi­ness at
39 Sheri­dan Park Cir­cle in
Sheri­dan Park.