Category: Fundraisers

Grape Stomp Festival at Deep Water Vineyard Aug 19

Grape Stomp Festival

Saturday, August 19, 2023
10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Deep Water Vineyard
6775 Bears Bluff Road, Wadmalaw Island, SC 29487

Grab your tickets now for annual Grape Stomp Festival at Deep Water Vineyard on Wadmalaw Island. The festival will include live music, food trucks, activities for the kiddos and, of course, grape stomping.

The highlight of the Grape Stomp Festival is the Lucy Look-A-Like Contest, where “I Love Lucy” fans will get their chance to don their best Lucy costume and reenact the famous 1956 episode of “I Love Lucy” when Lucy takes a job in a vineyard and stomps grapes. It’s going to be a “grape” time.

Tickets and parking passes can be purchased here for $20.00 per vehicle with a portion of the proceeds benefiting a local charity.

–Tidelines Editors

(Image credit:  Deep Water Vineyard website)

Support Mt. Zion Kids!

The new 2023 – 2024 school year begins in less than two weeks! You can help students get off to a great start. This past school year our generous and warm-hearted community donated $12,070 to Support Mt. Zion Kids!. Our mission is to provide students and teachers with the supplies needed for success. Everything we purchase fills a request from a school staff member.

Your contribution makes such a difference!

Look how last year’s donations helped:

  • Classroom supplies, pencils, crayons, paper, glue, scissors.
  • Clothing. Some parents cannot provide their child with proper school clothing. Last spring a fire destroyed one of our families’ homes. Your donation helped these children!
  • Calming Boxes for each classroom. Just like us, students sometimes feel stress. A student reaches into the box and pulls out stress balls, textured fabric, soft animals, or other small manipulatives. Giving a frustrated child something to hold and feel helps them calm down.
  • Book Baskets. These are huge at the spring PTO Literacy Event. Each class made a list of their favorite books and games to create a themed basket. Support Mt. Zion Kids! purchased the books. One lucky student from each class won the basket through a raffle. We wish you could have seen the excitement on the winners’ faces. Even more heartwarming – we saw several winners pull out a book and share it with their friend.
  • Swimming Lessons. Your donation purchased swimsuits and towels for some of the first and second-grade students so they could participate in the Water Wise Program.

    Our remaining funds will be used to begin filling teachers’ requests for this school year. We have already received wish lists from returning teachers and we know we will receive many more requests as school gets going.

    Thank you for helping the Mt Zion students!

    How you can donate:
    • Send funds through Zelle to mtzionkids1@gmail.com. Please include your email address in the memo line.
    • Send a check to Support Mt. Zion Kids! 2824 Dove Nest Court, Seabrook Island, SC 29455.

      Support Mt. Zion Kids! Is a 501© (3) charitable organization.

      -Submitted by Lucy Hoover and Valerie Luzadder

      (Image credit: Microsoft stock image)

Backpack Buddies Seabrook Island Challenge 2023 Starts Today

The Backpack Buddies Seabrook Island Challenge is on again this year with more friends than ever before! 

Mike Gorski did an amazing job over the last 6 years with the “Mike Gorski and Friends Challenge.” Mike recently retired from fundraising and turned the Challenge over to Backpack Buddies Seabrook Island to run. As you may be aware, the Challenge directly benefits school children in the surrounding area who deal with food insecurity on weekends.

Our goal this year, with the help of our friends, is $90,000 for this worthy cause. With the new school year right around the corner, Backpack Buddies Seabrook Island is announcing the kick off of the 2023 Challenge. Our premier fundraising event will run from August 7 – September 29, 2023.   This year, we’ve secured over 40 Friends who’ve generously committed over $45,000 to match dollar-for-dollar donations made by Seabrook Island residents and guests.  

Yes, folks, you heard right!  The Friends are matching dollar-for-dollar for your donations made. 

It’s a win-win for Backpack Buddies Seabrook Island.  Backpack Buddies Seabrook Island is a 501(c)3 nonprofit, whose mission is to feed local, hungry school children on the weekends.  These children receive breakfast and lunch at school during the week, but are food insecure on weekends and school holidays.  Backpack Buddies Seabrook Island provides over 385 bags weekly to children in Charleston County.             

Your generosity is ever more appreciated with rising costs. It takes $235.00 per year per child to make a difference.  And remember, $0.94 cents of every dollar go directly to feeding school children.  Donating is made even easier by going to the Backpack Buddies Seabrook Island website backpackbuddiesseabrookisland.com for instructions. Donations can be made via credit card or check.  

Thank you in advance for your support and please take a moment to make your donation today and have it matched, dollar-for-dollar.  

-Submitted by Lynn Baker for Backpack Buddies Seabrook Island

SJFD Stuff-A-Truck

Since 2018 St. Johns Fire District Firefighters have been visiting families in need just in time for the holidays. In conjunction with the county school system, each elementary school selects five families (up from the original three families) that they believe are most in need of our holiday services including monetary donations, meals, necessary essentials, and toys. After the families are selected, I personally meet with the families and have them fill out a “wish” list. Through the community, these wish lists are fulfilled (the community has always been very responsive). Family requests have increasingly included monetary donations, along with toys. Please consider giving monetary donations this year. Working closely with the schools, I’ve realized how much some families rely on their schools for meals and snacks. I would like to continue this tradition, but monetary donations for “Stuff a Truck” have substantially declined over the past year. All donations go to our local elementary school families – Mt. Zion, Angel Oak (Johns Island) and Frierson (Wadmalaw). Thank you.

-Submitted by Deputy Fire Marshall, Stephen Mantie

(Image credit: St Johns Fire District)

Backpack Buddies Seabrook Island: Another Successful School Year!

The end of the Charleston County school year is right around the corner and the many Backpack Buddies Seabrook Island volunteers will pack the last bags for the school year on June 1, 2023.

We had an extremely successful school year because of our hard-working volunteers, generous donors, school representatives and many other members of the community. Collectively, we delivered over 15,000 bags of food between Fall 2022 and Spring 2023. 

The many volunteers shop, pack and deliver over 385 bags of food weekly during the school year. This is an amazing accomplishment and the 385 children and families that we serve at Mt Zion Elementary, Lambs Elementary and St. Johns Island High School are grateful for the work of Backpack Buddies Seabrook Island. 

Backpack Buddies Seabrook Island is successful due to the generosity of the Seabrook Island Community – thank you for your kindness and commitment to this very worthy cause. And remember, 94 cents of every dollar donated goes directly to school children.

Thank you again and we can’t wait for the next school year which begins in August 2023.

-Submitted by Lynn Baker for Backpack Buddies Seabrook Island

Thank you!

Thank you Seabrookers and sponsors for helping to make the Fourth Annual Cornhole Clash a success. With your help SIV was able to raise $15,000.

We wish to thank the following people whose donations we received after the event:

McDaniel Family Foundation
The Salty Dog Cafe
Christopher & Cookie Byczek
Sam & Sarajane Dolinsky
Richard & Marjorie Fleming
Mark & Joyce Markwell
Greg & Linda Saver
Robert & Terry Cherry
Victor & Carol Augusta
Stan & Carol Ullner
Ralph & Nancy Finno

Mark your calendars now for next year’s Cornhole Clash, April 20, 2024.
Our next event will be Mahjong Day, October 19, 2023.

-Submitted by Sue Coomer

Swim Across America Kiawah June 10

Join the Charleston-Kiawah Island Open Water Swim
and Fight Cancer with Swim Across America (SAA).

Swimmers of all ages and levels are invited to take part in the sixth Kiawah Island charity swim on Saturday, June 10, 2023.  Your participation will help “Make Waves to Fight Cancer” and raise money locally for cancer research at Hollings Cancer Center at the Medical University of South Carolina.

The event will take place at Night Heron Park in Kiawah Island.  Mandatory check in is between 6:30 -7:30 am and the event starts at 8:30 am.  There will be a post event starting at 10:00 am.

You can be an in-person swimmer, volunteer or participate virtually. The swim options are .5 mile or 1.5 miles. The virtual option is called SSA My Way where you can choose your activity and timeline.

The mission of Swim Across America is to fund cancer reasearch, clinical trials and patient programs by hosting charity swims.

For more information about SSA and the event click here.

–Tidelines Editors

A Note of Thanks from Sarah Quinn

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

Thank you so much for your magnanimous support of Bicycles for Humanity (B4H) over the last six years. B4H Charleston, a 501 (c) (3) organization, is a local chapter of the global movement to collect used bicycles and ship them to communities in need in Africa.

Experiencing the generosity of our community firsthand and working with all facets of this uniquely tangible project has been truly wonderful. I am going to college and therefore no longer available to collect bikes. The individual taking over is yet to be determined, but in the meantime, please feel free to contact Chris Tate, the head of the Charleston Chapter of Bicycles for Humanity at ctate@portergaud.edu. 

Residents of Seabrook Island have donated 2600 bikes, 1000 pairs of shoes, and $42,000. Thank you all again for your continued generosity and support.

Sarah Quinn with some of the hundreds of bikes collected.

Gratefully,
Sarah Quinn