At the Helm

Dear Reader,

September is when locals get to enjoy the best the Lowcountry has to offer. The number of vacationers drops precipitously, there’s almost always a breeze at the beach, and Monthly brings you our annual City Guide. A September tradition here at Frey Media, the City Guide offers a chance to take stock of who we are as a community — including the places we love and the neighbors who help the Lowcountry thrive.

In these pages, you’ll hear from the mayors of Hilton Head Island, Bluffton and Hardeeville. We also check in with town officials and show you a snapshot of growth and development on the mainland by the numbers. We’ve also included an update about what’s happening on Pope Avenue and at Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park.

Dear Reader, 

“One of life's most persistent and urgent questions is, 'What are you doing for others?’” Civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. posed this question in a 1963 speech about the importance of altruism versus selfishness. We believe that caring for others is worth celebrating, and every year, our August issue looks at pure and boundless love — the best part of the decidedly mixed bag called human nature.

Many Lowcountry residents spend a lot of time making sure the pets, seniors and children in their lives are well cared for and happy. This month, we celebrate our love for animals, compassionate care of the elderly and the late summer rite of students returning to school.

Dear Reader,

In July, the Lowcountry welcomes thousands of visitors who flock here for precious vacations with family and friends. Despite some traffic headaches, tourism is one of the largest job creators in the Lowcountry and we are grateful that so many families want to spend their time and money here. Many Beaufort County residents work hard to make sure these guests have a wonderful time while they’re here, and in this issue, we introduce you to some of the folks who are on the front lines of summer every day: guarding our beaches, serving meals, guiding boats safely to shore and more.

It’s finally summer — the season that children and teachers have been longing for.

All over the Lowcountry, we’re rolling out the red carpet for the visitors who sustain our economy and show us just how good we’ve got it living here year-round. From all over the country and the far corners of the world, they’re arriving to revel in what we sometimes take for granted: wide, clean beaches; rolling waves; and days filled with golden sunshine.

The Lowcountry is a special place in the spring.

As the last bit of cold fades away and the wisteria and Carolina jasmine bloom, we’re ready to get back outside and explore all the Lowcountry has to offer.

Here at Monthly, we’re celebrating mothers in this issue. We hope you enjoy writer Laura Jacobi’s story about the sacrifices made by parents of promising young athletes, and our feature about a Hilton Head Island mom who is a social media entrepreneur. We also sit down with Laura Cramer, who is 93 years old and still actively — and very successfully — selling real estate in Sea Pines with her daughter, Carol.

Spring in the Lowcountry is glorious:

Mother Nature showers us with magenta azaleas, pink camellias and snow-white dogwood blossoms, accompanied by the songs of Carolina wrens, wood thrushes and other local birds. With green-themed March in the rear-view mirror, April is time for Hilton Head Island to get its plaid on — more specifically Heritage Plaid, the modified Royal Stewart tartan created for the RBC Heritage Presented by Boeing golf tournament, played annually at Harbour Town Golf Links since 1969.

Spring is here and it’s time to open our windows and our hearts. It’s a season of rebirth and reawakening, and at Monthly we are springing into it, full of enthusiasm and ready for new adventures. 

PHOTOGRAPHY BY IVS PHOTOGRAPHY
Members of the Monthly team were all smiles at the Hilton Head Bridal Show. From left: Mary Ann Kent, Carol Weir, Cathy Flory, Anuska Frey, Meredith DiMuzio and Katie Hatfield. 

“Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.”

While reading about love and thinking about Valentine’s Day, we stumbled upon this quote by late African-American author and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston. Even for those who proclaim themselves cynical about the holiday, her words are uplifting: Love makes you brave enough to come out of hiding and reveal yourself. But it’s also complex. Hurston’s use of the verb “crawl” shows how difficult love is — we sometimes enter it reluctantly, slowly, almost against our will.

At Hilton Head Monthly, we believe in the power of positive thinking. We’re sure that 2019 will be a great year to live in the Lowcountry.

Since January is here once again, it’s time for our annual “Intriguing People” issue featuring some of our area’s most fascinating men and women. This year, we celebrate local innovators and inventors. According to the dictionary, while invention is the “creation of a product or introduction of a process for the first time,” innovation happens when someone “improves on or makes a significant contribution” to something that has already been invented. To put it another way, Thomas Edison was an inventor and Steve Jobs was an innovator. We’re grateful to the Don Ryan Center for Innovation for connecting us with the creative, forward-thinking folks we feature this month.