Hilton Head News

THE ROYAL BANK OF CANADA SPONSORS THE HERITAGE AS A GESTURE OF GOOD WILL

When the savior of Hilton Head Island’s annual PGA Tour stop was announced in June 2011, the collective sigh throughout South Carolina was followed quickly by a collective brow-raising.

Why, many wondered, would the Royal Bank of Canada lay out millions of dollars a year to sponsor a golf tournament in South Carolina?

IN HIS OWN WORDS: CHARLES FRASER WROTE ABOUT FOUNDING THE TOURNAMENT

Charles Fraser described himself as a “historian of golf” and a golf businessman, not a “golfer” by recreation. From the beginning, he was convinced that golf would be important in the story of Sea Pines. In 1993, he drafted this description of how he brought golf to Hilton Head Island and later created the Heritage tournament. His daughter Laura Lawton Fraser was kind enough to share it with Monthly. Below are excerpts:

Recently my wife, Amanda, and I celebrated my son Boone’s first birthday. As any new parent will tell you, his first year was a whirlwind, complicated by our rather unique circumstances. Amanda found out she was pregnant the day after I announced I was running for Congress. Boone arrived two weeks early, on a day that I had planned to be in Beaufort for three different campaign events.

PGA TOUR AWARDS GRANT TO SECOND HELPINGS

The Heritage Classic Foundation welcomed PGA TOUR’s Chief Tournaments and Competitions Officer, Andy Pazder, to Hilton Head Island in February. Padzer presented Second Helpings with the PGA TOUR 2018 Charity of the Year award and worked alongside Heritage Classic Foundation trustees, Second Helpings board members, town officials and volunteers to load food trucks at Kroger at Shelter Cove. The award comes with a $30,000 grant from the PGA TOUR to help Second Helpings combat hunger in the Lowcountry.

A pianist from South Korea won the 2019 Hilton Head International Piano Competition. Chaeyoung Park was the first-prize winner, followed by Jakub Kuszlik of Poland in second and Anna Han of the United States in third. Medalists were Arisa Onoda of Japan, Yi-Yang Chen of Taiwan and Yuchong Wu of China. 

Pet owners and dog lovers are invited to join the Hilton Head Humane Association at 8:30 a.m. April 27 for the nonprofit group’s annual Dog Walk on the Beach fundraiser at Coligny Beach. This year’s event marks the 22nd time that people and a small army of dogs will take to the beach to raise money for the shelter. The walk is a great way for your four-legged family members to make new friends or to reconnect with old friends from the shelter.

A plan for a micro-hospital in Bluffton received initial approval by Bluffton Town Council in March. South of the Broad Healthcare is a joint venture between Beaufort Memorial Hospital and the Medical University of South Carolina and the first of its kind in the state. If approved, the facility will be 65,000 square feet on about 12.5 acres near the intersection of Bluffton Parkway, Innovation Drive and Buckwalter Parkway, according to the plan submitted to the town’s department of growth management.

A 300-apartment complex has been suggested for the Hilton Head Christian Academy Campus after the school moves off of Hilton Head Island in 2020.

Charleston-based Spandrel Development Partners filed an application with the Town of Hilton Head Island to change the property’s zoning to allow for residential development and proposed six buildings up to 55 feet tall, parking and amenities on the 13.8-acre site. The buildings “could include a mix of apartments from 500 square feet up to three-bedroom units of about 1,800 square feet,” according to the application. Wood + Partners representatives estimated rents would be $1,200 a month for a studio and $2,400 for a three bedroom, though rents have not been finalized. 

The Breeze trolley service will operate significantly later this season, according to executive director of Mary Lou Franzoni.

Trolley service resumed April 1 on Hilton Head with a significantly later schedule than last year. Trolleys run 1-10:30 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays and 1 p.m.-12:30 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

Lincoln Continental has been selected as the Honored Marquee for the 2019 Hilton Head Island Concours d’Elegance. The event will take place Nov. 3, the final day of the twoweekend celebration that is the Hilton Head Island Concours d’Elegance & Motoring Festival. 

The April issue of Southern Living magazine includes lots of love for Hilton Head Island, Bluffton and Beaufort. Hilton Head was named The South’s Best Beach Town 2019 in the magazine’s third annual crowd-sourced South’s Best Awards. Hilton Head won the title last year as well; its beaches, wildlife and Gullah community — which the magazine called “one of the great American cultures” — were cited as factors for the win.

SoundWaves, the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra’s new rehearsal and performance venue in the Coligny area, soon will have a new performance lighting system thanks to a new lease with the Town of Hilton Head Island.

Hilton Head Island said goodbye to historian Lou Benfante on March 9. Benfante was best known for his efforts to preserve, protect and showcase the history of Hilton Head at the Heritage Library’s History & Ancestry Research Center. As board president of the nonprofit group, he helped create the Revolutionary War History Park planned for the land around St Luke’s Parish Zion Chapel of Ease Cemetery, scheduled to break ground in 2026.

One of the best thing about where we live is how giving our community is. Has your business or organization given back to the community? Submit your photos to editor@hiltonheadmonthly.com for this section. Space is limited.

PLAID ABOUT READING PROGRAM EXPANDS TO CHARLESTON

Now in its ninth year, the Heritage Classic Foundation’s annual Plaid About Reading program, presented by Future Scholar, has has hit a record number of entries. Twenty-one elementary schools from Hilton Head Island to Charleston participated in the Plaid About Reading program Feb. 4-15 for a chance to win Heritage tickets and money for their schools and to meet PGA Tour golfers. The lighthearted scholastic competition gives area elementary school students in grades kindergarten through fifth a chance to win $500 for their school, $150 for their class, tickets to the RBC Heritage Presented by Boeing and the chance to meet a professional golfer at Coca-Cola Youth Day, held the Tuesday of tournament week.

PHOTO SPECIAL TO MONTHLY

Hilton Head Island residents shouldn’t spend too much time looking for new Mayor John McCann at Town Hall. His sparse office, dominated by a meeting table and the emblem of his beloved New York Yankees emblazoned on the wall, signals that the mayor does not plan to spend much time there.

“I’ve only used this office twice in two months,” McCann, 78, said recently. “I want to be out there as much as I can.”