When 18-year-old Danielle Motley walked into Wild Birds Unlimited 20 years ago looking for a job, she immediately fell in love with its magical setting amongst the running fountains and birdsong. Having secured the position, she spent the next few years learning the ins and outs of the business and in 2011, she bought the shop. In those early days, Motley frequently worked … [Read more...]
Craig and Tanya at Ascue’s Auto Body & Paint Shop: A Working Family Machine
As Ascue’s Auto Body & Paint Shop CEO and Ascue Capital founder and CEO, Craig Ascue, along with his family, runs the family business that his father, Timothy, opened in 1968. Over the decades, customers and friends throughout the community have continued to support the company because of the shop’s commitment to its customers, both old and new. “We understand the value … [Read more...]
Jessica and Cason Hund: Balancing Family and Medical Careers in Mount Pleasant
Growing up in a medical family with a physician and nurse practitioner as parents, Jessica Hund was immersed in the medical world from the time she was a child. Having witnessed the services that her parents provided for patients, who were often going through hard and challenging times, Jessica felt compelled to pursue a career in the field. With a passion for helping people … [Read more...]
Doubling Down: Pegula Repeats as Charleston Open Champion
Jessica Pegula needed just a little over an hour on Easter Sunday to retain her title at the Credit One Charleston Open, besting the surprise unseeded finalist Ukrainian Yuliia Starodubtseva in straight sets 6-2, 6-2. Pegula, who trained in Hilton Head and on Daniel Island in the early stages of her career, became the first player to win back-to-back Charleston … [Read more...]
Historic Feats of Feet Bridge Run Male and Female Winners Set Course Records
The male and female winners of the 49th annual Cooper River Bridge Run held on March 28 didn’t just “get over it” and cross the finish line first, they made race history. Thousands of runners and walkers participated in this third largest 10K in the country, and two elite athletes smashed records that had stood for more than a quarter century. Edwin Kurgat of Kenya … [Read more...]
Linkenhoker Named Principal at Oceanside Collegiate Academy
This summer, Oceanside Collegiate Academy is welcoming a new principal, and if you ask Dr. Kelly Linkenhoker, the timing is perfect. After more than 30 years in public education, she’s packing up her life in Virginia and heading to the Lowcountry with her husband. She is ready for something new while bringing a lifetime of experience with her. Dr. Linkenhoker didn’t begin … [Read more...]
Otto German: Honored with School Court Dedication
In February 2026, the Town of Mount Pleasant and the Charleston County School District named the Moultrie Middle School basketball court after Otto B. German, a longtime Lowcountry supporter of youth sports. The accompanying ceremony came eight months after being suggested to the town’s Education Committee. More than just a dedication and the naming of a court, both the … [Read more...]
The Legacy of Billy Simmons
Born on Dec. 21, 1939, William Rice Simmons, more commonly referred to as Billy, was raised on Sullivan’s Island. Upon graduating from Murray Vocational School at 17, he enlisted in the Naval Reserve, where he served on a frequently moving ammunition ship, the USS Suribachi. After serving in destinations such as Cuba during the Bay of Pigs, as well as in the Mediterranean, … [Read more...]
A Park Built for the Future: Construction Begins on the Long-delayed Gary Santos Park
It took 15 years, a local referendum and $40 million just to get things started, but on March 17, officials with the Town of Mount Pleasant at last broke ground on Gary Santos Park. The facility not only honors a former town councilman but is expected to meet a growing demand for green space and recreational activities for generations to come. “This new park is a huge … [Read more...]
Sweetgrass Festival: Art, History and the Taste of Gullah Gala
When enslaved Africans arrived on these shores in the 17th century, they carried ancestral knowledge about rice production and cultivation, a practice that required the use of sweetgrass baskets for harvesting, transporting and storing the crop. In the centuries that followed, their Gullah Geechee descendants wove that generational art form, along with food ways indigenous to … [Read more...]