Helping Out for July 17, 2019

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Helping Out highlights some of the many charitable events and activities going on in the Charleston area. ATTENTION: Submissions should now be made using our online form.

Pinnacle Financial Partners has donated $2,500 to Housing For All – Mount Pleasant, a nonprofit that works to foster attainable housing in Mount Pleasant..

The donation makes Pinnacle a “Roof Level” sponsor, and the funds will be applied toward a $50,000 matching grant from the Town of Mount Pleasant.

The Gibbes Museum of Art will begin accepting applications for its 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern Art on Aug. 1. The prize is presented by Society 1858, a member auxiliary group of the Gibbes Museum of Art.

Presented annually, the $10,000 cash prize is awarded to one artist whose work “demonstrates the highest level of artistic achievement in any media, while contributing to a new understanding of art in the South.”

Past winners include Leo Twiggs (2018), Bo Bartlett (2017), Alicia Henry (2016), Deborah Luster (2015), Sonya Clark (2014), John Westmark (2012), Patrick Dougherty (2011), and Radcliffe Bailey (2010).

Submissions for 2019 will be accepted online from Aug. 1 through Oct. 1.

Artists from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia are eligible to apply.

Finalists will be announced in October and the winner will be announced in fall 2019.

Food Lion Feeds has donated a new, 26-foot refrigerated truck to the Lowcountry Food Bank to use in the 10 coastal S.C. counties that the food bank serves.

Lowcountry Food Bank picks up food from about 48 Food Lion stores in coastal South Carolina. Last year, the food bank received 2.9 million pounds of food and distributed 2.4 million meals from Food Lion.

Project Okurase, comprising a Charleston nonprofit and a Ghana-based nongovernmental organization, has launched the Door of Return, a 10-day cultural experience in Ghana for individuals and groups who want to connect with Ghanaian heritage and recognize the first enslaved Africans to arrive in the New World.

In January, Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo designated 2019 as the “Year of Return,” to commemorate the Africans forced into slavery and to encourage their descendants to “come home.” The first ship carrying human cargo arrived in what is now Virginia 400 years ago this year.

The first Door of Return trip will take place Oct. 7-18, with future trips being planned. Registration is open to the public.

Project Okurase has designed an itinerary that includes common Ghanaian activities such as a libation and welcome ceremony, healing ceremonies, African dance and drumming, and cooking workshops and more. Participants will arrive in Accra and travel to several villages and sites of key importance over the course of the journey.