Helping Out for July 31, 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.

East Cooper Community Outreach is taking part in the GreenWise Market Good Works program through the Mount Pleasant grocery location. Patrons of the store at 1720 Shoremeade Road can designate ECCO as their nonprofit of choice at checkout, and proceeds will benefit the organization.

Additionally, to celebrate its 30th anniversary, ECCO has launched a 30-week campaign that will carry through Giving Tuesday on Dec. 3. The nonprofit also began distributing “ECCO Partner” window stickers for supporters and businesses.

ECCO has enhanced its financial services, such as its Asset Development Program, formerly known as the IDA Program. It is a savings-match program that generates up to $3,000 for a client’s saved $1,000. These funds can be used for starting or developing a small business, purchasing a home or attending college.

The organization started as an emergency resource after Hurricane Hugo, and it has morphed into a permanent resource for families in generational and situational poverty. Over half of its clients are senior citizens or disabled community members. ECCO also serves those who are working and need resources to meet a challenge such as unemployment, or death or departure of a spouse.

Members of the Charleston Apartment Association’s Next Gen committee volunteered to build a wheelchair ramp for a homeowner in North Charleston in June. The association and THS National spent a day assembling and building a ramp from the ground up.

Operation Home serves more than 450 families annually through home repair, wheelchair ramps, and heat and cold relief programs for households with children, the disabled and seniors.

Marie’s Kids, a North Charleston-based organization that works to provide science, technology, engineering, art and math education support in the tri-county area, has received a $2,500 STEM Action Grant through the Society for Science & the Public to build a sustainable STEAM curriculum to support its mission.

The nonprofit will initially focus on third-grade students at North Charleston Elementary School. Funding for the STEM Action Grant program comes from Regeneron. The society awarded a total of $65,000 grants nationwide in this funding round.

Tony Boor of Blackbaud will chair the American Heart Association’s 23rd annual Charleston Heart Ball, set for May 1 at the Gaillard Center.

As chair, Boor will work with local leaders to support the Heart Ball and expand the association’s mission. Boor is the CFO and executive vice president of finance and administration at Blackbaud.

All proceeds will support AHA-funded cardiovascular disease research, helping to improve the lives of residents in the area.

Corporate sponsorship for the 2020 Heart Ball is available by contacting Lilia Correa via email.

The Children’s Museum of the Lowcountry has received a $27,000 grant from the Henry and Sylvia Yaschik Foundation to provide funding for a puppet theater in the Speak Loud studio, one of the new exhibits coming to the museum.

In the new puppet theater, the museum will provide children and their families a place to create and conduct performances of their own making, with a puppet maker studio and seating.

The Speak Loud studio is one of nine new exhibits planned as part of the $6.2 million Make & Believe capital campaign to reimagine the Children’s Museum of the Lowcountry. The museum is still seeking contributions.

Sonic Drive-In awarded $1.2 million in matching donation to teacher projects in honor of Teacher Appreciation Month.

In Charleston, Sonic awarded five projects at two schools $1,321: Jennie Church at Ashley River Creative Arts Elementary School for “Magical Moments Start With Music” and “Wireless Workers”; Kathleen Clair, also at Ashley River Creative Arts, for “A Fraction of Our Math” and “Bubble, Clack, Squish — Oh, My!”; and Christie Fowler at West Ashley Advanced Studies Magnet for “Headphones Make Us Happy!”

Two projects in North Charleston were awarded $570: Stacy Tallman at Eagle Nest Elementary School for “Learning Through Discovery” and “Safe Storage for Our Books.”