<strong>Eat healthy with fresh, free produce! </strong>

Eating healthy just got easier! Every quarter, BlueChoice HealthPlan Medicaid teams up with our local community partners to bring you the freshest produce the season has to offer. Enjoy fruits and vegetables on us! Learn how to make healthier choices for your family and more. Be one of the first 100 people to ask and you will receive produce at no cost to you. That’s FREE! Plus, Health screenings, resource information, health and nutrition sessions, fitness challenges, games, prizes and more. The event is on Saturday, July 25th, 2015 from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. at 17 Fire Station Lane Sheldon, SC.

<strong>Integrative Healing Arts Sampler on July 25    </strong>

Clinical style delivery of counseling, massage, chiropractic, neuro-emotional, Healing Touch, nutritional, reflexology, and more by licensed volunteer practitioners and team. Event is from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and is located at 705 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC. $10 donation for each 20 minute session. Christian healing prayer and scholarships for services also on-site. Registration starts at 9 and spots are limited but free entry to public to visit. Samplers occur on last Saturday of each month. Sponsored by MinistriesforSynergeticWellness.org to raise funds for those who cannot afford holistic mental health and healing arts services. For questions email reneesutton@healthierhealing.com.

<strong>Gullah/Geechee Famlee Day coming soon </strong>

Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation and the Mosquito Beach Business Association are inviting the public to “Gullah/Geechee Famlee Day” to launch “Gullah/Geechee Nation Appreciation Week” on historic Mosquito Beach in Charleston, SC. This event will take place on Saturday, July 25, 2015 from 12 noon until 6 p.m. featuring music, food, Gullah/Geechee crafts and demonstrations, tours of this historic Gullah/Geechee seaport community, and book, DVD, and CD signing by Queen Quet herself. Admission is FREE and the event is open to the entire public of all ages. As background, in the late 1930s, Joe Chavis and Andrew Jackson Wilder, Sr. began evolving this island that was once an oyster factory run by native Gullah/Geechees into a resort area. Overtime, several seafood stands, restaurants, bars and dance clubs, and a boardwalk pavilion came to line Elijah Creek where Mosquito Beach sits. Numerous storms during the 1980s and 1990s damaged buildings there and business went into decline. However, this strong Gullah/Geechee community has come back together to revitalize and restore Mosquito Beach to its prominence and the “Gullah/Geechee Famlee Day” will be in support and celebration of these efforts.

<strong>Riverview Baptist VBS plans announced </strong>

Riverview Baptist Church will hold Vacation Bible School July 27th - July 31st from 5:45 p.m. - 8:45 p.m. Ages Pre K - 12th grades are invited to attend. All children are welcome to attend as the group will <em>Journey off the Map.</em>

<strong>Tutors needed at the Bluffton Literacy Center</strong>

The Literacy Center is in need of volunteer and substitute tutors who can provide instruction to adults in reading, writing, math or conversational English. We ask tutors to commit for a full program year (which follows a typical public school year), though most of our tutors return year after year.To become a tutor, knowledge of languages other than English is not necessary; neither is prior teaching experience. The Literacy Center provides training to all potential tutors and periodic, ongoing training to all current tutors. For more information and an application visit: www.theliteracycenter.org/volunteer/tutors. New tutor orientation will be held at the Hilton Head Learning Center at 4 Oak Park Drive on July 28, 2015 at 9:30 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.

<strong>Winter craft fair calls for craft vendors  </strong>

Join more than 100 of the most unique, eccentric and high-quality crafters in the Southeast on December 13, 2015 in Columbia, S.C. for Crafty Feast. This annual winter craft fair is in its seventh year and is the place where lovers of local small businesses and all things handmade converge to cross items off their holiday shopping list. Applications close July 31st at midnight. Visit www.craftyfeast.com to register.

<strong>Flag football and cheer-leading registration  </strong>

Community Bible Church is holding registration for Upward Flag Football &amp; Cheerleading. The flag football and cheerleading are open to all children in K-6 grades. The fee per child for flag football or cheerleading is $55. After August 2, the cost is $65.The deadline for registration is August 24. Flag football shorts and cheerleading mock turtlenecks are optional at a cost of $14 each. Cleats are recommended for football. Everyone must attend one flag football evaluation or cheerleading orientation. These will take place at Community Bible Church, Saturday, July 25, between 9 a.m. and Noon and Thursday, July 30, between 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. The program schedule is as follows: first practice - Monday, August 24, 2015; first game - Saturday, Sept. 12.

<strong>Volleyball tryouts at Battery Creek HS  </strong>

The Battery Creek High School volleyball program will conduct tryouts for the 2015 season from 6 to 8 p.m. on Aug. 3 at the BCHS Gym. In order to participate in the tryouts, all female-student athletes must have a valid physical dated after April 1, 2015. For more information on the upcoming tryouts, call Coach Christy McCullough at 678-521-0024.

<strong>Are you ready for a great burger?</strong><b>   </b>

Come to Fat Patties on Tuesday August 4th when 10% of sales from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. will be donated to the Beaufort Exchange Club. Exchange Clubs, or America’s Service Clubs, are a group of men and women working together to make communities better places to live through programs of service in Americanism, Community Service, Youth Activities, and its national project, the Prevention of Child Abuse. So enjoy a great burger and help a family at the same time.

<strong>Learn how to develop a business plan  </strong>

The Beaufort County Black Chamber of Commerce (BCBCC) and SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) will offer a business class focusing on developing a business plan, accessing a business loan and other financial strategies. The class will be held on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday on August 24, 26 and 28, 2015 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Call 843-986-1102 to enroll. Classes will be held at the chamber office located at 801 Bladen Street in Beaufort. Cost for the class is $25 which will be reimbursed once the course has been satisfactorily completed.
<h2><b>Upcoming library events </b></h2>
To be held at the <strong>Beaufort District Collection (BDC) </strong>focuses on local history, archaeology, Gullah culture, genealogy, natural history and preservation issues. This month learn about the most devastating natural disaster to ever befall Beaufort County and colonial military history this month with the Library system’s special local history collection and archives unit.

Event: <strong>“Fort Frederick Heritage Preserve Film Screening with Optional Tour” (Local History and Archaeology)
</strong>Date: Thursday, August 13 at 11 a.m.
Location: BDC at Beaufort Branch, Children’s Programming Room, 1st floor, 311 Scott Street, Beaufort.
Description: Meg Gaillard, archaeologist with the S.C. Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Heritage Trust Program, will present the Fort Frederick film series funded by DNR, the Harry Hampton Memorial Wildlife Fund and The Humanities Council SC. Seating is limited to the first 50 guests. Guests will be asked to complete a brief DNR survey about the films prior to an optional field trip to the Fort Frederick site. Note: Transportation to Fort Frederick NOT included. Co-sponsored by Beaufort Chapter, ASSC. This free event is for ages 12 to adults.

Event: <strong>“Tide of Death: The Sea Island Hurricane of 1893” [Hilton Head edition] (Local and Natural History)
</strong>Date: Thursday, August 27 at 2 p.m.
Location: BDC at Hilton Head Branch, 11 Beach City Road, Hilton Head Island.
Description: Grace Cordial shares photographs and first person accounts from the Library’s special collections and archives about the night death came to call 122 years ago, highlighting the Red Cross’s recovery efforts on Hilton Head Island. This free event is for ages 12 to adults.

<em>All branches and departments of the Beaufort County Library System will be closed on Monday, September 7th for Labor Day.</em>