Christmas gifts, a tribute to a town champion and more
The 2022 Holiday Week edition of WHIB Weekly
Hope you’re all winding down the work engine and easing into some family time, whether it’s celebrating Christmas or Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus … whatever your holiday is, happy holidays.
We have had some distribution hiccups with our current newsletter provider, so you will see some changes to start the New Year. But first, some news to end the year.
Looking for last-minute gift ideas? We have ways to give back while celebrating the Little Blue Boat
It’s been all the rage as of late, that little beacon of hope and resilience in the marsh as we cross the bridge to or from Hilton Head. The Little Blue Boat became a meme very quickly, then it became a news sensation.
Bluffton artists Erin Christofoli (owned of Wine & Design) and Stephen Gregar (the man behind the May River rockin’ art display created paintings to celebrate this magical skiff and auctioned them off, raising $850 for Bluffton Self Help.
For those that could not afford the auctions, we at WHIB teamed up with Gregar and Pockets Full of Sunshine, an organization that provides vocational training and opportunities for special needs adults, to create a collection of t-shirts and kitchen towels.
We have a limited supply that are being made this week and distributed in-person Thursday and Friday. A portion of the sales will be going to Pockets and Bluffton nonprofits.
The t-shirts are $30 for the first ($25 each additional), the towels $20. We have both Christmas and traditional designs for both the t-shirts and towels.
To order your WHIB Gregar Collection limited-edition keepsakes, click here.
Here is one of the towels coming hot off the press at the Pockets workshop.
There is another project benefitting Pockets from small business owner Jennifer Chapman, the owner of Sticker Chick Stickers. She has created a Bluey-inspired sticker series that you can buy for $4 each, with 80 cents of each sale going to Pockets. Click here for more information.
Farewell to a Bluffton legend
Dianne Reynolds passed away on Dec. 2, just days shy of her 80th birthday. Dianne was a titan in town, the tour de force behind the creation of the Bluffton Christmas Parade in 1971, and a tireless champion of more causes than we can name.
Here is my tribute to Dianne from the latest edition of The Bluffton Sun.
Other news worth knowing
Where to see the best Christmas lights displays in the Lowcountry
The unofficial start to our 25 Days of Giving: Two businesses teamed to give away a Disney trip to a Bluffton family.
Future changes on Burnt Church Road will ease traffic and safety concerns
The Bridge at Calhoun welcomes first inhabitants, future businesses
And finally, here’s my latest rundown of Bluffton news for WHHI-TV:
Learn about our mission
We have a new website where you can learn about the various projects under the umbrella of the 501c3 nonprofit Lowcountry Online Journalism Initiative. Our goal is to create a community-supported positive news source to fill the news desert void left by the slow deaths of local papers Bluffton Today and The Island Packet. Read more about the mission here.
Have a great holiday season everyone! Hope to see you online each night through Dec. 30 for our “25 Days of Giving” Wheel of Names spins.
- Tim
Merry Christmas Tim and family 🎄