If you’re interested in seeing more homes on Daniel Island, the homefinder at DanielIsland.com is a great resource.

A group of Daniel Island residents is showing their support for the arts – specifically the Charleston Symphony Orchestra – by hosting “Standing Room Only,” an open house performance by members of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra to be held on Wednesday, March 10 at the Daniel Island Club. Proceeds from the admission fee will benefit the CSO. This open house event takes place from 6-8 pm.

This is a great opportunity to come out and enjoy the sounds of the Symphony in the Daniel Island Club’s beautiful clubhouse overlooking the marsh and Beresford Creek. Enjoy hors d’oeuvres and cocktails and mingle with friends and neighbors while supporting the CSO.

Tickets for the event are $50 if purchased by 4 pm on Monday, March 4, or $100 at the door on the evening of the event. The admission price is a donation to the CSO and will cover the concert and hors d’oeuvres. A cash bar will also be available.

Come out for a night of enchanting music and support the Charleston Symphony Orchestra!

Chef Tyler with celebrity chef Marvin Woods at the 2009 Charleston Wine & Food Festival.

The fifth annual Charleston Wine + Food Festival is underway this weekend in downtown Charleston, and once again Chef Tyler Dudley of the Daniel Island Club will be joining dozens of other top chefs from throughout Charleston and around the country to take part in the festivities. Tyler will be serving up some of his specialties at a Winemaker Reception on a private yacht, and will also be a featured chef at Sunday’s Lowcountry Gospel Brunch in Marion Square.

Unfortunately, both events have sold out, but Chef Tyler and his crew have agreed to take photos of the experience (and maybe even provide a recipe or two). We’ll share their story next week. Stay tuned!

Chef Tyler at the 2009 Charleston Wine & Food Festival.

With more than 40 events scheduled throughout this three-day celebration of Charleston’s culinary culture, the Charleston Wine + Food Festival has become one of the area’s top events in its short history. Although many events have sold out, there are still tickets available to the Culinary Village and Grand Tasting Tents in Marion Square, the hub of the Festival. For more information, visit charlestonwineandfood.com.

Kevin, a member of LCS, with his daughter Zoe at the last gathering of the star gazers.

“Night in the Park” is a part of the Charleston Parks Conservancy’s “Park Week”, a new series of events that encourages locals to get out and experience Charleston’s parks and green spaces. On this special night, the Lowcountry Star Gazers will show off the nighttime sky above Etiwan Park from 7:30 to 9:30 pm. There will be free refreshments and there is no charge to attend but residents are encouraged to bring their own blankets and chairs so they can relax for an evening under the bright night sky.

During Park Week (March 6-13), the Charleston Parks Conservancy will host a number of fun special programs and events, each with a daily theme, in different parks throughout the Charleston area. All of which will lead up the grand finale event, “Party for the Parks: Amusement on the Avenue”, a street fair-style event on Ashley Avenue near Colonial Lake Park.

For a complete schedule of events, visit www.charlestonparksconservancy.org. All events are FREE, except for the finale party, so take advantage, get educated and get outside during “Park Week”!

Barbara McLaughlin, Manager of Community Services for the Daniel Island POA and event organizer, came away extremely pleased. “It was apparent that oysters were the main draw to the event, where Southern charm and gentility were pervasive! It was great seeing all of those die-hard oyster lovers jockeying themselves to find that open niche at the Oyster Roast tables that were full from start to finish.”

The event was catered by Dixieland Delights Catering, who prepared delicious local oysters and old favorites like macaroni-and-cheese, homemade chili and hot dogs. Local Band, Just Doesn’t Matter, rocked the stage and entertained the crowd by playing everyone’s favorite party music!

And to top it all off, for the first time, the event benefited East Cooper Community Outreach (ECCO) so organizers were able to help ECCO’s cause while also offering guests an affordable “one price covers all” oyster roast. The partnership between the Daniel Island Property Owners Association and ECCO proved to be a win-win for event organizers and guests!

“ECCO was honored to be a part of an event like this and grateful for the growing relationship with Daniel Island. Not only do we receive the generosity of the Daniel Island POA, but we were able to introduce so many new people to ECCO,” said Ann Ward, Director of Development for ECCO. “When I checked the weather report earlier in the week, I was astounded to see that Saturday was going to be sunny, in the 60s with 0% chance of rain! I called Barbara and we agreed this could be the best event ever!”

“There was just such a happy and light atmosphere to the whole event. Everyone loved the food and the music, and people seemed to be engrossed in joyful conversations all over the place,” said Ann. “While I was weaving in and out of the crowds, people kept stopping me and saying, ‘I’ve been meaning to come volunteer at ECCO, I am coming by this week.’ Sharing our mission with the community is what allows us to continue and grow our programs.”

“Everything worked our perfectly,” agreed Barbara and Ann. They were both extremely happy with the results of the partnership. They felt in the end that the oyster roast was a success – “a fun event with an incredible price for an outstanding cause!”

The pair, with their camera woman Megan, dined on the Island Crab Cake Open-face Sandwich, the Fried Green Tomato Pesto Ham Sandwich, the “Catch of the Day” and a number of amazing-looking dessert treats.

Take a look below to see what they had to say about Laura Albert’s!

WEC – Laura Alberts from S. Murphy on Vimeo.

Stay in touch with Sarah and Steve to see what else they have to say about some of Charleston’s great restaurants by visiting http://chucktowneats.wordpress.com.

SIP of Daniel Island, a new event organized by the Daniel Island Rotary Club, is making its debut on Wednesday, March 3 and island residents and businesses are already hoping it will become an annual event!

From 5:00 – 8:00 pm, ticket holders will stroll through downtown Daniel Island, stopping at each of the event’s nine participating restaurants. As they progress from location to location, guests will chat and mingle while they sample and enjoy a taste or drink from each spot.

And the list of participating restaurants looks delicious! Guests will stop at Queen Anne’s Revenge, Laura Albert’s Tasteful Options, Vespa, Wasabi of Daniel Island, Dragon Palace, Two Rivers Tavern, Et Cetera Gourmet, Daniel Island Grill and Brewer’s Bistro.

Proceeds from the event will go to Charleston-based Water Missions International, a Christian, nonprofit organization that provides clean, safe water to people in developing countries and disaster areas. To read My Island Town’s recent article about Water Missions International, click HERE.

Tickets are $20 each and can be purchased from any Daniel Island Rotarian, participating restaurants and the Property Owners’ Association office.

A limited number of tickets will be sold for this event — get yours now before they sell out!

Not since 1989 has the South Carolina coast been blanketed with measurable snow. It’s usually our neighbors in the upstate who deal with the cold temperatures and falling snow. But that wasn’t the case on Saturday, February 13, when Daniel Island residents woke up to as much as three inces of snow covering their porches, yards and docks.

We might boast about our mild winter weather and warmer temperatures, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t enjoy the chance to get outside and play in the snow, build snowmen, make snow angels and even participate in a few snowball fights!

The snow lasted just a few hours before it melted away, but there were memories made on Daniel Island that morning that will last much, much longer!

Take a look at some of the photos island residents sent in:

Brad participating in a Water Treatment System installation in Peru.

Brad Reed was living in the Charlotte, N.C. area with his wife and two sons when circumstances surrounding his corporate job as a senior executive at a global manufacturing company caused a series of events that significantly changed the course of his life and his career.

“Our company was purchased in 2005, and as things began to change within the organization, I realized that I, too, was ready for a change,” he explains. But when a lucrative job offer in Canada came through within two weeks of leaving his former company – a job and location that seemed to be a perfect fit for him and his family – something caused him to pause and think twice about what he was about to do.

“It didn’t have peace about the job opportunity, and I couldn’t put my finger on why. It took several months of soul-searching and prayers for me to realize that what I was looking for was an opportunity to apply my management experience and Christian faith to help lead a church or nonprofit ministry,” says Brad.

So when he was introduced to the work of Charleston-based Water Missions International (WMI) – a Christian, nonprofit engineering organization that provides clean, safe water to people in developing countries and disaster areas through a variety of technologies – and learned they were looking for someone to help run their organization, he knew he had found his calling.

“My educational background is in chemical engineering and I had been actively involved in ministry and church leadership for years,” Brad explains. “A Christian engineering organization was a perfect fit.”

Children in Peru getting a taste of fresh, safe water, thanks to the work of Water Missions International.

Brad began leading WMI as President and Chief Operating Officer in 2006, and his wife, Debbie, began researching where in Charleston they would relocate their family.

“I moved ahead of our family so our son could finish the first semester of his seventh grade school year. One day my wife called and said, ‘Start looking on Daniel Island – that’s where we need to be.’” Shortly thereafter, the family purchased a new home in the island’s Center Park neighborhood. “The schools and casual lifestyle were the main draw for us,” he says.

The family quickly settled into their new home, and their youngest son enrolled in the Daniel Island School. Brad joined the Daniel Island Rotary Club. “Integrating into the community here was easy,” he says. “There are so many ways to get involved.”

When the devastating earthquake struck Haiti last month, WMI was quick to respond, and the Daniel Island community was quick to provide support. Island-based fundraising efforts raised more than $17,000, enough to send an additional Living Water™ Treatment System (LWTS) to Haiti (since the disaster, WMI has sent more than ten LWTSs to Haiti each week). The Daniel Island Rotary Club mobilized to organize “A Sip of Daniel Island,” a fundraising event scheduled for March 3. DI Rotary is also partnering with the Charleston Lunch Rotary Club to fund and implement a safe water project serving six needy communities and approximately 10,000 people in Iquitos, Peru in April.

“While our disaster response in Haiti is making news these days, community development projects in places like Iquitos, Peru continue to be implemented in order provide sustainable access to safe water to communities in daily need,” says Brad. “It’s a life-long mission, and the support of the Daniel Island community has been a blessing.”

To learn more about the incredible work of Water Missions International, and how you can help people throughout the world in need of safe water, visit www.watermissions.org.

Thanks to several Daniel Island-based organizations – and the quick and generous response of island residents, businesses and employees – thousands of people in Haiti will soon have access to fresh, clean, safe water as they continue their plight to recover from the devastating earthquake that struck earlier this year. Separate fundraising efforts led by Providence Baptist Church and the Daniel Island Company combined raised more than $17,000, enough to fund a Living Water™ Treatment System from Charleston-based Water Missions International (WMI). The System will be shipped to Haiti later this week.

The initiatives began in the days following the January 12th earthquake. Island residents wanted to do something to help, and island-based Providence Baptist Church agreed to coordinate efforts by collecting funds on behalf of WMI. More than $7,000 was quickly raised.

Meanwhile, the Employee Advised Fund (EAF) of the Daniel Island Company chipped in by making a $10,000 contribution to WMI. The EAF is funded by employees of the Daniel Island Company, Daniel Island Club and Daniel Island Property Owners Association, along with employees and sales associates at Daniel Island Real Estate. Voluntary payroll deductions and contributions are matched dollar-for-dollar by the Daniel Island Company. The $10,000 contribution marks the remainder of a four-year, $20,000 pledge to WMI that was initiated in 2008.

Representatives from Providence Baptist Church and the Daniel Island Company and its subsidiaries visited the WMI facility this week, where they adorned the treatment system with notes and prayers of hope for the people of Haiti. One resident brought notes from the students in her daughter’s second grade class at the Daniel Island School, which will be shipped along with the unit.

“On behalf of Water Missions International and the people of Haiti, we so appreciate the generosity of the Daniel Island residents, the Daniel Island Company, and Providence Baptist Church to provide the financial resources to implement a safe water system capable of providing safe water to 5,000 people as part of our disaster relief efforts,” said Brad Reed, President and Chief Operating Officer of WMI. “The personal notes and prayers written to the people of Haiti are a welcomed and meaningful part of connecting donors with recipients. We’ve already received two personal Emails from leaders of the receiving communities in Haiti thanking Water Missions International and our donors for the life saving provision of a safe water system.”

When the unit arrives, it will immediately be installed and capable of producing enough water to serve the daily needs of approximately 5,000 people in disaster relief. Hopefully, the notes and prayers from the people of Daniel Island will also provide some sense of hope for the people of Haiti that they are not alone in their plight.