For more than a year now, experts have been saying that the Great Recession is over. That might be true, but its effects continue to linger. Maybe linger is too light a word. How about hang over us. Lurk around every corner. Keep us up at night.  While South Carolina’s unemployment rate has improved by half a percent recently, we still maintain the fifth highest in the country. Nearly 15 percent of South Carolina households regularly struggle to put food on the table and five percent regularly hold back or cut meals, including children. More

TAG Question of the Week

With the holidays sitting right before us, it’s the season of giving – and in many ways for our kids, the season of getting. Christmas lists are being prepared and Santa will be available for conversations regarding our wishes very soon. It’s exciting – there’s so much we NEED:  A new bike. Clothes for our American Girl Dolls. Designer jeans. The latest iPhone, Xbox, tablet.

In the midst of all the hubbub, many families make an effort to come together as a group and do something for others during this season and there are so many different opportunities available at this time of year. More

Belinda Gergel, Columbia City Council, proudly made the Conversation Pledge.

Maybe you’ve been mulling it over. Yes, you want to raise generous children. Yes, you’re concerned about the future of our community. You value the act of helping others and supporting causes that are meaningful. You see the significance in ensuring that your kids understand the value of a dollar, the importance of helping others, and that they develop compassionate hearts.

You’re just not sure where to start? More

Four Generations

Perhaps you read or saw in the news yesterday or today that Riverbanks Zoo and Garden recently received its largest bequest in its 37-year history. An unrestricted gift of $863,000 from Melinda Poole Grizzell, a Lexington resident who moved to the Midlands about 20 years ago and passed away earlier this year.

It’s an incredibly generous gift and the Zoo and our community will benefit greatly. But while reading the news articles online last night, it wasn’t the size of the gift that struck a chord with me; but the underlying theme of legacy. More

The author and her young cousin, Andi Grae.

Exhausted from this unrelenting, confusing senior semester, my fall break goal was to do nothing, which I almost accomplished in the best of ways: I went home, something I’ve barely done in 2011. While in Sumter, I spent a day with my cousin Vicki and her eight-year-old daughter, Andi Grae. Quality time with Vicki, who is more like my big sister, is the best—a now too-rare occurrence involving cookie dough, sharing stories and good advice. I’ve learned a lot from Vicki. As a 22-year-old, good parenting isn’t a skill that I look to pick up from her yet, and she doesn’t usually dole it out to me in the loving, invested nature with which she helps me reach decisions. On this most recent visit, however, I learned an important lesson from Vicki about being a good parent, a giving parent. Her message wasn’t directed at me but instead at Andi Grae.  More