The Opinion Blog

Balconies Aren't Made for Jumping

The Sun News file photo

Thursday’s first editorial is a helpful PSA as we near the beginning of tourist season:

Stay on the balconies, folks.

With winter nearly in our rearview mirror, tourist season is approaching once more. Restaurants and mini golf courses are reopening, businesses are putting the finishing touches on new looks, and hotels are ready to welcome the first waves of guests to our shore. With that influx comes the likelihood that visitors will be tumbling again off the balconies of those hotels. It’s an unfortunate and dangerous annual trend we see year after year.

Take Food Limits Off the Table

 Friday’s editorial is on SNAP benefits and restricting unhealthy foods:

We’ve all watched belts loosen over recent decades as America struggles to keep its weight under control. The resulting health issues are quickly becoming a national crisis that threaten to exacerbate already rapidly growing health care costs. But becoming the government food police is not the answer.

Wellness Council Spreads Message of Health

Tuesday’s second editorial highlights the good work of one of the lesser known nonprofits in the area:

Kristi Falk is on a mission: “to get people in the area healthier.”

The former owner of a health food store in Conway, Falk parlayed that experience first into five years of putting on the Wellness Expo of Myrtle Beach at the city’s convention center. From there, she founded the Wellness Council for South Carolina in 2006. The nonprofit council seeks to teach local residents how to be healthy people in all aspects of their lives, whether nutrition or recycling, exercise or emotions.

Golfers Needed for Lions Event

Wednesday’s first editorial highlights the annual golf tournament by the South Strand Lions:

Members of the South Strand Lions Club are hoping for good weather on March 2, the date of the Lions’ sixth annual charity golf tournament at Wachesaw Plantation East -- or at least better conditions than the event experienced last year when a downpour reduced the number of participants and limited play to nine holes.

A Postcard from Myrtle Beach's Moral Pit

Tuesday’s editorial:

If the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce isn’t already advertising around Pigeon Forge, Tenn., perhaps it’s time to start. We’ve even got a suggested slogan ready.

Myrtle Beach: We’re not as morally bankrupt as you might think.

Coastal Rescue Mission in Need

Wednesday's first editorial profiles how one local food pantry is struggling to continue its mission:

Gwen Woody, the founder of Coastal Rescue Mission in Myrtle Beach, says “my biggest fear” is that all 1,500 of the mission’s client families might show up to receive food on the monthly distribution day.

A Good Chance to Give Back

Friday’s editorial urges some local philanthropy as we near the end of National Hunger and Homeless Awareness Week:

The mercury is dropping, the nights are getting longer and it’s that time of the year when many of us long to spend the cold days curled up in a warm house with a good book and a mug of something hot.

For many in our area, that’s simply not an option.

Shopping at the Food Pantry

Tuesday's
editorial profiles the good work going on at the North Strand Helping Hand, which recently installed a new director:

The new director of North Strand Helping Hand promises “good things” for the nonprofit, which serves many families from its headquarters at 2501 Long Bay Road, off S.C. 90 in Longs.

Peter Casamento, who calls himself “a Jersey boy,” took over the Helping Hand operation in September following the departure of Margaret Owens who took a job with Clemson University. Casamento wants to tweak the food distribution process to make the food pantry one of client choice. This was the case at the pantry of Our Lady Star of the Sea, started by Casamento while he was a pastoral associate at the North Myrtle Beach church. “They came in, then went shopping [and] they left with goods they wanted,” he said.

Sausage Success Helps Buddies Fill Backpacks in 23 Schools

Wednesday’s editorial highlights the good work and successful summer campaign of Help4Kids’ Backpack Buddies program:

Twenty-three years ago after Hurricane Hugo struck coastal South Carolina, three women “went out to do a little volunteer work and found such a need,” Help4Kids founder Barb Mains recalls. In 1989, Mains was with her sister Aileen Page, also still involved with Help4Kids, and a friend, Lee Dougherty, who has moved to Alabama.

More than two decades later, Backpack Buddies snacks are distributed at 23 Horry County schools during the school year – 2,400 every week. The weekend snacks are distributed on Fridays to the backpacks of children who otherwise might not have much to eat over the weekend. The bags of snacks include little cans of Vienna sausages, a favorite of many youngsters from all economic levels.

Feed the Hunger Area Pack-A-Thon

Wednesday’s editorial highlights an upcoming effort to pack food for hungry folks around the world. And don’t miss the column by The Sun News Editorial Board member DG Schumacher that urges us to keep food aid such as this out of politics.

Feed the Hunger does just that for impoverished children in nations such as Haiti, Jamaica and halfway around the globe in Sri Lanka. In those places and others, $65 will feed a child for an entire school year. They eat nutritious meals bagged, sealed and boxed in events such as the third Grand Strand Pack-A-Thon next month.