Mattress storein North Charleston, SC

CHARLESTON S.C. (WCIV) — Wonderful things can happen when a community comes together.

Lowcountry non-profit, Metanoia SC, is listening to the people who live in North Charleston's Chicora-Cherokee neighborhood.

Over the past 20 years, Metanoia has been implementing programs to meet residents' needs to generate positive changes.

Shawn Saulsberry is the Board Chair of Metanoia.

"It's a huge responsibility because Metanoia is literally serving the area that I grew up in," Saulsberry said.

Saulsberry remembers growing up in what's known as "Charleston Heights," or the "Heights" in North Charleston.

The community played an important part in his childhood.

"I didn't have the organization that we have today, but somehow I ran across those metanoia-type people who saw me, and they invested in me."

His grandfather taught him the importance of entrepreneurship.

"My grandfather taught us to work hard at an early age. He would let us rent the lawnmower from him, and we would go and cut grass in the community, and we would get to keep the profits," Saulsberry said.

Now, as a Senior Manager at the accounting firm Ernst & Young, Saulsberry uses his background of a strong work ethic to encourage the youth in the neighborhood.

Metanoia serves as a youth leadership pipeline.

"I'm not the smartest or the brightest, but I do know how to work hard, and I also know how to have endurance and not stop and just encourage them. If you do those things eventually, you're gonna find what you love. You're gonna find what you want to do in life, and it's gonna work well for you," said Saulsberry.

Metanoia was launched in 2002 by a coalition of churches across South Carolina.

By definition, Metanoia certainly works well with the community it serves.

"It means to make a positive transformation, kind of take upon a positive change of direction," explained Metanoia CEO Reverend Bill Stanfield.

Rev. Stanfield and his wife Evelyn live in the Chicora-Cherokee neighborhood with their two teenage sons.

Before Metanoia's founding, the couple spent one year getting to know their neighbors and listening to their concerns.

"We really do believe people closest to communities know the solutions to their own problems," said Stanfield.

Stanfield saw this as an opportunity to build on the positive community members saw in their neighborhood.

And Metanoia did just that.

In addition to building leaders, it's the non-profit's mission to also establish quality housing within Chicora-Cherokee.

"We build new homes for some home buyers. We also build new homes for affordable rental, all within the community where prices are going up, and people are finding it hard to afford a place to live," said Stanfield.

The organization also invests in neighborhood assets. They support black businesses on Reynolds Avenue and have a partnership with a local manufacturing company to create jobs in the community.

"There's a systematic way of listening to the community and understanding what the community needs and then coming alongside the needs of the community and becoming an advocate for what the community wants to do," said Saulsberry.

If you'd like to nominate an individual or organization for a prestigious 'Jefferson Award, email your nomination to ABC News 4's Tessa Spencer.

One of the few remaining manufacturing facilities on the Charleston peninsula is scheduled to shut down before the new year as The Post and Courier shifts printing operations to a new location and a newer press in North Charleston.

The two gigantic presses in the former newspaper building at King and Columbus streets, an assemblage of machinery three stories tall and nearly the length of a city block, are expected to print their last editions in December.

The move to a new 48,000-square-foot facility and Evening Post Publishing’s related purchase of a 2008 Goss Magnum Single Width Press is “a big deal,” said Tom Harmon, the company’s director of facilities and manufacturing. “There are not a lot of companies that are investing in printing presses.”

Newspapers are increasingly focused on online subscriptions, which suit modern reading habits while avoiding the costs of printing and distributing papers, but The Post and Courier still delivers printed newspapers to more than 30,000 readers in the greater Charleston area each weekday.

The company will print most of the other 10 South Carolina newspapers it owns at the North Charleston site, as well as print publications it does not own and commercial printing jobs.

Evening Post Publishing Chairman of the Board Pierre Manigault said many community publications would have very limited printing options but for the company’s new press.

“I think a lot of the products that people in the Lowcountry are used to seeing are printed by us,” he said. “I think that, just like we are doing the Uncovered series and helping smaller community newspapers that don’t have the resources, we are trying to boost journalism in South Carolina.”

He said the press will also help the company diversify its revenue through commercial printing jobs.

“It is a pretty big investment, and we think it will pay for itself,” Manigault said.

Harmon said the newer press will do the work of the older two presses it is replacing more efficiently and with higher quality.

“In South Carolina, we are one of the main printers,” Harmon said. “That’s kind of our niche right now.”

Up close, the newer printing press is an imposing piece of machinery, 130 feet long and 40 feet wide. It consumes ink by the barrel and can rapidly turn a huge roll of paper into tens of thousands of printed, collated and folded newspapers, ready for delivery.

The former Post and Courier building in downtown Charleston has two older and larger presses, currently performing their final weeks of service. Replacing them at the World Trade Center industrial park in North Charleston is the newer press purchased from a seller in Sweden, which made its way to Charleston in multiple shipping containers.

Just creating a foundation for the machine in its new location involved eight truckloads of concrete, said Harmon.

“We’ve added a lot of upgrades and redid all the controls, and all the newest bells and whistles,” he said in November. “Right now, we’re at the stage where the press has been completely assembled and we’re going through the test process.”

A newer press in a new location is just one of many changes that followed the 2021 restructuring of Evening Post Industries, a company that traces its roots to The Courier newspaper founded in 1803.

More than 200 years later, the family-owned company was a multi-state business with interests in television stations, multiple newspapers, extensive real estate holdings on the Charleston peninsula, a forestry company, pharmaceutical company, a chain of hospices and a book publishing operation.

In recent years, those holdings were trimmed down, the television stations were sold off and so were the hospices. And in 2021, Evening Post Industries was split into three companies. Today, The Post and Courier and 10 other papers, along with book publishing, commercial printing and White Oak Forestry, are run by Evening Post Publishing Inc.

A different company, Evening Post Industries, owns about 12 acres of real estate on the Charleston peninsula, which is slated for a redevelopment called Courier Square. Those holdings include much of the land between King, Spring, St. Philip and Line streets, as well as the former newspaper building along the east side of King Street between Columbus and Line.

Previously, the company leased vacant land that it owns at Meeting and Columbus streets for the development of the $100 million The Guild apartments and the $38 million headquarters of Greystar, an international real estate manager and developer.

Evening Post Industries CEO Ron Owens said the company has received permission from Charleston’s Board of Architectural Review to demolish the block-long newspaper offices and manufacturing facilities at King and Columbus streets.

“We’re not going to tear it down right away because we don’t know what we’re going to build there,” he said, adding that plans will be worked on over the next year with input from community and civic groups.

The more immediate plans involve a large surface parking lot on the west side of King Street and surrounding properties owned by the company, where the company has received conceptual approval from the BAR for retail businesses, apartments and a senior living facility.

“If everything goes as planned, we should break ground late next year,” Owens said.

The Post and Courier is South Carolina’s largest news organization and has been expanding statewide, with reporters in Beaufort, Bluffton, Charleston, Columbia, Hilton Head, Greenville, Myrtle Beach, Rock Hill and Spartanburg.

“All of the expansion is digital, so that doesn’t affect the printing press,” Manigault said.

The Post and Courier is available in print and online in the greater Charleston area, and online elsewhere. Weekly editions of The Post and Courier are published in print for Columbia and Georgetown. Evening Post Publishing also publishes the daily Aiken Standard and weekly printed editions of the Moultrie News, Kingstree News, North Augusta Star, Summerville Journal Scene, Berkeley Independent and Goose Creek Gazette.

“We’ve been looking at this whole thing since the split-up of Evening Post Industries a year ago, and we’re really looking at it (Evening Post Publishing) as a startup company,” he said. “It’s a little bizarre, looking at it as a 200-year-old startup, but that’s how it is, and we’re looking for the best ways a media company can operate in this era.”

Two new retail shops are ready to launch in a Target-anchored shopping center in North Charleston.

“Opening soon” and “Now hiring” signs are posted in front of Advance Auto Parts and Popshelf in North Rivers Towne Center at 7250 Rivers Ave.

They are splitting a formerly 31,433-square-foot vacant space next to a recently opened Buy Buy Baby store. The retail center is owned by LBX Investments of Los Angeles.

Popshelf is a new concept from Dollar General that offers home furnishings, party items, toys and beauty products. It’s geared toward the suburban shopper with a household income between $50,000 and $125,000, higher than Dollar General’s lower-income targeted customers.

Opening dates for the new stores have not been announced.

Tool time

Tool giant Harbor Freight plans to set up shop in Summerville.

The Calabasas, Calif.-based retailer recently signed an extended lease for a 16,000-square-foot structure to be built at 388 E. 5th North St., also known as U.S. Highway 78, about a block south of the Berlin G. Myers Parkway, according to Dorchester County land records.

The 1.43-acre site, owned by Henbell Summerville HFT LLC of Augusta, Ga., sits east of a Spinx convenience store and gas station and next to Sawmill Branch. It also abuts a retail center where Planet Fitness and Palmetto State Armory are located.

Harbor Freight’s lease is for 15 years with five five-year renewal options. The agreement also grants the tenant the first right of refusal to purchase the property.

On the way

In northern Mount Pleasant, Red Bird Hospitality Group LLC plans to open a new Bohemian Bull tavern and beer garden in January in a 6,143-square-foot space at 2668 U.S. Highway 17.

The franchise location for the new bar and grill is the former site of Carrabba’s Italian Grill. It’s also near the newly opened Cabana Burgers & Shakes at 2664 Highway 17.

Bohemian Bull’s flagship venue is on Folly Road on James Island. Another restaurant is in Greenville, with a new site coming to Mauldin in the Upstate and another in Grapevine, Texas.

What’s cooking?

A Connecticut-based restaurant specializing in rotisserie chicken is close to opening in the Charleston area.

El Pollo Guapo recently applied for its state alcohol license at 1130 Folly Road on James Island where Black Magic Café operated before closing its last Lowcountry location in September after 13 years.

The new restaurant will offer whole roasted chickens, sides, tacos, rice bowls, salads, desserts and other items.

The company’s website says it plans to open by the end of the year and bring a food truck.

Cleaning up

Two new car washes are on the way to the Centre Pointe development in North Charleston.

Whistle Express, part of Charlotte-based Magnolia Wash Holdings, is building its first South Carolina location beside Mellow Mushroom on Tanger Outlet Boulevard while Tommy’s Express plans to take over the former Burger King site at Centre Pointe Drive and Tanger Outlet Boulevard near Walmart and Tanger Outlets.

Michigan-based Tommy’s Express has two other locations in the Charleston area on Ashley Phosphate Road in North Charleston and Trolley Road in Summerville. Opening dates have not been announced for either location.

Rolling in

A luxury rental transportation business recently added a second U.S. location in Charleston.

Double Black set up office at 310 Broad St. but has a vehicle lot at 1211 Palm St. in Hanahan. Its other location is in Jackson Hole, Wyo. Case Resor is the owner of both sites, which offer transportation services and party buses for weddings, parties and other outings.

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C.—The new year brought Shen Yun Performing Arts to South Carolina, where Shen Yun put on its first of two performances on Jan. 2.

Frank Iler, the representative for Brunswick County in North Carolina to the State House of Representatives, was in the audience this evening.

“It’s fantastic,” said Mr. Iler regarding New York-based Shen Yun’s performance. “It’s very different from what we’re used to. We have concerts of different kinds, but we have nothing as exciting as this.”

Shen Yun is dedicated to sharing China before communism with audiences around the world. It uses material from China’s 5,000 years of culture to enrich its productions year after year.

“I’m very anti-communist. It didn’t take long for me to understand that. As a child, I always wanted to go to China. Today, I would not go. I never got to go, but I would not try to go today because of the politics in China,” Mr. Iler said.

“I think the classical performances, the classical traditions there are fantastic,” he said.

Shen Yun‘s website tells us that Chinese culture was influenced by the divine. Shen Yun draws upon ancient Chinese legends and literature as a source of inspiration.

“It did point to God, and we all have different ideas of what God is. But it’s very good. It’s excellent, the way it brought out the divine creation and the traditions,” Mr. Iler said.

Also in the audience, this evening was Debbie Smith, mayor of the small beach town of Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina.

“It was absolutely wonderful, beautiful. The movements, the dance, you could tell they’re very practiced and very talented and obviously dedicated artists in their field,” Ms. Smith said.

Shen Yun’s artists are trained in classical Chinese dance. Through dance and music, the artists aspire to share beauty and hope with the audience.

“I would say it was very touching. Made you think about a lot of things, life, how you should live, how you should not live,” Ms. Smith said.

“I would say [the performance] was five-star, and I would highly recommend it to anyone,” she said.

Reporting by Frank Xie and Maria Han.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts. We have covered audience reactions since Shen Yun’s inception in 2006.

Christine Crawford and Allison Dunavant are painting the town — literally.

They run a mural-painting business called Girls Who Paint Murals. Mostly based in Charleston and Columbia — and occasionally working in other states along the East Coast — Crawford and Dunavant didn’t expect to be painting murals for a living.

Before their paths crossed, Crawford studied marketing in college and Dunavant was an art professor before they each realized they preferred being artists.

“I met this person who wanted help on a wall, and I kind of fell in love with painting walls,” Crawford said. “I was like, ‘Oh, I’m actually pretty good at this. Let me just continue it.’ I find a lot of joy in it.”

They were running their own individual mural businesses — Dunavant in Charleston and Crawford in Columbia — but started to collaborate after Dunavant reached out to Crawford on Instagram in 2021.

“I got a really large project for the Boys and Girls Club of Hilton Head, and they needed it done in three days,” Dunavant said. “I reached out to her and was like, ‘Hey, want to work with me on this project? Because I physically can’t do it by myself.’ We just worked so well together that now we kind of do everything together.”

After the initial success in Hilton Head, they merged to become Girls Who Paint Murals. They’ve been working together for around a year now, and have since painted over 50 murals. Their work appears at an Airbnb in Park Circle, Low Tide Brewing, the Medical University of South Carolina, Bodega CHS, Rivers Avenue and Red’s Ice House.

They have also done some work out of state. Crawford said the two traveled to Washington D.C. and the Maryland area to work on a mural and some signs for Amazon Fresh.

The subjects of the murals are based on what their clients want, and a include things like portraits and scenes from nature.

Both said their murals have been well-received in all the locations they’ve painted.

“We did one for the city of Conway, and it seemed like people in that particular community really enjoyed that,” Dunavant said. “They felt like their community wasn’t being neglected, and the city was actually thinking of them and bringing a public art piece to them.”

Kyle Lahm, director of the North Charleston cultural arts department, expressed support of public art and the murals Crawford and Dunavant painted in the city.

“The collaborative spirit of the artists behind Girls Who Paint Murals is something that we admire and wholeheartedly support,” Lahm wrote in an email. “The more public art we can invite into our area, the better.”

Crawford said painting murals is more of a male-dominated industry. Dunavant pointed out it’s mostly because of the physical aspect.

“Even setting up the scaffold with just the two of us, it’s fairly heavy,” Dunavant said. “It’s a very physical component, which is why I think it tends to be more male-heavy in this field.”

She noted that they’ve seen more women start painting murals. She thinks it’s because murals are becoming trendier, and more businesses are wanting them.

Crawford said she hopes to inspire other women to get into the mural industry.

“Sometimes it is so male-dominated that women are kind of afraid to take the next step,” Crawford said. “But like we say, that’s the best thing to do. Just get right into it, take that risk.”

Dunavant said while the business is still taking off, she hopes to provide educational resources to other artists. She wants to help artists learn more about treating art as a business.

“Having been to grad school for studio art, I think that’s very much neglected,” she said. “A lot of people aren’t really taught that they can do art as a lucrative career.”

For more information, visit their Instagram account girlswhopaintmurals.