Vivian Urriola is an athlete. Her sport: Wrestling. She is a member of the Reverence Wrestling Club in Bluffton and a rising freshman at May River High School. Vivian was one of five Beaufort County female youth wrestlers who competed at the Southeast Regionals Tournament hosted by USA Wrestling in Cherokee, NC. This competition was a qualifying tournament for the 2023 US Marine Corps Junior and 16U Nationals, a national Freestyle and Greco tournament held every year in Fargo, ND. Vivian competed in the 16U, 117 pound class and is the only female at Reverence Wrestling Club who competed in both Freestyle and Greco Roman wrestling. She won first place in Freestyle and came in second place in Greco. These wins were her ticket to Fargo.

Morgan Smith began volunteering with the Special Olympics in the sixth grade.

Her introduction to volunteerism began in an untraditional way. Born and raised in Hilton Head, Morgan had difficulty making friends in elementary school. She arrived early on her first day of middle school and met Kathy Cramer, a special education teacher. Morgan watched from the curb as Kathy unloaded some equipment from her car. Kathy asked Morgan to help her. They unloaded the equipment, and Morgan then helped Kathy's students as they got off the bus. “All of these kids wanted to be my friend! I felt included and welcomed,” said Morgan. From that day forward, Morgan helped Kathy and those children with intellectual disabilities each and every day until she went to college. Little did she know that her chance meeting would later lead to the rewarding career she now loves.

Cool art vibes saturate the air in every form and medium in the Lowcountry, one of the most beautiful natural canvases on earth. With all the surrounding beauty, it’s no wonder the Lowcountry is teeming with creative minds and talented artists. Some do it for fun. Some do it for a living. All do it to nourish their organic need to create. Welcome to our fourth edition of Lowcountry Originals, where you will meet seven dynamic artisans, all filled with creative energy and verve for their work. They have allowed us a peek into their creative worlds, revealed their fears and doubts, told us what inspires them and given us insight into their processes.

Enjoy a creative stroll and step into the Lowcountry art scene>>

When and how did you discover your artistic talent?
It was in the late 1980s when I first became aware of my talent to sculpt! I created a bust of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for my daughter’s elementary school display in honor of Martin Luther King Day. According to all spectators, it was an astonishing likeness! I remember the rants and raves about how talented I was. Still, I didn’t get it yet! I couldn’t be an artist! So, I tucked it all away.

When and how did you discover your artistic talent?
It was in the late 1980s when I first became aware of my talent to sculpt! I created a bust of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for my daughter’s elementary school display in honor of Martin Luther King Day. According to all spectators, it was an astonishing likeness! I remember the rants and raves about how talented I was. Still, I didn’t get it yet! I couldn’t be an artist! So, I tucked it all away.

When and how did you discover your artistic talent? 
Growing up on Hilton Head, I was always surrounded by music. My father played guitar and piano and Mother sang. Many nights after dinner were spent harmonizing together with Dad playing guitar. Singing was always how I expressed myself. The acting came later when I discovered theatre.

When and how did you discover your artistic talent? What do you love about it?
All I know is my mom has a cassette tape hidden somewhere for safe keeping of me singing “Sarah” by Starship at 2-years-old. I have memories of singing from very early childhood. “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” is the song I remember learning all the words to first; I would not stop singing it. I love to sing because it is fun and therapeutic, both for us as musicians and for the crowds!

When and how did you discover your artistic talent? How and/or why did you choose this medium? What do you love about it?
Thirty-plus years ago, I had a very wise boss who recognized signs of corporate burnout in me and told me to find a hobby. I explored classes in various mediums, but none resonated with me. Then, I took a glass blowing glass and fell in love! I’m drawn to the illusion of texture and movement found in glass. And glass is shiny. Like a squirrel, I am drawn to the shiny factor! Although it became apparent my talent didn’t lie in glass blowing, my instructor recognized my passion and introduced me to fused glass. Embracing this new avenue of artistic expression, I began taking classes and found my niche. Glass continued to be my creative outlet throughout my corporate journey and is now my full-time passion.

When and how did you discover your artistic talent?
I discovered my artistic talent in December 2015. My family’s business, Pender Brother’s, bought the contract to purchase the last two and one-half miles of the Port Royal Railroad in 2011. When we purchased the contract to take up that section of railroad, we also purchased the rights to keep what we took up, meaning we kept the rock, rail, crossties, spikes, clips, and plates. They wanted to scrap everything, but I kept insisting we could do something with it. We sold off most of it, but kept the spikes, along with some clips, plates, and rail. I was scrolling Facebook a few weeks before Christmas and saw a picture of a horseshoe Christmas tree on someone’s page. I shared it to my page thinking “I can make that.” A few days later my husband and I were in the shop, and he took a few horseshoes my dad had, and laid them out into the shape of a Christmas tree and said, “Here honey, weld that together.” I did, which prompted me to make the words “Love” and “Joy” out of the spikes. And that started it all.

When and how did you discover your artistic talent? How and/or why did you choose this medium?
I am thrilled to be able to paint. The first time a painting made an impression on me was when I was 8 or 9 years old. It was a painting of garden flowers done on silk fabric. The painter was Shin Saimdang who was a poet and painter in the 1500s in Korea. She is the first woman painter celebrated in Korea. I wanted to paint like her. However, that desire didn’t have a chance to grow when my middle school art teacher said, “You don’t have the talent.” It had to wait 30 some years until I was old enough to say, “I want to do what I really want to do.” Meanwhile, I obtained a Masters in Public Health and worked as a nutritionist.

Jessica Duke had a longtime career as a staff nurse at a hospital, until things changed five years ago.

Born and bred in Beaufort, SC, Jessica earned an associate degree in nursing at Technical College of the Lowcountry, a bachelor’s degree in nursing and a master’s degree in hospital care administration.

After years of working in a brick-and-mortar hospital setting, Jessica is now able to help larger groups of people, opposed to individual patients, in a constantly changing environment.

Crystal Abitz created a beautiful logo for her company. It is a feather with tiny birds flying off the end of the words, as well. She explains it like this: “Birds drop their feathers; it’s what they leave behind, and it’s how we know they were here. Our legacy is what we leave behind. What is your legacy?”

Sitting with Crystal in a coffee shop was fun, as well as thought-provoking. She talked about her growing up years, college, and fun experiences, and just as easily went into deeper subjects, such as priorities, personal worth, values, and purpose.

Crystal grew up in Appleton, Wisconsin, and met her husband there, although he was a friend of her brother, and she was just “the kid sister.” Tony is a few years older than Crystal, and when he graduated from high school, he left and joined the Marines. They sent handwritten letters to each other through his first deployment to Iraq. Crystal saved all the letters she received from Tony for posterity, even the smudged ones. Time went by, and they continued their individual journeys.

Blanca Gregory loves a good adventure.

Blanca came to the United States from Mexico to help her older sister, Maria, with her new baby. She met her soon-to-be husband a month later and moved to Charlotte in 1996. In 2010, when her life changed and it was time to move on, Blanca relocated to Bluffton where another brother and sister lived. In keeping with Mexican tradition, Blanca’s family has always remained close. One of five children, Blanca looked up to Maria as a role model and mentor. Maria encouraged Blanca to seize life and to be adventurous—advice Blanca not only took to heart, but also eventually embraced full-throttle.

Sara Jane Stroupe was only four years old when she first traveled to Europe. Even at such a young age, Sara Jane remembers those childhood trips. Her grandmother, Bette Anderson, who is now 95 years old, was appointed undersecretary to the Treasury by President Jimmy Carter. She also served on the board of International Telephone & Telegraph (ITT), which owned Sheraton Hotels at that time. Sara Jane said every year ITT would hold their board meetings in Europe. Along with her Mom, Dad and sister, they would travel with her grandmother. Little Sara Jane got to visit Switzerland, England, Italy, France, and Germany.

This is a story of three best friends.

Meet Emily Webb: Born and bred in Beaufort, S.C., Emily is the local “Baby Settler.” She works as a Registered Nurse and Lactation Consultant for Baby Settler Consulting, helping new parents in their homes along with providing in-patient lactation consulting at Coastal Carolina Hospital. She enjoys all things coastal and is happiest on a dock, boat, or beach.

Meet Jordan Plair: Born and bred in Beaufort, S.C., Jordan is a music teacher at Riverview Charter School, vocalist, and mother of two. Jordan is also the owner of Bake Mama Bake and enjoys learning new skills and baking incredible desserts for friends and family.

Meet Sara Couto: Mother of two and military spouse to Jorge. Sarah and her family were stationed in Iwakuni, Japan, in August 2021 and are still there.

Consider the fact that one in four pregnancies ends in miscarriage. Imagine leaving the hospital with an empty baby carrier knowing you must now plan a funeral. Rebecca Childers-Fairchild and her husband, Luke Fairchild, have experienced this loss nine times.

Through the grief and pain, God gave them a mission: To help others who experience child loss. They launched Fifty-Eleven Things, a three phase business and ministry. Their mission is to design and distribute Christ-centered products, resources, and experiences that will become household tools for managing life, strengthening marriages, processing grief and promoting healing. They started by creating and marketing journals to help others “seek peace in the messy” and will use the proceeds to move to phase two—resources and classes to strengthen marriages and offer helpful tools after child loss. Phase three is to build retreat experiences for families as they process grief related to child loss. “It’s all in God’s hands, all designed to find peace in the messy,” Rebecca said.

“I was raised in a large family with 10 children,” said Gwendolyn Green of Bluffton. “I was the second-oldest and ran the household. My mother worked two jobs but she had a caring heart. Our house was the house where all the neighborhood children came. I got used to caring for the neighbors’ children, too, and picked up a motherly spirit.”

Gwendolyn married young and dreamed of becoming a mother and having a large family. During this marriage, which ended after 11 years, she had two jobs in which she worked with children as a substitute teacher and in a daycare.

Two families’ lives changed forever on the night of December 4, 2021. Around 10:30 p.m. at the intersection of Becks Ferry Road and Old Charleston Highway in Hardeeville, JonPaul Gonzalez, 19, of Bluffton, and Madison Klepesky, 18, of Philadelphia, died in a tragic car accident. JonPaul, also known as JP and Jonny, and Madison were killed when their car was struck by another motorist. The USCB Students, who were dating and wearing seatbelts, died instantly at the scene of the crash.

What did you love most about having your first child?
My initial answer to this question is for the first time in a while, I didn't feel like I needed to cover up at the beach! (HaHa) But I'm sure you want something deeper: I loved discovering the magnitude of what my body could do. Honestly my journey with postpartum advocacy and studying to become a doula started with my amazement at my body bringing life into the world. I was reading all the books because I wanted to know more and learn how it works.The fact that my internal organs were shifting to make way for my uterus to hold my baby was mind-blowing. 

I knew Martha O’Regan had “twin” girls, but I never understood how exactly they could be since they were in different grades and looked so very different. (My mother always said don’t ask personal questions.) Well, now I know, and it is a mystical, magical, Mama Bear story like no other you’ve ever heard.

Martha and her husband Michael sadly lost three pregnancies back in the ‘90s and decided to adopt to get the baby they longed for. They filled out the arduous paperwork for a Chinese orphan and received an approval in early July of 1998. Four days later, guess what? Martha was pregnant again. Knowing this pregnancy might not be successful, as the other three had been, they decided to stay calm, and just see what happened. The pregnancy continued beautifully as they headed into the final trimester—the same time they received word that a baby girl would be available for pickup in China in April.

The Riccardi name in Italy goes back centuries with possible ties to the Medici’s, an art-loving family of wealthy bankers (and three popes), who helped usher in the Renaissance in Florence. Rob Riccardi of Bluffton is a proud, first-generation American who grew up in the suburbs of Pittsburgh. His father grew up in Naples, Italy, during the hard times of WWII, and his mother was born in a small town in Calabria. Rob said five families with a total of 10 children—all aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents—lived within two miles of his home in Pennsylvania.

This close-knit family honored the customs they acquired in Italy, particularly those regarding food, wine, and sharing. Traditional wine and Italian meats top the list in Italian cuisine, so the Riccardi family made wine, while the Mancuso and Castanzo families made sausages, capocollo and other delicacies—all to share with one another.

First of all, where in the world are you right now?
Haha! We are currently in Benson, Arizona. Benson is known for Kartchner Caverns, a massive limestone cave known for the world’s longest stalactite formation. It is also centrally located to many birding hotspots.

You are a retired nurse and business owner, now you travel across America with your husband in an RV. Tell us what is on your things-to-do list these days.
We still have daily chores, cleaning, laundry, and maintenance items. When we don’t have a day of chores planned, we are off chasing birds or exploring the surrounding area. During this leg of our trip we have visited Tombstone, Kartchner Caverns, the Coronado National Forest and many birding spots.

Najmah Dr. Najmah Thomas is a young woman with lots of energy. She is a professor at University of South Carolina Beaufort in the Public Health and Human Services Program and the African American Studies minor. However, her first love is the family farm. Her parents, Bertha Mae and Alphonia, established the Earth People Farms and way of life in the late ‘70s on St. Helena Island, and their children, Najamah, Glen, and Nature, are carrying on the ways of the African Gullah/Geechee heritage.

Najmah shared that her parents did not go to regular doctors if they were sick. They had knowledge of and experience with plants, trees, and herbs growing right on their property and knew which ones to use for various ailments. Today the siblings have a new wooden structure, called the EP Farmacy, which is well stocked with drying plants and small batch bottles of oil, tinctures, bags of tea, T-shirts, and charts to guide customers back to the old ways of maintaining good health. Of course, there is a disclaimer that these remedies, while used for generations, have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.

Lucy Rosen first fell in love with the Lowcountry in 2015 when she arrived to help a business acquaintance open a new medical practice and spa in Bluffton. Noting the area’s rapid expansion and an absence of marketing and public relations agencies, Lucy sensed an opportunity, put down roots, and made the Lowcountry her home. An abundance of natural beauty in her new surroundings fired up Lucy’s creative pistons: personally and professionally.

By day, Lucy owns and runs Smart Marketing Communications, a full-service marketing and public relations firm headquartered in Bluffton with satellite offices in New York, New Mexico, and North Carolina. She is President of Women on the Fast Track, a nationally recognized networking organization for women in business. Dubbed “The Queen of Networking,” Lucy also authored a book titled, Fast Track Networking: Turning Conversations Into Contacts, which reveals tips for expanding professional networks and building new relationships.

Have you ever heard the call of a whippoorwill in the early evening? Or been fascinated watching an egret catch a frog on the shore of a lagoon? Or even just closed your eyes to relax in the sun and watch the kaleidoscope of colors on your “movie screen” eyelids? Nature calls in subtle ways: a whisper; a gentle breeze; or no sound at all. Mother Nature calls us to engage with her, to bask in her beauty and find refuge in her tranquility.

Jill Moore, a master naturalist, answered the call and wants everyone to experience the glory that is nature. “The Lowcountry has one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world,” she said. “Everything in nature has a different theme depending on the time of year and the place, like the salt marsh and the tides, the birds, spartina grass, and dolphins. It’s surprising how different the same place can be each time. You might see an alligator eating a bird, or a great blue heron eating a snake, or dolphins strand-feeding.”

There are many healthy choices that can make your life better, however, when you turn even one healthy choice into a habit, your wellness can begin to soar. Most people have no idea how much better they could feel—mind, body and spirit—if they only incorporated a few, small, healthy changes into their daily routine. Hands down, health is the greatest wealth there is, and everyone has the ability to make good choices for their best—or at least better—health.

You are a powerhouse at self-care.
Tell us the importance of self-care and when you realized it was important to you.
I realized in my 30s when I was diagnosed with asthma; I wanted to learn what was necessary to not suffer from this condition and be on a nebulizer for the rest of my life. This started my journey of study and practice, which eventually eliminated asthma from my life, as well as cigarette addiction, clinical depression, and anxiety. I am 78 years old now, take no meds, and have supported people to “be well” for the past 33 years.

What elements are most important to you in your self-care journey?
What do each of them bring to your quality of life?
The elements most important to me in my self-care journey are to live with an open heart, a clear mind, and a healthy body. An open heart is my source of joy and peace. I am approachable to all people without fear, even if we are not totally in agreement. My open heart also allows me to be grateful for everything. My clear mind helps me make decisions that are healthy for me. My body is able to get around freely and is not limited by constrictive conditions.

How do you even begin when the journey ahead seems impossible? Melinda Ables Bush’s answer is “by taking baby steps.”

Melinda has had a rough seven years. It all started when the car she was driving was run off the road, causing her to hydroplane, jump the bridge guardrail and nosedive 35 feet into a muddy ravine. First responders gave her little hope. She had broken every bone in her pelvis multiple times, split her head open down to her skull, and had three compression fractures in her spine, not to mention contusions, cuts, scrapes and bruises. In addition, there were mental aspects to deal with in not allowing a death-defying plunge to overtake her psyche.
Unfortunately, anxiety, panic, claustrophobia, and depression became her nemeses during her healing process.

Why is social time important to you?
I believe social time is just as important for our health as physical activity and diet. I just heard someone say, “When we replace ‘I’ with the word ‘we’, we go from illness to wellness. It’s not healthy to miss out on social time!

Variety is the spice of life—how do you mix it up socially?
I have several social circles. I am part of a women’s Bible study group that meets at our church (Hilton Head Island Community Church) on Tuesday mornings. I am part of a bunco group that meets once a month, I am a member of a book club that meets once a month, and I organized and am still an active member of the Low Country Kappa Delta Alumnae Chapter. I workout with an amazing core group of friends at Pure Barre, and we typically get together for happy hour or dinner once a month. Our neighborhood (River Club) is extremely active, and Mike and I attend socials with neighbors at least once a month. In addition, I find volunteer work rewarding. I am on the board of HH Backpack Buddies and serve as its coordinator at our church, leading volunteers in packing food bags for students at our public schools once a month. I participate in volunteer opportunities with my sorority alumnae chapter, as well, and I’m a small group leader and a greeter at church.

You are a nature girl. When did the great outdoors
become an important part of your life? 
I remember being a kid and always playing outside with no shoes on because I just preferred to feel the ground under my feet. I loved building forts in the woods and staying out until the street lights came on. As a young adult, I started running on Sundays with my Dad, which to this day, is still one of my favorite outdoor weekend traditions.

How has your dedication to nature impacted your life and well-being?
I honestly did not realize until I was much older how healing and powerful Mother Nature truly is. I feel the most connected to myself when I’m outdoors, and get a sense of clarity on things that fog my mind. As crazy as it sounds, I feel called to be in nature when I am trying to sort things out or make big decisions.