Tracy Richter Town of Mount Pleasant events planner.
Listen in as Lisa Richart-Hernandez talks with her long-time friend Tracy Richter- Event Coordinator for The Town of Mount Pleasant and all the events that are going on. You will get some great tips on places to visit and just an overall experience of what is going on in town, activities and events hosted by the Town of Mount Pleasant.
Lisa RichartHernandez
hi friends welcome back to living in Charleston podcast. I’ve got a great show for you today I’ve got my dear friend, Tracy Richter, the event planner for the town of Mount Pleasant. She’s going to tell us all about the events going on east of the Cooper. So stay tuned.
intro
Welcome to Living in Charleston podcast with your host Lisa Richard Hernandez, a fun loving Charleston resident for over 25 years and a full time real estate agent with her pulse on everything Charleston, from where to live, to where to eat, what to do, where to tour, and who is who about living life in the low country of Charleston, South Carolina.
Lisa RichartHernandez
Hi, welcome back to living in Charleston Podcast. I’m Lisa RichartHernandez. And I have with me my special guest today, Tracy Richter from she’s the event planner from the town of Mount Pleasant. Welcome.
Tracy
Hi, how are you doing today?
Lisa RichartHernandez
Good. I’m so excited to have you. I know that all of our listeners are going to be like just really interested to find out all the different events. I have so many enquiries in my real estate business just about what happens in you know, what’s the town of Mount Pleasant, like so I’m just really excited for you to have an opportunity to tell us about some of the great events that you have and and what you do.
Tracy
Well, the town of Mount Pleasant is actually really fantastic. We have an amazing award winning recreation department. We actually are an accredited department which is like a national recognition and within that department is our special events is a community affairs and marketing division. And that handles the large town events that go on around the town. We run the farmers market, we plan the Christmas parade, we have a couple large festivals throughout the year. And then we’ve also have a lot more programs and athletics that are available for everybody that’s in the town and and people who just maybe work here that live out of town can take advantage of all those programs too. But I mainly focus on the large town events and the farmers market.
Lisa RichartHernandez
Okay, so i Everybody loves a good farmers market. Why don’t we start there since that’s like, what does every Tuesday
Tracy
is so our farmers market runs April through September, we’re what’s called a traditional Farmers Market, which means we only have food and farmers there’s no jewelry or artists and items at this market. It’s on Tuesday nights from 330 to seven. We have mainly farmers and extra added items like you know, kettle corn or jellies or jams or all the other stuff that you want to have to go along with the fruits and vegetables. Our items are all certified South Carolina, which means they all grow in the state of South Carolina. We don’t necessarily have the farmers grow everything that they sell, we do allow them to grow to they have to sell at least 50% of what they grow. But that way they’re able to sell apples or oranges or lemons or things that might grow in other parts of the state that don’t necessarily grow in the low country.
Lisa RichartHernandez
Oh, okay. Well I have been there before it like sometimes when you have food trucks they have do you have in some usually you have like a little music or something
Tracy
we do we have live music local musicians every week. We do have a generally food vendors every week not necessarily food trucks, we have barbecue or hot dogs are fresh seafood, steams shrimping comm get shrimp, they’re straight off with a boat. Oh, get it steamed. There’s also all the good snack ones, you know, like pork skins and fried or boiled peanuts and all those yummy treats. And then a lot of the other vendors do offer some sampling to so you can get the we’re happy to get back to sampling. It’s kind of something we had to do away with for a couple years. But you can definitely come and try an olive or try some jelly or chow chow or some of these crazy things that these vendors make up. So
Lisa RichartHernandez
yeah, yeah, I’ve I love to just wander around there. And I always end up sort of end up making it my dinner there just kind of wandering around. I don’t always necessarily purposefully go there to have dinner, but then I’ll just be like, oh look, this looks so good. I want to have that. And we’ll bring something home that’s great, like handmade pasta or something like that.
Tracy
Right. And we have that great facility. You know, the town put a lot of effort into making sure we have that open air pavilion, we have on ADA restrooms available, there’s parking, so it’s very easy to get to. Like I said it’s 337 April to September, but if you don’t want a big crowd come like 435 o’clock because from 330 to 430. April, May, August and September we also share that campus with the multi middle school. So it can get a little crowded, right as school gets out. Okay, but we’re there until seven every day and even in the rain. So I always say the vegetables have no problem B being in the rain. So you know come on out because the farmers they have to sell these items. They can’t hold them for a week. So if if you wake up on a Tuesday in the summer and it looks like it’s gonna rain a little bit, it’s a great chance for you to use your rain boots and that nice umbrella that you’ve never thought about you Come on out and still buy the vegetables and all the stuff. So because we’re there, so
Lisa RichartHernandez
yeah, that’s awesome. That’s awesome. Well, where can they find the farmers market? Can you tell us that?
Tracy
So we are located on Coleman Boulevard. We are right on the same corner of Coleman and Simmons by multi Middle School. We’re right across the Moultrie Plaza, which has that clock tower. So if you can find the clock tower on Coleman Boulevard, we’re right across the street from that and you can’t miss this. It’s a big open air pavilion So and there’s parking there. Parking a multi Plaza. There’s a stoplight with a crosswalk so you can get across the street to Oh,
Lisa RichartHernandez
yeah, yeah, that’s right. I forgot they’ve got that big parking lot across the street that you can easily park there. So yeah, that’s great. So also, you do all kinds of other events in the town of Mount Pleasant, which I love because sometimes there’s a side from COVID It’s almost like there’s always something going on. It seems like in my closet,
Tracy
we were so happy to get kind of we did get back last year we so we we missed about a full year, we did run the market all we have not not had the market. So that did run through the summer of 2020. But last year, so our our event season kind of starts, it’ll start in February, this year, we have a half marathon, that is gonna be the Park West recreation complex. So if you are a runner, this is a chance to get your half marathon action going on that that application, everything is open still, everything can be found on our website, which is to MP sc.com, or on our Mount Pleasant recreation Facebook page, or just send us emails, you can get the test all those things and everyone answers pretty quickly. So we have a half marathon in February. In March, we have the art fest which is you remember we yeah, we it’s at Town Center. It’s right there. We partner with Town Center for that event. It’s moved around a couple times within the complex, but I think we found a great home last year but that’s that’s kind of like one of the first chances a lot of these dance schools get a chance to come out perform in public. There is a chance to get out there and and showcase what they’ve learned. And we have arts and crafts for the kids. And of course there’s all the great shopping at Town Center. If you haven’t been there yet you definitely check out that and there’s of course free parking and there’ll be snacks and food and and all the vendors there that’s in March, usually this year, it’s March 12 That usually right around March 12. That second weekend in March then we roll into April we have the market opens on a on the first Tuesday in April. There’s a bridge run it’ll be that first weekend also this year.
Lisa RichartHernandez
Oh the Cooper River Bridge Ron and that brings in a lot of people right
Tracy
40,000 registrants on that one and I know registrations open for that too. So they’re very excited and I think this is the 40th year or the 45th years of anniversary years they’ve got a really cool poster is got the old bridge and the new bridge kind of both combined in there. So that’s kind of exciting. Oh yeah, this year and they have a big finish festival downtown but of course we start on Coleman Boulevard right at the farmers market. So that’s the starting line and early morning so if you live in that area be prepared to hear this the testing and everything
Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, and if you’re visiting the area be prepared for a bunch of full hotels and a lot of stuff going on around town because a lot of people come in from out of town to do that super
Tracy
fun and like the shuttles actually there’s a shuttle pickup at Town Center where we have the art fest so that Saturday you can park there and go go run the bright ridge and come back and do some shopping or whatever. So that starts April. The end of April is our seafood blessing fleet and Seafood Festival. That one is an all these town events are free the racist you have to register with the town events. There’s no admission for that events at our waterfront park. And it is one that has gone on for 35 years. We have East Coast party band we have a shag dance contest. We have a shrimp eating contest. They have a ceremonial blessing of the boats boat parade that will happen at the end of the pier. And it’s fun to be at the park. It’s also fun I’ve heard to be on a boat. I have not been on a boat during the blessing but I think some people have good time with that.
Lisa RichartHernandez
I think I’ve been on a boat and I haven’t been to the actual blessing. I’ve always seen it a lot of times on the water and it looks really fun. But it’s hard to give up like an opportunity to go for a ride on someone’s yacht to watch the the shrimp boats go by and it’s always a great like thing to look forward to in the spring for sure.
Tracy
It’s a nice fun event. We have an art craft show that goes on there because we have the contest we have beer garden, we have a T shirt sales and that event we actually we raise money we give it to a local charity and that charity is voted on by our town council. So the past recipients have been eco Meals on Wheels Louise kids Habitat for Humanity, just different ones. The charity has to benefit the East Cooper area doesn’t necessarily have to be a Mount Pleasant charity, but it needs to be a charity that benefits the Mount Pleasant area. I think we’ve had the Carolina children’s charities been in there before a couple different ones so okay. And we use that part of that is their volunteers come and help us with that event. So that’s an event that’s volunteer heavy. Okay, so the charity needs provide 50 volunteers, okay, they help us with setup t shirt sale, all kinds of stuff that thing so. So it’s super fun. That’s the end of April. And then I think may we’re okay June still farmers market and all those things. The town does not do a July 4 activity but pages point does July 4. So there is a July 4 thing is just not run by the town of Mount Pleasant.
Lisa RichartHernandez
Oh, I wondered about that because the Patriots points at the aircraft carrier, right? Yes. And they shoot fireworks off from there. A lot of people watch that in Mount Pleasant. That’s the thing to do for Fourth of July. Yep. If you’re on a boat, it’s awesome. Because you can go to the harbor and see all the different towns fireworks. Downtown James Island, Mount Pleasant.
Tracy
You can even watch it from the Waterfront Park where the blessing is. The county park actually manages that pier, Charleston County Parks and Recreation, which is separate from the town of Mount Pleasant, and they have a big event at the end of the year. That’s kind of fun. I think they call it Uncle Sam jam, and they have a band up there. And they should be bringing that back this year. I’m not sure if they had it last year, but hopefully it’ll be back this year. And then we get into July, we have our sweet grass artists and festival. And that’s a great event we the town ticket I have about two years or three years ago, but we’ve had two of them. And it’s a big art craft show with a lot of the basket makers. So if you’ve driven up or down 17, you’ve seen the basket makers, but you’ve never not wanted to stop. We have about 17 or 18 basket makers will be there and we have basket making classes. We have a music that spiritual gospel music comm people from all over the country come in and perform for this show. And we have artifacts does exhibits out there and we’ll have lots of fun food and that’s July 16th. Okay, the waterfront park and again, that’s a free event that there’s it’s arts and crafts, like Artisan like an artisan show. And
Lisa RichartHernandez
yeah, a lot of people that come into town when they drive down 17 They see these like stick sort of little shacks, like, yeah, on the side of the road. And a lot of people ask me, like, what is that over there? And I’m like, Oh, that’s really so sweet, grasping
Tracy
hands, right. And those basket stands. It’s funny, they’re kind of like passed down through the families, they are all like, they might be empty. But that doesn’t mean they’re like abandoned. That’s, that’s some family. So they’re, they’re not used at the time, or somebody is going to use it at some point in time. But they’re really actually all all, like belonging to somebody. There’s actually a woman in town and name is Jeanette Lee. And she kind of knows who Oh, who’s that every single one right off the top of her head because we have a commission in our department, the culture arts and pride commission, and one of their projects that doing this year is refurbishing those basket stands and so they’ve got a palette of colors so you’ve seen a couple of Bundang but there’s a blue, pink, green and yellow and they’ve they’re painting them all a color on the outside on the inside cleaning them all up so that they’re all gonna cut kind of be more more uniform. So that was kind of spearheaded by Corey Alston he’s actually a basket man family and and he wanted to help get those done. So that’s part of the cap Commission’s doing that and going through getting those cleaned up, but but the families all own those, that’s we get the baskets there too. So I think they’ve got four of them, or six of them done. There’s a lot but yeah, yeah, so and then we roll into August, we have our waterfront music and movie series. We have live music and a free outdoor movie every Friday in August, which is kind of a fun thing to do.
Lisa RichartHernandez
And that’s always a family friendly type of all of our events are family friendly.
Tracy
Yep, this one you can bring picnics, we’ve got a great playground, they just put a new toy at the playground. So it’s been refurbished a little bit and it’s usually like I’m not gonna say their first run movies we always have a big throwback one from like the 80s we try and get some that are probably usually a Marvel one or you know different ones. They’re not they’re not kitty kitty movies though because they don’t come on till dark. Okay, so it’s we try and get ones that are okay for people that want to come out at nine o’clock you know 830
Lisa RichartHernandez
Oh yeah. Summer it’ll still be light till dark so yeah, so
Tracy
so they’re for families and young adults and and we usually have a food truck and we actually have like kettle corn there and maybe a sweets like an ice cream truck or something like that. But you can also bring your picnics on that one’s free parking free admission everything there’s free. And then that’s us August September, we still have the farmers market going this whole time and then we get into October we have our children’s day festival View Properties has been a great sponsor of the Children’s Day festival a couple times you remember your whole poster?
Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, the virgin rollercoaster for the kids like that was that was fun.
Tracy
And that’s a it’s like a mini fair. We have carnival rides. We have the schools get involved. We have lots of food you just pay for food, but the events free all the rides are free. And then
Lisa RichartHernandez
like you have like a million of those gigantic jump Castle
Tracy
castles. It’s big. It’s Parkwest recreation, it is it takes over three or four fields. It’s really fun. And so we enjoy bringing that back this year that was kind of fun and then do a trunk. trunk or treat events, we do have a nighttime trunk or treat event. We started this last year that was popular and I made my trunk into a frog is hilarious, quite
Lisa RichartHernandez
like the trunk or treat I don’t think I guess my kids are older now. So I haven’t like seen that. But that’s great for kids.
Tracy
And we did this one at night. You know, being a working parent I’ve been I’ve worked for the town for like 17 years, I can always take your kids to the daytime one. So we did this one from four to six on the last Friday of October at Carolina Park, which is one of the newer complexes and it’s if you are familiar with Costco where the cost was Mount Pleasant, you keep going past that. There’s the Carolina Park soccer fields complex out there and it’s a big big rec complex. It’s still under development. But it’s got soccer fields. There’s a building there, that’s rentable, it’s got restrooms, and we showed we did a movie there and 2020 we showed I think we showed we did Beetlejuice this year but last year we did we did not mere for Christmas. Okay, sorry. I think about that one and and that’s a free outdoor movie at night. And so we’re hoping that grows a little bit but the trunk a tree was super popular because people could bring their kids to that they got off work.
Lisa RichartHernandez
So no, does anybody just drive their car and put their stuff in the trunk? Like meet? Explain a little bit of what trunk or treat is? I don’t do they do that everywhere in the country? I don’t even know. I don’t know. I never heard of it in Michigan, or but as years ago
Tracy
here was well so we did it last year. It was just the rec department, the fire department, the police department. But I was like, Yeah, we need to make this a little better. So So I I put out there and I got some sponsors. And this one there wasn’t a fee that there’s not a sponsorship fee on this one because I want you to put your money into decorating and decorating. Basically a trick or treaters, you decorate the back end of your car. And kids come around and they can get the candy at the trunk or you know, or you can just hand it to them but you’re supposed to come decorate it’s really cute if you if you Google trunk or treat to see what some of the Pinterest. Oh, yes. Yeah, so but people did really good. And we had a Bach to rock came out did DJ and for us we had a petting zoo. So it was fun. And then that was like from four to 630. And then we had the movie after that. And so that was good. That was a new event. And then we go into the Holiday Market and Christmas parade or Holiday Market super fun. It’s it’s at the same place at the farmers market. But it has got artisans, usually about 100 vendors. Wow. And it’s the second weekend. It’s well, it’s the Saturday before the second Sunday. I know that sounds kind of funny, but the parade is always the second Sunday. That’s based on the float company’s calendar. And so the Holiday Market is the Saturday before the second Sunday, it doesn’t always make it the second Saturday. Okay, the first is a Sunday, then it’s the first Saturday, but generally it’s the second Saturday, but it’s the Saturday for the second Sunday. Kind of weird. Okay, and that’s our year for the town events. Now. That being said, the art tourism or business and marketing department puts out a newsletter that you can subscribe to, that’s around the town and they show all the other town, all the other events that are in the town that might not be town events. Like all the great events that happen at the Harbor Resort. You know, Amy Smith’s over there she does oysters on the point Fridays on you know, all those great fun concerts and things that are out there and all the other races and local events, all the breweries do a lot of events. Those are in that newsletter. So
Lisa RichartHernandez
I would and how do you get onto that newsletter? So I think you would need to go to to
Tracy
MP sc.com. And if you’ll put that link on your on your page to share will do you can subscribe to the around the town newsletter. And that has a lot more information in it too. So it’s it’s pretty handy. It comes out on Tuesdays I think so
Lisa RichartHernandez
we’ve got so many people that new people that are moving into the Mount Pleasant area and I’m actually on like a Facebook relocation group for people looking to move and a lot of people ask questions about Mount Pleasant, what’s going on, you know, and they they just want a way to be able to like connect with other people and find places to go and Is there things for me to do with my kids and how am I gonna meet other adults and that kind of thing? We have a lot of stuff. Yeah, we
Tracy
have very good senior center that is off avant? Well, I hate to say the Vaughn column it’s it’s very hard word. It’s right there off of lipoma road and it’s not Bowman it’s whistle way.
Lisa RichartHernandez
Okay. Yeah, I
Tracy
think you can get to it from Bowman around that way. But it’s very affordable. They have all kinds of programs they have actually there have their own all set of programs and event planners and they look cafe and they do all kinds of stuff in the sherry is over. That’s a recreation facility also, but they didn’t have their own.
Lisa RichartHernandez
I brought my mom lives with us in Mount Pleasant, and I brought her over there. She wasn’t able to do because she’s still doing some physical therapy but the I mean, it looks so nice and that senior center They have so many like everyone was having a good time they got exercise specifically targeted to senior citizens at a table. Yeah. I mean, we’re just like hanging out and doing puzzles. And yeah, and also, you know, just so I really would love for her to be able to connect like that, but
Tracy
it’s a nice facility. Yeah. So, so I would anyone that’s, I think you can join it if you’re over 50 I know people at 50 don’t want to think that they’re seniors. But I think that’s the age so Okay, so yeah, young adult youngest,
Lisa RichartHernandez
maybe. Maybe that’s a workout that I could probably actually like, keep up with that. I’m like, Yeah, I’m gonna go to senior center my go to probably run circles around me.
Tracy
But um, but that’s a great facility. Then of course, we have two indoor pools we have to the Park West recreation complex, which is off Park West Boulevard. And the Joan Center, which is up off Egypt road off Long Point Road, there’s indoor pools there. And gyms tracks, those are all
Lisa RichartHernandez
so anyone can use those. Or how does that work?
Tracy
That you that you would buy a pass, there’s open swim, there’s rec swim, there’s classes. So all that’s in the you can call the Jones center and get that information. But the brochures are online, again at to MP SC comm. You just have to kind of navigate through the departments, the recreation and all of our brochures are online. And they’ll let you know that’s where you’ll need to register. If you want to look at summer camps or any the spring break camps and all those things coming up, you have to first register a household. And I don’t know if you have to go into the facility to do that. But you can do that at any of the facilities.
Lisa RichartHernandez
I feel like I did it online before you might have done
Tracy
the line. But you can go there and you register your family. And then I know summer camp that I’m kind of out of that loop because I don’t run summer camps. And it’s been a year or two since I’ve had put my kids in summer camp 21. But but I know that’s a pretty that’s kind of crazy. So you know, that’s please don’t let that be your your opinion of the rec department because I think it gets crazy. They fill up kind of fat
Lisa RichartHernandez
they do like and what I’ve heard from other moms that have young kids are like, I’ve already hit my kids in the summer gas. Yeah, well, you know, with COVID It was all like kind of crazy anyways, and people were just sort of like, do I do it? Or do I not. But in a normal world. As normals we can get at this point, I guess it was it was something that people would just kind of like, as soon as the registration came up,
Tracy
they would register their tips. I’m sorry, you could maybe come by and talk to the Yeah, the ladies at the front or just the people that run our front offices are amazing to go talk to the very, very, very helpful. So, you know, stop by the one of the facilities and chat with someone and they’ll kind of maybe give you an idea, but I don’t I don’t have that answer. I’m
Lisa RichartHernandez
sorry. No, that’s yeah. So um, speaking of the rec department, a lot of people ask me about the schools and sports and things like that. And we’ve got, like, for example, Wando High Schools so big. And if you’re not in one of the top, you know, basically 20 basketball players or something. A lot of those kids, it seems like play rec sports. Can you tell us anything about that?
Tracy
I can’t, I’m sorry, they have to go to the I mean, I don’t do we have a whole athletic division, okay. But again, I am out of that age group with my kids. So I know they have all that and all that will be in those brochures, which are on our website. And they’re all PDFs so you can download them and read them. Or you can come by a facility pick one up, we do have print copies also still do some print copies, but we have a great athletic division. And we have coordinates and all that kind of stuff. So you can just call a rec center and ask them about that. And they’ll probably direct you to our website.
Lisa RichartHernandez
Okay to look on that. Which is to MP
Tracy
to MP sc.com c.com. town of Mount Pleasant South Carolina duck.
Lisa RichartHernandez
There you go. Yeah,
Tracy
it used to be town of Mount Pleasant all spelled out. So when we got the acronym, we’re very happy until we realized nobody’s gonna know what to mpsc.com stands.
Lisa RichartHernandez
But that’s what it is. Yeah. Still easier. So that’s good.
Tracy
But yeah, there’s, there’s tons of stuff to do. And coming to our events. Again, we always have a lot of sponsors and nonprofits and exhibitors at our events on top of vendors. So it’s a good chance to learn a little about maybe something neat they do around town or a group you know, we have different ones will come in and maybe presenting a big sponsors, but we have all kinds of different levels for all sorts of different ones at all of our events. And we even have events, we don’t have sponsors. And if you would like to do that, you know, reach out to us. We’ll try it we always try and figure way to make it work for some people if we can. Yeah, so
Lisa RichartHernandez
but yeah, I know we did. Just recently the Mount Pleasant Christmas parade. We were in it with a Lowcountry wranglers and our jeep and it was just a huge turnout this year.
Tracy
Y’all want to play? Yeah, I think you got first or second, I think yes. Second place. Oh, I think we did. Uh huh. Second place in community. Oh my gosh, I didn’t even know that y’all lost at the dotson’s. I’m sorry. I don’t know if anyone’s could be the dots and pulling a little carriage with a Santa.
Lisa RichartHernandez
Well, I know Georgia, my husband was all dressed up in his Grinch suit. Yeah. And we had really had a great time doing that just loved it. Yeah. And there were so many people and just such a great turnout this year and it’s such a good community event like it just it’s really fun. Perfect
Tracy
weather that night too, right? Oh, yes. got cool enough. I’m so warm that weekend. Yes, but because we don’t want to be too warm because then we’ll have maps, you know, to Mount Pleasant here some nats Right, yeah. It cooled off just enough that people could wear their Christmassy clothes and enjoy the parade.
Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, it was beautiful. Well, what else can anything else that you want to share with us? Like, I feel like you’ve given us so much information. And sorry, I talked pretty fast. No, no, no, it’s awesome. It’s it’s, it’s just it’s been great. And I knew you’d be like, just a wealth of knowledge because you’ve been, you know, doing this for so long. And
Tracy
you know, to build enjoy the parks. Oh, go by? Well, one thing I can talk to a little bit about we didn’t touch on was I did mention that our cap commission. So that’s our culture arts and pride commission that’s run through the rec department through our office. And that handles all the public art in Mount Pleasant. So if you’re at a stop sign, and you look over to the left, there’s a traffic box, it’s wrapped in some pretty artwork. That’s something that we’ve done. Or if you’re at a place, you notice an oyster like a four foot oyster shell that’s painted decorated. That’s something that’s done through the cap department, we don’t do the painting. We facilitate that. So right now, actually, throughout the year, they take submissions for traffic box, our or oyster artwork. And then three times a year, we have an art show at the Mount Pleasant Town Hall, which is on an Edwards Boulevard. Right, right next to Whole Foods, you got to figure what are the big landmarks, right? Yeah, yeah. And that buildings open to the public. I don’t know if people ever think to go to your town hall. But it’s a beautiful building. It’s open to the public and and there’s three floors and on all three floors is local artists, with their artwork hung on there. And you might be you might catch a council member playing the piano, you might run into the mayor, the chief of police because they all work out of that building. But it’s a really nice building to go through, there’s a lot of history for the town of Mount Pleasant on the walls in there. And then there’s artwork that we have going there. And we just put a new installment in there so that art will hold hang until the end of April. And then we’ll have a we’ll change it out right before the blessing which is the last Sunday in April, probably the week before that. We call that fleet weeks we try and like coordinate events that whole week and make it like a fleet year long thing that ends at the festival. So we’ll switch and there’ll be a reception and the mayor will be there will have some kind of live music. And so that’s a really nice thing to do for kind of a free passive thing to do. If you like art and you want to build you know, we don’t really have an art museum in Mount Pleasant, but we have the art hanging on Town Hall walls and that cap commission meets the first Wednesday of every month and they go through those different processes and they’ll do the sculptures there’s a pocket park, which is like just a little passive Park on Coleman and that’s there’s some sculptures there and then that’s facilitated to the cap Commission also.
Lisa RichartHernandez
Okay, I’ve definitely seen I think it’s like a sea turtle or something painted on like some of those electric boxes Yeah, it first I thought like Did somebody graffiti that was like it’s two nights it’s like
Tracy
17 are done and a lot of ones on Coleman are done and so the goal is to get them all done throughout the town so that’s something they like they do like six or seven a year so oh that’s really cool. But if and if you’re a local artists and you want to like to have your art considered for any of our things, you can just email it and that email is it’s CAAP cap culture arts and [email protected] so okay but yeah, so that’s our cap commission it’s it’s a pretty fun thing and they do smother you know, they’re still kind of open to some stuff. We actually we had Halo which is our local opera singers that are here holy city art and lyrical opera, they live in Mount Pleasant, they came and performed at the December Mayer reception. We sometimes we have little concerts and things on our lawn at town hall. So being familiar with the town hall is something people shoot there’s also a gymnasium there that’s open for basketball and things like that. And there’s a they’re not on at the track is open. Yep, they’ve just refurbished the track. There’s a track on a football field. So you can definitely get your laps in there, too. And it’s very nice setting. So that’s, that’s on that side of town. So there’s stuff kind of all across town that people can do. And of course they’re still working on getting more things done. So yeah,
Lisa RichartHernandez
well it sounds like the most important thing for people to do is just to go on to the website, get signed up and get the newsletter and then they can stay in the loop for everything that’s going on around Mount Pleasant and like
Tracy
all of our Facebook pages we have a ton of them we have experienced Mount Pleasant we had the town of Mount Pleasant, Mount Pleasant recreation department culture arts and pride Farmers Market those all those five pages if you’re on Facebook, just give us all a like we like we like you’d like him all Yeah, you might see we do share stuff across the pages. But yeah, you know, the farmers market. Definitely that’ll have all the information about the farmers market. The cap will have the programs experience about pleasant has got a lot of the tourism information on there too. So,
Lisa RichartHernandez
so you don’t have anything to do with the big oyster roast that goes on at BOONE HALL and genuine Correct.
Tracy
actually funny thing is BOONE HALL is not technically in the town of Mount Pleasant it is what would be considered like a doughnut hole. It’s still like state or it’s private property. Patriots Point also is not in the town of Mount Pleasant state property. So there’s a lot of things that aren’t Incorporated. But yeah, no BOONE HALL has their own and that is a Restaurant Association event. Yes. So anything that happens at BOONE HALL is not a town sponsored event. But so
Lisa RichartHernandez
for those of you who aren’t like familiar with that Boone hauls large plantation tourist place, but they also hold huge events, right.
Tracy
Pumpkin Patch, they had Fright Night, they had the oyster festival, strawberry picking, they have strawberry picking, I think they have a Strawberry Festival and they come back or not that was might have been you know, it’s weird because stuff has always because of COVID. Those are all private events that go on at BOONE HALL so then that
Lisa RichartHernandez
would explain why party at the point, I guess isn’t part of the town of Mount Pleasant because all those concerts every Friday, right,
Tracy
the that’s Harbor Resort. Yes. Charleston Harbor Resort and they have a really great event planner over there. She does a lot. She’s got oysters on the point they do stuff for the boat parade and December they had a little thing there and they have all kinds of stuff at that facility. So yeah, it’s a great if you get to do a staycation it’s beautiful facility to they got
Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, they actually have like a little beach out there and stuff. And so you kind of feel like you’re
Tracy
you go get a massage at that spa, you get use of their facility for the whole day. and everything. Kinda plus yeah, I’ve done that before on their day off day with the the, not the beach club. They’ve got them.
Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, spa there. Yeah, and the nice pools with the cabanas and stuff like that. Yeah,
Tracy
that’s a nice place to so. And then we have our new Embassy Suites just opened up. That’s another they’re going to be doing stuff there. I’m sure. I think they’ve got a event planner plans kind of going on there. So that’s gonna be a developing that’s by waterfront park. Okay, so have you been to that?
Lisa RichartHernandez
No, no, I haven’t been there yet. Yeah, there’s so much stuff going on. It’s hard to keep up with all of the things and you think like, I would be better at getting out and getting to those things, but it’s just like, hey, I know what it’s like. But one of the things I love is that there’s always something going on. So even if you don’t do it, I think there’s just like this good feeling of like, knowing it’s there if you wanted it, you know what I’m saying?
Tracy
But anything do just go the beach. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. The cheers. Pretty much nice. almost year round, I
Lisa RichartHernandez
think. Yes. Yeah. Even in the wintertime. I mean, we I think it was like 70 degrees on New Year’s Day. It
Tracy
is now I know so and then Sullivan’s Island ton full of stuff to do over Solomon’s Island. That’s another whole podcast view do what to do on the on the islands, I guess, to there, so now we have lots of stuff. But again, is is just what you would where you are in life with what you want to do. You know, so there’s there’s camps, there’s programs, there’s activities, then like like I said, I do the big events in the rec department. There’s smaller events, there’s father daughter dances there’s you know, little playground things and stuff like that. For something copsey. I think they bring the sockets back. Those are a rage
Lisa RichartHernandez
those those are like teen Middle School, right, fourth and fifth grade. I think I remember my kids a long time ago, like, can we go to the soccer ball? Yeah. It has been a while since I’ve had to do that. Like remembering all these things now as are like rubber. Like are like my kids are 18 seniors at high school do so I’m like, just right out of all of that stuff. Yeah.
Tracy
Now they’re gonna go work there.
Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, right. Yeah. chaperones. Oh, I got to go. But that’s right. That’s right. Well, thank you so much for spending time with us today. And I just, you’re just a wealth of knowledge and information. So I really appreciate it. And once again, we’ll direct everybody we’ll put it in the show notes. Where you can sign up for all these things and links to your website. Anything else you want to share before we go?
Tracy
I don’t think I’m good list out you know, there’s all the parks are listed on the website too. There’s a lot of pass apart Shem Creek Park Pitt Street Bridge Alhambra park this role kind of county park we even have in Mount Pleasant county parts, which is the James That’s Charleston County Parks Recreation. So there’s the the waterfront piers there and Palmetto islands, but we have a Shem Creek pier. That’s along Shem Creek you walk oh yeah.
Lisa RichartHernandez
That’s beautiful. That’s a beautiful walk. I always tell tourists to go walk out on that pier. See the shrimp boats? Yes. Boats and then go get lunch epic razors. Yeah, and you can actually
Tracy
that’s a great place if you want to buy shrimp to go there. Because they’re, they sell the shrimp that they catch right then and there. Which you know, of course I have to. I can’t not plug you know, buy local shrimp. Always ask where your shrimp comes from, you know,
Lisa RichartHernandez
oh my gosh. And I gotta tell you what I mean. Like, like originally from Michigan. So I’ve been here for 30 years. I know like when I lived in Michigan though. I think we only had Red Lobster as an option like demon gets thrown in. It was like a big special treat and now I’m like, I hate that frozen crappy strep when you have that fresh shrimp off the boat is just nothing like it’s so good
Tracy
to village to drive down to those docks and get the shrimp. You know, there’s yeah, there’s a cup we have fresh shrimp during the season at the farmers market. You know, it’s, it’s exactly what you would think if it’s a pickup truck with a cooler and a scale. You know, their knees like yep, this was swimming yesterday, you know, and you’re getting it, they get it and pop it and sell it. So it’s an until you’ve had that that shrimp you just don’t really know how great you know. wild caught shrimp can be
Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that’s definitely a good pro tip for anyone. Yeah. Doesn’t hurt
Tracy
anybody’s feelings. Ask. They know what they’re, you know, this is your show for local just trip local. Yeah, you know, get the chicken. Yeah.
Lisa RichartHernandez
That’s right. That’s right. Well, thank you so much, Tracy, we appreciate it. We appreciate your time today. And again, we’ll put everything on our show notes. Thanks for listening to living in Charleston podcast. And if you would like more information, you can reach out to us on our website, which is living in Charleston podcast.com. If you have more questions for Tracy, you can reach her tompsc.com. That’s right. And even if you’re looking to sponsor something or be part of the farmers market or things like that, Tracy’s the one that handles all that stuff. She’s the she’s the the go to person for me.
Tracy
If I can’t answer it, I can find someone who can at the town. So I get a lot of those questions. Don’t look, I don’t know that answer. But give me a day. So
Lisa RichartHernandez
that’s awesome. Yeah. Well, thank you so much, and we’ll talk to you again soon.
intro
Thanks for listening to another episode of living in Charleston podcast. We hope you’re inspired to come back. Grab yourself a pool iced tea, and listen to the next episode. Don’t forget to share this with your friends, like comment, and feel free to reach out directly to Lisa at living in Charleston podcast.com. If you have any questions about the area, looking to move, or want to be in our next episode
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
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