$379K awarded to 14 Beaufort nonprofits. Council grants Gullah groups sizable increase

Accommodation tax grants for 14 not-for-profit organizations totaling $379,411 were handed out by the Beaufort City Council Tuesday, with council members deciding to override an advisory committee’s recommendation in two instances to significantly increase funding for two Gullah-Geechee organizations.

Each year, not-for-profit groups that promote tourism compete for grants from the city. The money comes from a 2% accommodations tax the state collects on short-term rentals such as hotels, motels, campgrounds and bed and breakfast establishments.

The state accommodations tax is mandatory statewide but the Department of Revenue distributes it to cities and counties based on a formula.

In Beaufort, a seven-person Tourism Development Advisory Committee (TDAC), whose members are appointed by City Council, make recommendations on where those funds should be allocated with the goal of increasing tourism and the money it brings to the local economy. The TDAC committee forwards their recommendation to City Council for the final decision.

On Tuesday, City Council members unanimously voted to increase the committee’s recommendation for The Original Gullah Festival and the Gullah Kinfolk Traveling Theater. Those organizations combine entertainment and education to raise awareness of the history and heritage of Gullah-Geechee culture.

For 2024, the The Original Gullah Festival will receive $33,825 instead of the $14,000 that TDAC recommended. The annual festival in Waterfront Park celebrates the Gullah-Geechee heritage of the Sea Islands and honors the descendants of enslaved Africans who lived and worked in the Lowcountry region.

The City Council also increased the award for the Gullah Kinfolk Traveling Theater from $10,000 to $25,950. The theater company’s performances highlight the ties between western Africa, especially Sierra Leone, and South Carolina and the entire Gullah-Geechee corridor. The group was founded in August 2013 by Anita Singleton Prather, whose beloved character Aunt Pearlie Sue is based on her grandmother. It’s popular local programs include the Gullah Symposium, Gullah Christmas and Taste of Gullah.

“My personal feeling was the disparity was not warranted with the numbers that TDAC awarded to those two particular organizations and I thought I needed to address that,” Councilman Mitch Mitchell said. “For me, it was just that simple.”

Mitchell said he was speaking only for himself because individual council members submitted how much grant money they thought the groups deserved. Those numbers were then averaged to arrive at grant amounts, Mitchell said.

Beaufort’s past, Mitchell says, is America’s history and he is continually amazed at the lack of knowledge about it. The annual Gullah Festival and Gullah Kinfolk Traveling Theater contribute toward the education of tourists who come to the area to hear and learn about the history, he says.

“You can’t measure it all by the heads in beds,” said Mitchell of the process of awarding the tax grants. “You have to look at the potential of tourism. If you can’t get the story out there, how will people know?”

Because some groups received more money than TDAC recommended, some groups received less. For example, the Greater Beaufort-Port Royal Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, the primary marketing organization for the city, was awarded $146,000. The committee recommended $160,000.

Here’s the rest of the City Council grants. The TDAC committee’s recommended award is in parenthesis.

? African American history programs at the Mather School Museum, $6,125 ($5,500).

? Greater Beaufort-Port Royal CVB: $34,500 for sales plan ($40,000).

? SC Lowcountry & Resorts Island Tourism Commission: $47,029 for promotion of city of Beaufort and Lowcountry, $47,029 ($54,900).

? Tabernacle Baptist Church: $23,875 for the Harriet Tubman Monument and Combahee River Raid event ($25,000)

? Beaufort Area Hospitality Association: $18,250 for Oyster Festival ($20,000).

? Freedman Arts District: $10,625 for Street Chalk Arts Festival ($12,500).

? Friends of Hunting Island: $10,500 for lighthouse lens exhibit ($12,000).

? Penn Center: $8,075 for Heritage Days Celebration ($8,900)

? Port Royal Sound Foundation: $6,650 for reptile displays ($7,600)

? South Coast Cyber Center: $4,750 for Cyber Summit ($5,000)

? Friends of Spanish Moss Trail: $3,257 for visitor marketing ($4,010).