Good Morning Lowcountry

American dream

Adam Shepard, a 2006 graduate of Merrimack College in North Andover, Mass., decided to test the availability of the American dream.

At random, he picked Charleston for this test and arrived by train from Raleigh with $25, a sleeping bag and the clothes he was wearing.

His goal: to work himself out of homelessness and have a car, a furnished apartment, a job and $2,500 in savings within a year. Shepard accomplished his goal in less than a year while living at downtown Charleston's Crisis Ministries shelter.

Admittedly, Shepard had advantages: an education, a healthy body, a firm budget and motivation.

"It was just all about anything I could save," he told National Public Radio in February. "I was a busy guy, and I still found time to pack my lunch and take the bus. ... How much of an education do you need to make the decision that, 'Listen, if I'm buying beer and cigarettes and lottery tickets, then my money is going out the door?' "

Shepard will be Crisis Ministries' guest again, from 6 to 9 Thursday night, for its annual fundraiser.

The event, called "food ● shelter ● hope," will be at the Charleston Maritime Center, 10 Wharfside St. and will include food, music and a silent auction of such items as a week's stay in a six-bedroom home in Vail, Colo.; a sunset cruise to Caper's Island and Lowcountry boil for 36 by Barrier Island Ecotours; and two nights at Charleston Place Hotel with dinner for eight at Charleston Grill.

Tickets cost $75 a person. Get them at www.etix.com, or 723-9477 ext. 126.

Equal Pay Day

Tuesday is Equal Pay Day, the day that marks how far into the year a woman has to work to earn the same amount of money earned by a typical man the year before.

Women's Voices Women Vote, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group in Washington, says unmarried women are hardest-hit by pay inequity, "resulting in a woman on her own having to work until September 27 of the following year to earn as much money as a typical man makes," president Page Gardner said in a statement.

A study commissioned by the group found that unmarried women earn 56 cents for every dollar a married man earns and that unmarried women typically live on $37,264 per year, about $6,000 less than unmarried men ($42,843) and nearly $30,000 less than married men ($66,646).

Read the study at www.tinyurl.com/5fldqg. Find out more about Women's Voices Women Vote at www.wvwv.org.

Food/wine

The 2008 Charleston Food + Wine Festival announced Friday that it will increase its charitable giving by 60 percent from last year. The festival will donate $12,500 to the MUSC Diabetes Center; $2,500 will go toward a scholarship to the College of Charleston; and $5,000 will go toward a scholarship to the Culinary Institute of Charleston. The Festival also donated 250 pounds of food to Crisis Ministries and raised $2,281 for the Lowcountry Food Bank.

GMLc

Call 937-5564. Write gmlc@postandcourier.com. Find the blog at www.gmlc.typepad.com.