2008: A look back

1. Music to their ears

New programs come with a new school.

Hundreds of students from Stratford High School transferred to form classes at Berkeley County's new Cane Bay High School. But long before the students arrived, teachers and administrators were putting together the framework for the new courses and curricula, a new band and a new choral program.

William Bennett, choir director at Cane Bay, worked through the summer to build the choral program.

One of his greatest challenges this year will be fundraising. Each set of sheet music, for example, can cost nearly $100 to furnish all members with a copy, Bennett said.

At upper left, Kailah-Nicole Thompson plays flute in the school's new band.

2. Family across the sea

Augustine Bockarie (left) and Pa Komrabai Mbompa H. Dumbuya traveled thousands of miles from Sierra Leone in West Africa to South Carolina to spread the message of a shared heritage.

The Gullah/Geechee Angel Network hosted the African dignitaries in August at the Felix Pinckney Community Center in North Charleston, where local African drum and dance company Nia Productions performed to celebrate at their arrival to the United States.

Bockarie and Dumbuya were in the Lowcountry during the Gullah/Geechee Nation International Music & Movement Festival on Aug. 22-24 in Charleston.

They spent the following weeks traveling through South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Washington, lobbying Gullah/Geechee community organizations and government officials to create programs that would educate American people about Sierra Leone and the historical connections to present-day Gullah/Geechee communities.

They wanted to place emphasis on educating the youths who live in and around those Gullah/Geechee communities.

Bockarie and Dumbuya hoped to develop an exchange program for American students to travel to Africa and vice versa.

3. Crocodile hunter celebrated

For a second year, Fort Dorchester Elementary School celebrated everyone's favorite crocodile hunter, the late Steve Irwin.

Nov. 15 is set aside as Steve Irwin Day, a day when fans around the world celebrate his life and legacy. Irwin died in September 2006 when a stingray's barb pierced his heart.

Conservationist and founder of Roark's Reptile Safari, Roark Ferguson, stopped by the school to show off a few of his "friends." At far right, Ferguson watches as students Cameron Buskirk, Rachel Lindsay, Evan Tone and Kylie Wilber all hold an 11-foot python.

Students "oohhed" and "ahhed" and clambered to pet the corn snakes, Turbo the tortoise and Cuddles and Gator Girl, two alligators.

4. New art scene

Nearly a decade ago, the Olde North Charleston Village was mostly an area of empty storefronts, an all-but-forgotten part of the Lowcountry.

What was once a virtual no man's land continues to blossom with the arrival of young 20- and 30-something artists and business owners. It is a testament to the changes afoot in this cultural hub.

In 2008, artists such as Kip Bulwinkle of North Charleston, Jen Snyder (lower right), a painter and photographer, and Carrie Davis, also a painter, formed a new artist cooperative in the heart of the Olde Village in space above Aunt Bea's restaurant.

5. Disc golfing

Drive by Park Circle on any given day of the week.

Casual passers-by may notice the people milling around the grassy areas tossing several round objects through the air to some unknown destination.

They are golfers, albeit golfers of a different stripe. They are disc golfers. Many of them are members of Charleston Disc Golf Club. Over the past two years, both the game and club have grown in popularity.

Disc golf functions much like a regular game of golf out on the greens.

The object of the game is to traverse a course from beginning to end in the fewest number of throws of the disc. The target for the disc on each hole is a basket.