Events
Emily Meggett, Matriarch of Edisto Island, to Receive President’s Volunteer Service Award in Charleston
On Friday, July 22nd, Ms. Emily Meggett will receive the President’s Volunteer Service Award at Charleston City Hall. Mayor John Tecklenburg will also present a proclamation declaring the day “Emily Meggett Day” in the city of Charleston.
The presentation will also include United States Congressman James E. Clyburn and Dr. Kim Cliett Long, executive director of the Lowcountry Rice Culture Project.
The Lowcountry Rice Culture Project (LCRCP), a Charleston-based “clearing house and partnership builder for activities that explore, reveal, and reclaim the shared cultural inheritance of the Southeastern Lowcountry rice industry as a basis for promoting community development and advancing the cause of human dignity,” nominated Ms. Meggett to receive the President’s Volunteer Service Award.
As an official certifying organization for AmeriCorps and the Office of the President to nominate candidates for the award, the LCRCP sought to commend Ms. Meggett for her lifelong commitment aimed at building a strong nation through volunteer service. She has provided meals for any person that showed up at her house and taken cooked food all over Edisto Island to feed others freely for over 50 years. She has long worked to empower her community through volunteerism, and after a thorough review process, the Office of the President decided to recognize her for her decades of volunteerism.
“The Lowcountry Rice Culture Project is honored to have played a part in recommending this esteemed individual for the President’s recognition of her volunteer service,” Long said. “Her commitment and sincerity to public service is highly laudable.”
To learn more about the Lowcountry Rice Culture Project, click here. You can learn more about Ms. Megget at motheroftheisland.com.
Ms. Megget recently released Gullah Geechee Home Cooking, which provides recipes and the history of an overlooked American community – the Gullah and Geechee people.