The Top Choice for Semaglutide in Sheldon, SC

SHELDON—Two eighth-graders used some colorful language to win their Science Fair at Sheldon Middle School.

Mercedes Lalk and Violet Boon took first place Nov. 14.

“We’re definitely nervous, but there’s a bit of excitement just to see how we can grow with this project and what we will learn through this,” Lalk said.

The duo and three runners-up earned a spot in the State Science and Technology Fair of Iowa set for April 4-5 at Iowa State University in Ames.

“It’ll be a really good experience for us,” Boon said.

The girls teamed up over a lunch period in early October with both independently thinking color could make for an interesting theme.

Specifics of their eventual experiment came from a game Lalk saw on TikTok.

Identifying the color a word is written as fast as possible is the core challenge. For example, the word “yellow” may be written in pink letters or “pink” could be in green letters

Most participants will struggle to correctly name the font color because they are used to quick recognition of written words, and they may blurt out the incorrect hue — even if they know it's a mental trick.

“The frontal lobe holds all that information throughout your life,” Lalk said. “So, when you look at the word, you want to be able to read it.”

What the girls found — and showed with thorough data that set them above their Science Fair competition — is that younger test-takers do better than older folks.

Since sophisticated brain-scanning technology isn’t in the eighth-graders’ budget, they can’t be certain, but Lalk and Boon are hypothesizing the youth advantage comes from a lack of reading familiarity.

“Older people look at the word and just instantly know. They don’t have to think about it, and they don’t really look at the color,” Boon said.

The amateur psychologists studied four age groups with 20 total people they gathered through extended families and acquainted adults. The ranges were 4-6, 10-12, 13-14 and 38-42. The older the subject, the longer it took for them to complete the multipart test.

The age trend continued with a version of their game was set up at their Science Fair booth, which saw plenty of foot traffic Nov. 14. Little kids aced the exam while grandparents struggled with it. Lalk and Boon recalled an older woman who was a stroke survivor and she could barely complete the task at all.

The interactivity in combination with rigorous data for only having about a month to work on the project earned the teammates top honors in Sheldon. The task until Ames, they said, is to expand and refine their sample size.

“We’re looking for more ways to make the results more real,” Lalk said.

One idea they had is to study students with cognitive disabilities, perhaps dyslexia, guessing those folks will do better than average for their age since reading might not be as automatic for them.

They also would like to move from their flashcard format to a digital slideshow because a smoother experience should yield less variable data.

Control testing for gender also is on the agenda.

Minimizing outside factors and trying new perspectives is one of the keys to a successful Science Fair project, said science teacher Jim Gude. He’s the Sheldon Middle School administrator of the experiment expo.

“Students gain an appreciation of the thought and effort needed to develop a project and see it through to its fruition,” Gude said.

The instructor said firsthand implementation of the scientific method shows pupils’ knowledge is generated “not by magic” but with controlled trials and critical thinking. It also can teach teamwork.

“Students often work on this project with another person and therefore they have a chance to improve their soft skills of working with and collaborating with their peers,” Gude said.

As for the long-term future, Lalk and Boon said they are interested in pursuing a science-related field. Lalk is torn between psychology and art design while Boon already is set on going to college for engineering.

“I like to figure out how things happen and what factors play into that,” Boon said.

Lalk said her Science Fair experiment tracks with her possible future in mind science.

“The brain is such a mysterious thing,” Lalk said. “Scientists are still learning about it and how it develops. It’s a nice thing to know about.”

An additional 512 acres of land and property surrounding the Old Sheldon Church ruins has now been permanently protected with the recent acquisition of the acreage by the Lowcountry Land Trust.

The Lowcountry Land Trust announced the conservation easement on February 7th, almost a year after an initial protection acquisition of 240 acres around Sheldon Plantation.

This now brings the entire area of 752 acres where the Old Sheldon Church is located, and its surrounding pristine forest land along the scenic Old Sheldon Road, under permanent protection which is a huge win for one of the most iconic sites in the Lowcountry.

The new conservation easement reduces the number of homes that can be built on the property. An average of only one house will be allowed on the land, per 150 acres.

The Old Sheldon Church Ruins, is a nationally significant historic site listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The protected property also fronts on the Old Sheldon Church Road, a State Scenic Byway, and lies in the ACE Basin, one of the largest intact ecosystems on the East Coast.

Sheldon Church and Plantation being protected reinforces the integrity of Beaufort County’s historical, natural, and rural resources, and guarantees that development will never threaten one of the most treasured sites in the Lowcountry.

The conservation easement also advances a stated goal of the 2010 Beaufort County Comprehensive Plan to “preserve the outstanding historic, natural, and scenic resources of Old Sheldon Church Road.”

“The opportunity to protect land in the Lowcountry is an honor in all cases. When the land is adjacent to sites such as Old Sheldon Church, it speaks to the distinct public benefit of conservation easements. I cannot personally imagine anything but native forest and vegetation surrounding this historic landmark, and now it will remain that way in perpetuity because of the landowner’s commitment to protect the property,” said Ashley Demosthenes, President and CEO, Lowcountry Land Trust.

“As coastal South Carolina continues to be one of the fastest growing regions in the country, it is imperative that land is set aside to provide undeveloped, open space that preserves wildlife habitat, mitigates flooding, enhances water quality, buffers historic resources, and so on.”

Conserving Sheldon Plantation adds to the remarkable mosaic of protected lands in the ACE Basin, a 1.5 million acre watershed recognized by the US Fish and Wildlife Service as a priority focus area for wildlife, and national success story of landscape-scale conservation and public-private partnerships. In its 35-year history, the ACE Basin partnership has protected over 300,000 acres of public and private land. The protection of Sheldon Plantation comes during a time of organizational growth for LLT, who officially merged with East Cooper Land Trust (ECLT) on January 1st, 2022. The two organizations joined forces, and continue to operate as LLT, with a revitalized portfolio of protected properties and environmental outreach programs to serve as the premier conservation organization in the Lowcountry.

“Old Sheldon Church is a local and national treasure,” says Sheldon Plantation owner and easement donor Christine Jacobs. “I am honored and proud to protect this newly acquired portion of Sheldon Plantation, and to be a small part in the larger plan to preserve and protect the Ace Basin. LLT, as a group, were not only helpful but a great resource as we sought to protect this land for generations to come. Together with the Parish of St. Helena we share the common goal of protecting this sacred land in perpetuity.”

“My family and I are committed to protecting and preserving our land, indeed, the entire ACE Basin.” Jacobs added. “On our over 700 acres, the breathtaking landscapes and migrating and indigenous species are now protected in perpetuity. It has been an honor to contribute to the preservation of this unique and treasured ecosystem.”

“We are incredibly grateful to Ms. Jacobs for trusting us to work with her on protecting the remainder of Sheldon Plantation,” Demosthenes added. “This latest grant of a conservation easement is a clear demonstration of the private landowner ethic seen in landscapes like the ACE Basin. The permanent conservation and stewardship of the land is a gift not only to Lowcountry Land Trust but to the entire state of South Carolina,”

“As coastal South Carolina continues to be one of the fastest growing regions in the country, it is imperative that land is set aside to provide undeveloped, open space that preserves wildlife habitat, mitigates flooding, enhances water quality, buffers historic resources, and so on.”

Old Sheldon Church was constructed between 1745 and 1755 and was originally known as Prince William’s Parish Church. Centuries later, the building’s outer walls and Greek-inspired pillars remain as a testament to the rich history of the site. The building was burnt by the British during the Revolutionary War, rebuilt in 1826, only to be desecrated again during the Civil War.

What remains is a reminder of the history that built the United States and an opportunity for people to experience that history. With the conservation of Sheldon Plantation, the Church will remain in its historical state and the rural character of the area will persist. The property on which the ruins sit is privately owned and managed by the Parish Church of St. Helena in Beaufort.

The Reverend Shay Gaillard, rector of the Parish Church of St. Helena remarked, “It is a relief to know that the church’s property is stabilized by the protection. It is a sacred spot where parishioners and visitors come to worship, or to simply gaze at the historic ruins, and experience the beauty of this space. Generations to come will benefit from the adjacent landowner’s charitable gift of a conservation easement on the surrounding land.”

We’re so happy to see that this land around the Old Sheldon Church will be protected for generations to come.

READ: Sheldon Church named one of South’s most beautiful chapels READ: Fence placed around Old Sheldon Church ruins READ: Painting shows original look of Old Sheldon Church

SHELDON—A science experiment takes a good amount of testing, and the results can be all over the board.

But the results were consistent when it came the three science projects presented by five Sheldon Middle School eighth-grade students at the State Science and Technology Fair.

Two of the top three finishers in the chemistry division went to two Sheldon groups as Dirk Brink and Braeden Mouw took first place and Sophie Meyer and Olivia Prewitt earned third. Brink and Mouw took home two more awards, and Rachel Besaw was awarded the Discovery in Science Award and the POSH Award.

All three groups presented their projects in the fall as part of the Sheldon Middle School’s annual science fair and then again at state on March 25 in Ames.

They had to communicate what they learned from their testing to a variety of judges, leading to the numerous awards they received at the state contest.

“Congratulations to these students” said Sheldon Middle School science teacher Jim Gude. “They represented their school and community very well, not only in the awards they received but also in how they presented themselves.”

Dirk and Braeden came up with the project titled: “How does the type of cover on a field affect the amount of carbon in the soil?”

It was far from what they originally wanted to do as they had their sights set on presenting a sports project.

But most of those ideas were taken.

So Dirk’s father, a farmer, suggested figuring out what types of vegetation have an effect on the carbon levels on the soil, which is what the two went with.

“He said it would be a helpful project,” Dirk said. “We are pretty glad that we did.”

Braeden said it did not seem like a fun project at first, but once the two started collecting samples and getting results, it became more interesting.

“I am really happy about it because it was a real interesting project and we found out some interesting stuff,” Braeden said. “At first it seemed a little boring, but there was a lot of stuff I learned that I wouldn’t have known before this.”

The two dug up soil samples from Dirk’s farm. They used 30-year-old native grasses, 6-year-old native grasses, timber soil and corn cropland.

Dirk and Braeden took four samples from each area and put them into the oven to dehydrate and then weighed the samples. Then they took the samples to the school and put them in the kiln at 800 degrees. That would get rid of the carbon and then the dirt would be weighed again. That amount was subtracted from the weight before to see how much carbon was lost.

“It was a lot more work than we were expecting,” Braeden said. “We were expecting it to go smoothly, but we had to add some different things.”

The thought was the 30-year-old native grass would have the most carbon, but Dirk and Braeden were surprised by the result.

“The timber had the most due to all of the foliage and sticks and branches that fall into the ground,” Dirk said.

The project did not just grab the interest of Dirk and Braeden but also the judges at the state science fair, earning them the first-place award in the eighth-grade chemistry division.

“I was really surprised; I was not expecting to even place,” Braeden said. “We were around a lot of projects, and I thought a lot of them might have been better than ours.”

The two also earned the Broadcom Masters Award and the POSH Award.

“It says that we put in a lot of time and work that was necessary to get something done productively,” Dirk said. “We got a little bit out of it about how carbon and other stuff makes up the soil. My dad also got a lot out of it so he knows how to use soil with efficiency.”

Ketchup can be messy, which is what led to Sophie and Olivia’s project, which was titled: “How does the type of detergent affect the ability of the detergent to clean a ketchup stain on cloth?”

“Ketchup stains are hard to remove, and people stain clothes every day so we wanted to solve an everyday problem,” Sophie said.

The two used Heinz Tomato Ketchup on the cloth.

“It was the ketchup we had on hand,” Olivia said.

They washed the cloth in the washer using water only, a Tide detergent with water and a hydrogen peroxide with baking soda mixture with water.

The two found out hydrogen peroxide mixture worked the best.

“It has natural bleaching,” Olivia said. “Mixed with the baking soda, it causes a natural reaction that helps with the stain.”

Danielle Dykstra, an industrial product manager at Diamond Vogel Paint in Orange City, helped the girls use a spectrophotometer to measure the darkness of the stain before and after the treatments for the experiment.

The two were surprised with how well washing the cloth in water only turned out.

“It got it much cleaner than we thought and that surprised us,” Olivia said. “There was a slight stain yet, a faint pink, but it was almost gone.”

The two received first place at the Sheldon Middle School science fair before receiving third place in the eighth-grade chemistry division at the state gathering.

“We really did not expect to get first place at home because our project sounds simple. We put a lot of time and effort in it,” Sophia said. “The project sounds simple but once you dig into it, it gets complicated with how we measured and such.”

Rachel has an interest in water and how to keep it pure “because there’s not enough fresh water and we need fresh water to live.”

Which is what led Rachel to her project titled “How does the type of filter affect the ability of the filter to clean dirty water?”

Rachel used reverse osmosis water, which is one of the purest forms of drinking water. Reverse osmosis is a water treatment process that removes contaminants from water by using pressure to force water molecules through a semipermeable membrane.

Rachel used three different filters — coffee, filter paper from Gude, and 100 percent cotton fabric. She also had a water sample where a filter was not used.

The filter paper worked the best while Rachel was surprised about the worst filter.

“I had a sample where I tested cotton fabric and that added lots of impurities to the water. It added more impurities than the best filter took away,” Rachel said. “I always thought fabric would do well but nope.”

Her project also grabbed the judge’s attention since she was one of two students awarded the Discovery in Science Award. She also earned the POSH Award.

“I was really surprised. I know that I did really well, and I had a lot of judges talk to me, but the award was a really big honor,” Rachel said. “The Discovery in Science Award stood out to me because it was the first award that I won and the first one that the Sheldon group one.”

She said Gude deserves a thank you for all his help.

From staff reports

If you are one of the many Beaufort County residents who often visit the Old Sheldon Church Ruins, it appears one of your favorite sites in the Lowcountry will be a little more protected for years to come.

Last week, the Lowcountry Land Trust (LLT) announced in a release on its website the permanent protection of 240 acres – Sheldon Plantation – surrounding the Old Sheldon Church Ruins, a nationally significant historic site listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The protected property fronts Old Sheldon Church Road.

The protection of Sheldon Plantation guarantees that development will never threaten one of the most treasured sites in the Lowcountry. The conservation easement also advances a stated goal of the 2010 Beaufort County Comprehensive Plan to “preserve the outstanding historic, natural, and scenic resources of Old Sheldon Church Road.”

“The opportunity to protect land in the Lowcountry is an honor in all cases. When the land is adjacent to sites such as Old Sheldon Church, it speaks to the distinct public benefit of conservation easements. I cannot personally imagine anything but native forest and vegetation surrounding this historic landmark, and now it will remain that way in perpetuity because of the landowner’s commitment to protect the property,” Lowcountry Land Trust President and CEO Ashley Demosthenes said in a release. “As coastal South Carolina continues to be one of the fastest growing regions in the country, it is imperative that land is set aside to provide undeveloped, open space that preserves wildlife habitat, mitigates flooding, enhances water quality, buffers historic resources, and so on.”

Conserving Sheldon Plantation adds to the remarkable mosaic of protected lands in the ACE Basin, a 1.5 million acre watershed recognized by the US Fish and Wildlife Service as a priority focus area for wildlife, and national success story of landscape-scale conservation and public-private partnerships.

“Old Sheldon Church is a local and national treasure,” Sheldon Plantation owner and easement donor Christine Jacobs said in the release. “I am honored and proud to protect this newly acquired portion of Sheldon Plantation, and to be a small part in the larger plan to preserve and protect the Ace Basin. LLT, as a group, were not only helpful but a great resource as we sought to protect this land for generations to come. Together with the Parish of St. Helena we share the common goal of protecting this sacred land in perpetuity.”

Old Sheldon Church was built between 1745 and 1755 and was originally known as Prince William’s Parish Church. Centuries later, only the building’s outer walls and Greek-inspired pillars remain.

The building was burned by the British during the Revolutionary War, rebuilt in 1826, only to be desecrated again during the Civil War.

With the conservation of Sheldon Plantation, the Church will remain in its historical state and the rural character of the area will persist. The property on which the ruins sit is privately owned and managed by the Parish Church of St. Helena in Beaufort.

The Reverend Shay Gaillard, rector of the Parish Church of St. Helena said, “It is a relief to know that the church’s property is stabilized by the protection of the surrounding 240 acres. It is a sacred spot where parishioners and visitors come to worship, or to simply gaze at the historic ruins, and experience the beauty of this space. Generations to come will benefit from the adjacent landowner’s charitable gift of a conservation easement on the surrounding land. Stewardship and conservation of God’s Creation are hallmarks of the Christian life.”

Security Strategy, Plan, Budget, Security Staff Acquisition & Development, Leadership

A conversation with Sheldon Cuffie, enterprise CISO of American Family Insurance. One of a series of security leadership profiles prepared by Cybersecurity Collaborative in conjunction with SC Media. Cybersecurity Collaborative is a membership community for cybersecurity leaders to work together in a trusted environment. Find out more here.

About Sheldon Cuffie: Cuffie is vice president and enterprise chief information security officer at American Family Insurance, where he leads the cybersecurity, disaster recovery, technology risk management, and technology M&A integration functions. He previously served as vice president and global CISO of Dell Technologies, vice president and CISO of Northwestern Mutual, and held IT architecture leadership roles at Harley-Davidson and Abbott Laboratories. Cuffie is a veteran of the Wisconsin Army National Guard, earned a bachelor's degree in management from Concordia University Wisconsin, and a master's degree in organizational leadership from Quinnipiac University.

What makes a successful security leader?

Cuffie: The CISO role is often billed as an action hero — a unique mix of technical, business, and leadership capabilities combined with superior communication, negotiation, and risk management acumen and a compelling level of stress tolerance, executive presence, and charisma. While superheroes are reserved for the movies, some concepts do apply.

CISOs, over time, learn their powers, capitalizing on their strengths and continuously improving them, and understanding their physiological limits. Successful CISOs shift strategy and tactics in alignment with the situation at hand. They apply diplomacy in some cases, infusing advice into business decisions, or lead teams to targeted results. The best of the best CISOs build heterogeneous teams with broad perspectives — teams that value straight talk, believe in psychological safety, and maintain awareness of business context to drive quality and enable timely decision-making.

What internal and external priorities should today’s security leaders focus on?

Security leaders must double down on securing identities, data protection, application security, building a risk-aware culture/mindset, and cybersecurity skills transformation. Thinking just of the last two items, even today — after a decade of large-scale breaches and major shifts in computing — security teams look eerily similar to legacy patterns when it comes to on-premise perimeter protections, policy enforcement, and provisioning via forms.

Cybersecurity organizations must shift to become more agile, more skilled, and more digitally capable than their development counterparts. Building on that, the parallel path of helping the workforce understand their role in protecting data is critical — including how to identify insider risk. Creating a risk-aware culture to inform and educate is a task that the cybersecurity team must advance in concert with the protect-and-defend mission.

How can cyber leaders work with corporate peers to win buy-in from c-suites and boards of directors?

It’s important to engage them in understanding and setting a baseline. Just like buying a house, a home inspection is critical. The last home inspection may have been fine, but over time, changing building codes, and changes in how the structure is utilized all inform the baseline.

Engaging leaders to better understand their critical processes, business operations, and business outcomes can provide a baseline that structures your work and approach. All of this is mapped against credible industry standards and benchmarks to inform a potential aspirational maturity state. A map of key risks provides an overlay to determine areas of highest and most urgent investment need, with an appropriate pace and priority over several years. This is the homework and heavy lifting upfront. Take time to listen and understand the history of why certain conditions exist and then pivot to solutions; don’t assume conditions are due to bad people or negligence.

What kinds of non-technology training do security leaders need to be successful in large and/or global enterprises?

They would benefit by taking a page from management consulting best practice, understanding the process of how decisions are developed, socialized, and “sold.” Very rarely have I built a business case that immediately received buy-in even when there was significant financial ROI and/or clear and present risks. I had to take my ideas out, bounce them off stakeholders, incorporate feedback, and sometimes convince and win over passive resisters.

It helps to maintain an unrelenting curiosity in and out of your industry vertical, and to continuously develop your interpersonal skills. I’ve had to learn about organizational behavior, emotional intelligence, legal standards and precedents, investment operations, global supply chain logistics, public speaking and more.

Why did you join Cybersecurity Collaborative?

We all face similar problems securing our companies from an evolving and growing cyber-threat landscape. Learning from peers across industries — problem-solving with them — yields better decisions and faster results. Learning from peers in other industries will help me develop pragmatic solutions that my company and our customers can benefit from.

Why did you become a member of the Collaborative’s Executive Committee?

The overwhelming constant during the past eight years in cybersecurity has been the willingness of peers to share knowledge, insights, and solutions without reservation. Over the years, several of the current Cybersecurity Collaborative Executive Committee members have provided small nuggets of advice to me that provided the catalyst or spark for a broader solution. These are people I highly respect, so I’m humbled to join them in paying it forward.

A Beaufort County fire chief admitted that he violated state ethics law after the fire department paid for his wife’s insurance for over a year.

On Dec. 21, the S.C. State Ethics Commission found that Sheldon Fire Chief Buddy Jones violated 16 counts of ethics law after he approved payments for insurance premiums for his wife, who was a suspended department employee at the time.

“It was done inadvertently,” Jones said in an interview. “I made the mistake. I didn’t do that right. It was paid back.”

His wife reimbursed the Sheldon Fire District $11,000 for the payments on Jan. 8, 2019, according to a consent order.

Diane Jones was a district firefighter, but she was suspended in March 2017 after she was arrested on charges of providing alcohol to minors. She later pleaded guilty to the charge and resigned in October 2018.

Previously, Diane Jones’ health insurance premiums were deducted from her paycheck. During her suspension, however, when she wasn’t being paid, her insurance premiums were still being paid.

Chief Jones was in charge of signing every check in the department, including the ones that paid his wife’s insurance premiums. That continued for 16 months and amounted to $11,000, according to documents.

The payments stopped after an ethics complaint was filed with the commission in July 2018.

Last week, the commission issued a public reprimand and fined Chief Jones $1,800. He said he has paid the fine.

Another allegation in the complaint, found to be unsubstantiated, related to Chief Jones’ retirement on Jan. 31, 2018. He was rehired to his old job 30 days later.

Some state employees can retire, wait 30 days to be re-hired and receive salary and retirement benefit at the same time.

The complaint alleged this was improper because the the chairman of the Sheldon Fire District Board, Wayne Blankenship, met with Jones in secret eight days before the board held a public vote to re-instate him.

Blankenship told the Beaufort Gazette in 2019 that he didn’t remember the date of the meeting, nor whether it was publicized or minutes kept.

He told a reporter that Jones kept his job because he had known him a long time and that the department had been running well.

Said Jones: “There was no evidence found.

“I have full faith in my board,” he said. “I’ve been upfront with this thing.”