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Secular Humanists of the Lowcountry cover photo

Secular Humanists of the Lowcountry

Charleston, SC, US

1,772 members · Public group

Organized by Bonnie Cleaveland and 6 others

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What we’re about

We are an organization of atheists, agnostics, skeptics and other freethinkers based in Charleston, South Carolina.

Please note that not all of us have accounts on Meetup.com. From the RSVPs here, it may look as if only a handful of people are planning to attend, but our regular monthly meetings usually draw between 20 and 50 people. The book group meetings usually draw 10 to 15.

For more information, check out our Webpage at http://lowcountryhumanists.org and sign up for our Mailchimp e-mail announcements.

Upcoming events (4+)

Sun, Jul 13, 2025, 3:00 PM EDTActivist Sunday: Protect the ACE Basin from Greedy Utility Companies!
Charleston County Public Library (Main), Charleston, SC
Join SHL on Sunday, July 13th, as we welcome Belvin Olasov, Co-Director of the Charleston Climate Coalition to talk to us about a serious environmental situation developing just upstream from us in Colleton County.

Dominion Energy is looking to build one of the highest capacity gas plants in the nation on the bank of the Edisto River and a new interstate pipeline through the ACE Basin. This $2.5 billion gas megaproject would release massive amounts of greenhouse gas emissions, putting SC climate goals at risk and harming local communities with hazardous air pollutants. The new interstate pipeline would impact communities, wetlands, rivers, and forests across the Southeast, threatening the watersheds of the Lowcountry.

Charleston Climate Coalition is organizing with partners to push back against the gas plant, advocating for renewable energy instead. We will need to mobilize our community against this threat if we're going to stop this dangerous mistake.

Belvin will be happy to take questions after his presentation, after which we will have the opportunity to sign a petition, send an email and utilize your social media effectively to spread the word!

This event is free and open to the public. We will be in the auditorium of the Charleston County Public Library, Main Branch, located at 78 Calhoun St in Charleston. Metered street parking is free on Sundays, and there is parking available in the garage under the library (garage closes at 5).
13 attendees+8
Sat, Jul 19, 2025, 8:15 AM EDTFood Distribution with Park Circle Cares
North Charleston High School, North Charleston, SC
Volunteer to distribute food with Park Circle Cares. SHL will be supporting Park Circle Cares’ monthly food distribution.

Park Circle Cares is a non-faith based, non-profit organization created in 2016 to assist people in the lowcountry who struggle with food insecurity. Park Circle Cares is a member agency with the Lowcountry Food Bank, and distributes 120-150 thousand pounds of food each year. What makes them unique among the many organizations working on the widespread problem of food insecurity in our community is that they only distribute healthy and nutritious foods, 75% of which is produce. Healthy dry goods and proteins make up the remainder.

Park Circle Cares is operated by an all-volunteer working board, and an enthusiastic group of volunteers who set up a farmers’ market style distribution at North Charleston High School on the third Saturday of each month.
3 attendees
Sun, Jul 20, 2025, 3:00 PM EDTAutism Awareness and Advocacy with Layla Luna
Charleston Public Library - Main branch, Charleston, SC
On Sunday, July 20th, SHL has the honor of hosting Layla Luna, CEO of Just Bee, as our speaker.

Founded by Layla Luna and inspired by her nonverbal Autistic son, Just Bee is a nonprofit working to make communities safer, more inclusive, and welcoming for the Autistic and Neurodivergent community. From passing Rio’s Law in South Carolina—creating the nation’s first autism-alert license plate—to launching outreach, training, and educational programs, Just Bee is transforming awareness into action.

Through initiatives like the "Just Bee My Friend" school program and the Just Bee app, Layla and her growing network of advocates are building a culture of acceptance where all families can thrive. Join us in supporting a movement that’s not about disabilities—it’s about possibilities.

Together, we can Just Bee the Change.

We’ll be meeting at 3:00 PM at the Charleston County Library, main branch. You won’t want to miss hearing Layla’s passionate advocacy for this vital issue.

This event is free and open to the public. Metered street parking is free on Sundays, and there is parking available in the garage under the library (garage closes at 5).

We are also raising money for Just Bee as our Q3 2025 Charity of the Quarter (July through September). Please help us raise money for their valuable work. Donate Here
11 attendees+6
Sun, Jul 27, 2025, 3:00 PM EDTSHL Book Club: Class Clown by Dave Barry
Charleston County Public Library (Main), Charleston, SC
We are reading Class Clown: The Memoirs of a Professional Wiseass: How I Went 77 Years Without Growing Up by Dave Barry for our July book club meeting.

The meeting will be held in Meeting Room B of the Main Public Library downtown. Metered street parking is free on Sundays, and there is parking available in the garage under the library (garage closes at 5).

After the meeting we'll go out for food and further conversation.
Thanks to the generosity of our donors, SHL has funds available to ensure everyone feels welcome and able to participate. If you would like to participate in dining with us after book club but the cost presents a challenge, please email us at shl@lowcountryhumanists.org, and we can discreetly arrange to cover your costs.

About the book:
How does the son of a Presbyterian minister wind up winning a Pulitzer Prize for writing a wildly inaccurate newspaper column read by millions of people?

In Class Clown, Dave Barry takes us on a hilarious ride, starting with a childhood largely spent throwing rocks for entertainment—there was no internet—and preparing for nuclear war by hiding under a classroom desk. After literally getting elected class clown in high school, he went to college, where, as an English major, he read snippets of great literature when he was not busy playing in a rock band (it was the sixties).

He began his journalism career at a small-town Pennsylvania newspaper where he learned the most important rule of local journalism: never confuse a goose with a duck. His journey then took a detour into the business world, where as a writing consultant he spent years trying, with limited success, to get corporate folks to, for God’s sake, get the point. Somehow from there he wound up as a humor columnist for The Miami Herald, where his boss was a wild man who encouraged him to write about anything that struck him as amusing and to never worry about alienating anyone.

His columns were not popular with everyone: He managed to alienate a vast army of Neil Diamond fans, and the entire state of Indiana. But he also developed a loyal following of readers who alerted him to the threat of exploding toilets, not to mention the fire hazards posed by strawberry pop-tarts and Rollerblade Barbie, which he demonstrated to the nation on the David Letterman show. He led his readers on a crusade against telemarketers that ultimately caused the national telemarketers association to stop answering its own phones because it was getting—irony alert—too many unwanted calls. He has also run for president multiple times, although so far without success.

He became a book author and joined a literary rock band, which was not good at playing music but did once perform with Bruce Springsteen, who sang backup to Dave. As for his literary merits, Dave writes: “I’ll never have the critical acclaim of, say, Marcel Proust. But was Marcel Proust ever on Carson? Did he ever steal a hotel sign for Oprah?”

Class Clown isn’t just a memoir; it’s a vibrant celebration of a life rich with humor, absurdity, joy, and sadness. Dave says the most important wisdom imparted by his Midwestern parents was never to take anything too seriously. This laughter-filled book is proof that he learned that lesson well.
8 attendees+3

Past events (1172)

Tue, Jul 8, 2025, 7:00 PM EDTHappy Humanist Hour: Naan in North Charleston
This event has passed
20 attendees+15

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