Everyday Hero: 'Get under it' with the Lowcountry Splash
Around five hundred people will jump into the water on Saturday morning and 'get under it.'
An idea that started 24 years ago has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for causes near and dear to the man who started it and has kept it going.
Mark Rutledge, CEO of Rehab Carolina Physical Therapy, has reason to be excited. Two decades ago, he came up with the idea of the Lowcountry Splash while running the Cooper River Bridge Run.
'I ran the Bridge Run in like 1992 for the first time, and the motto, of course, is 'get over it' and I'm running it, and I'm an old swimmer; I swam in college, and I'm thinking it'd be cool to get under it. So that's where the idea was born, and then we made it happen in 2002,' Rutledge explained.
The splash is a 2.4- or 6-mile swim starting in the Wando River and ending in the Charleston Harbor. It's an annual fan favorite for swimmers.
In its early stages, it was a way for Rutledge to raise money for the neonatal intensive care unit at the Medical University of South Carolina, a foundation in his son Logan's name.
'He was born prematurely. He was born at 24 ½ weeks and was in the neonatal intensive care unit at MUSC. He was doing great. They were actually amazed at how well he had been doing for how early he had been born, and then he got an infection. In two days, he died from heart problems,' Rutledge said. 'So, he lived for a month.'
The Lowcountry Splash made hundreds of thousands of dollars in the early stages, but a trip to Edisto soon directed the dollars to a new cause.
'We were at Edisto visiting friends, and two kids drowned while we were there. We heard the helicopters, we heard the ambulances, and we were all ex-swimmers at South Carolina. We didn't know what was going on. So I started investigating that and found out that South Carolina had the fourth highest drowning rate per capita in the country.'
After discovering this, Rutledge decided to change directions and redirect the money to a program that teaches people how to swim, the Lowcountry Aquatic Program Swimming (LAPS).
LAPS teaches students from kindergarten through first grade in Charleston County.
'We were up to teaching 1,700 kids with free swim lessons of kindergarteners and first graders when we were really at our peak before COVID,' Rutledge said.
COVID killed the program, but Rutledge is working hard to restore it. The fun fact is that in the 23 swims that have been, no one has ever been bitten by a shark.
The splash has raised around $1 million since its inception and will be heading into its 24th race this Saturday.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Kalyanaraman becomes latest to leave Maryland Department of Health
Dr. Nilesh Kalyanaraman testified in March on nursing home inspections to the House Health and Government Operations Committee. (Photo by Danielle J. Brown/Maryland Matters) The deputy secretary of public health services is leaving the Maryland Department of Health this week after two years serving under the Moore Administration and more than a decade in both private and public health services in Maryland, state officials confirmed Monday. Tuesday will be Dr. Nilesh Kalyanaraman's last day with the department. 'We thank Dr. Kalyanaraman for raising his hand to serve the people of Maryland — especially through the COVID pandemic — as a dedicated champion for public health,' according to a spokesperson for Gov. Wes Moore. His departure is the latest in a string that began in February, when then-Secretary Laura Herrera Scott left amid several controversies at the department, including oversight issues at Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center, a high-security hospital that has been riddled with complaints of patient abuse and violence. Secretary Meena Seshamani, a former top official with the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, took the reins of the department in April. Just last week, Erin McCullen left her position as the department's chief of staff, a position she's held since 2023. McCullen also worked in the department in various positions from 2013 through 2017. Chase Cook also left his job last week as the department's director of communications, following several years in the position. Former CMS administrator takes helm of controversy-laden health department As the deputy secretary of public health services, Kalyanaraman has spoken on a wide variety of health and safety issues throughout the years — from heat illnesses and dental health workforce to bird flu threat levels and more. Before working with the Moore administration, Kalyanaraman served as the health officer for Anne Arundel County from September 2019 through March 2023, leading the county through the COVID-19 pandemic. 'He was a really, really good resource for the issues that we dealt with during COVID,' said Sen. Pam Beidle (D-Anne Arundel), chair of the Senate Finance Committee. 'He was always willing to do a webinar with us and our constituents. I think he did a really good job guiding our county through COVID.' Before his time in local government, Kalyanaraman served from 2012 to 2019 as the chief health officer for Baltimore-based Health Care for the Homeless, a nonprofit that provides health care and housing support to 10,000 people in the region annually. He leaves a health department that's trying to pull itself out of a series of controversies and challenges. During the 2025 legislative session, lawmakers grilled Kalyanaraman for answers about one of those controversies — a significant backlog of nursing home annual inspections. Kalyanaraman argued that the department had been making progress on the backlog of state inspections, but lawmakers remain concerned that some facilities had not received annual inspections for over four years, putting vulnerable senior citizens at risk of inadequate care. Kalyanaraman declined Monday to comment on his departure. Neither McCullen nor Cook responded to a request for comment. But McCullen said in a social media post about her departure from the health department that she was 'filled with immense gratitude for the privilege of serving alongside such dedicated public servants.' 'The experience has been invaluable, and I am forever thankful for the opportunity to contribute to the health and well-being of Marylanders alongside some of the best people you will ever meet,' she said. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Pilot program testing tasers in Ohio's prisons; may expand statewide
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Ohio's correction officers could soon be armed with tasers. 'This is very rushed,' policy director at Ohio Justice and Policy Center Michaela Burriss said. 'De-escalation is about communication; de-escalation is about creating safe spaces.' Stranger's sleuthing reunites Grandview Heights graduate with class ring lost 50 years ago According to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC), the conversation of arming corrections officers with tasers started in 2020. Research into the matter was put on pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic, then started again in 2024. In May of this year, two prisons started a pilot program to test the use of tasers; now ODRC wants to see the program expanded statewide. 'Over 78% of those currently housed in the department have committed a crime of violence in their lifetime,' an ODRC spokesperson wrote in a statement. 'This means that the inmates the staff supervise are more dangerous than they have been in the past, and we want our staff to have the tools to do their jobs safely.' 'There absolutely shouldn't be a statewide expansion when we have no idea how the pilot is going to turn out,' Burriss said. How would the proposal work? This manual lays out what all must go into equipping correction officers with tasers. Officers must go through vendor approved training, and if a taser is in use, body cameras must also be in use. Unauthorized use includes someone who is already restrained and inmates younger than 14. Burriss worries that the move is premature. Police provide updates on Mifflin Township shootout suspect 'Weapons are not in prisons for a reason,' Burriss said, adding that the long-term effects of taser use have not been sufficiently studied. 'I don't have a lot of confidence that somebody isn't going to get extremely hurt or somebody isn't going to die, and that somebody may not even be the person who is incarcerated,' she said. 'Tasers are only going to beget the cycle of violence that leads to people being incarcerated in the first place.' '[O]DRC's policy allows only those officers with direct interaction with the incarcerated population to carry a taser device,' the ODRC statement reads. 'This allows the managing officer (Warden), who knows that facility best, to identify those types of posts with a second approval process by the respective regional director to review and approve whether those posts identified shall be issued taser devices.' State leaders said if ODRC says tasers in prisons are necessary, they are inclined to fund that endeavor in the state budget. 'It seems to me to be appropriate, but I'm also not an expert in terms of prisoner management and things like that,' Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima) said. 'But I don't, off the top of my head, have any opposition to that.' Donatos to open fully-automated pizza restaurant at John Glenn International this month 'I think that's a decision that should be made by the professionals in the field,' Gov. Mike DeWine said. 'I generally follow what their lead is, so that's about as far as I'm going to go on that.' Right now, the state budget cuts funding to ODRC over the next two years – 3% in 2026 and 4% in 2027. Burriss believes taxpayer dollars allotted to corrections should be spent in what she considers a more effective way. 'Our taxpayer money is better spent on things that we know do decrease violence in prisons and that will address those systemic problems like overcrowding and understaffing,' she said. 'Tasers are not going to rehabilitate somebody. They're not going to make somebody less likely to commit an act of violence and I think that's something we all want.' The state budget must pass by the end of June. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Owens & Minor partners with WVU Health System to open medical distribution center
MORGANTOWN, (WBOY) — A grand opening was held on Monday to introduce the community to Owens & Minor's new state-of the-art medical distribution center, in partnership with WVU Health System and the state of West Virginia. According to President and CEO Ed Pesicka, the facility is going to support the WVU Health System in Morgantown, along with the entire state and the surrounding region. Pesicka told 12 News that by the end of the year, the center plans to hire about 100 new teammates. 'So it's bringing back additional jobs to the area,' he added. 'And [we're] really excited to have this long-term partnership that we've put together with WVU Health.' WVU Health System President and Chief Executive Officer Albert Wright said they began working with Owens & Minor a few years ago, when in search of a new partner for medical supplies and distribution. According to Wright, it was very important for WVU Health System to have a distribution center that's headquartered in West Virginia to serve them and surrounding partners while also bringing jobs and economic development to the region. 'It is just a beautiful facility,' said Wright. 'Employing a lot of folks and kind of building towards our mission of improving the health trajectory of the state of West Virginia and the surrounding areas that we serve.' According to Wright, Owens & Minor is a Fortune 500 company that operates on a national scale. 'For them to you know, see a partner in us — that they were willing to build a facility here in West Virginia to make sure we always have the medical supplies we need and that they're able to easily travel the rugged terrain we have in West Virginia to make sure our network of hospitals and care points around the state are being taken care of, I think that's a pretty big commitment on their part,' he added. WVU student discovers psychedelic fungus that could be used to treat addiction, depression Pesicka stated that the partnership between Owens & Minor, WVU Health System and the state of West Virginia has been in place for the past several years. He added that a distribution center of this size (350,000 sq. feet) with this amount of technology takes a little bit of time, but that they were excited to finally be opening things up on Monday. 'It's around making sure we have products close to the point of care,' said Pesicka. 'Whether it's a clinician or a surgeon, that they can have the product quickly of what they need and always have what they need, and it's gonna help healthcare in the region.' According to Pesicka, Owens & Minor's purpose is 'Life Takes Care' and the company takes that to heart. 'We wanna make sure that we have the products, the ability to service our customer, which is really the clinician and the patient,' he added. 'And that's really what our focus is on this.' According to Wright, the availability of medical supplies was something that many people took for granted prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, which was significantly challenged during that time. 'One of our guiding principles coming out of COVID was to make sure we had a supplier and partner with reserves that were focused on West Virginia, and I think this facility and this partnership solves that,' he added. Wright told 12 News that the vast majority of WVU Health System's medical supplies will come from Owens & Minor through this new distribution center. Some of the items that will be produced include custom surgical packs, gowns, and personal protective equipment (PPE). Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
