Everyday Hero: 'Get under it' with the Lowcountry Splash
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
Miami Herald
2 hours ago
- Miami Herald
The Great Shift: How Gen Z is reshaping the future of nursing
It's no longer a "coming trend" - Gen Z nurses have arrived, and they're already changing the dynamics of the U.S. nursing workforce. Born between the mid-1990s and early 2010s, this is the most racially and ethnically diverse generation in American history and the first to grow up entirely in the digital age. They enter the world of registered nurses, a profession with deep traditions and high-pressure demands. Yet they carry with them a distinctly modern set of priorities: flexible scheduling, mental health resources, technology that works for them, and a sustainable work-life balance. Many Gen Z RNs completed their education and clinical training during the COVID-19 pandemic, stepping into hospitals and clinics in a time of crisis. The urgency of that period shaped their perspective. They believe nursing is meaningful work, but it cannot come at the expense of their health, autonomy, and professional growth. That shift is challenging employers to rethink long-standing nursing workforce norms and update their healthcare staffing strategies. The alternative - continuing with business as usual - risks losing this generation to burnout or career changes, worsening an already critical shortage. A 2024 study from the NCSBN (National Council of State Boards of Nursing) reported that more than 138,000 registered nurses had left the workforce since 2022 and 40% (1.6 million nurses) plan to exit the workforce by 2029. In the same period, the median age of RNs increased from 46 to 50 and the number of nurses reporting a change in job setting increased by 4%. Vivian Health shares how healthcare organizations must adapt their retention strategies for registered nurses to meet the expectations of Generation Z and secure the future of patient care. 1. Explore Flexibility in Scheduling To provide round-the-clock coverage, hospitals and clinics often rely on long, fixed shifts and rotating schedules designed more around staffing efficiency than staff choice. Even off the clock, many RNs remain on call for their employers. But for Gen Z, flexibility is a central measure of job satisfaction, ranking alongside - or above - pay. According to Kaylee Parker, BSN, RN, and Senior Customer Success Manager at Vivian Health, this has proven true for younger nurses in her experience. "[Gen Z nurses are] more willing to trade traditional 12-hour shifts for shorter, mixed, or set schedules if it means better work-life balance, says Parker. "They're more likely to request self-scheduling, predictable rotations, or the option to swap shifts digitally. While older generations often accepted overtime as part of the job, many Gen Z nurses draw clearer boundaries and are more vocal about avoiding burnout." Employers are testing flexible nurse scheduling systems that allow more input from the nurses over shift selection and offer shorter or split shifts to reduce fatigue. Allowing nurses to have some control over the shifts they work (including preferences for days off or working consecutive days, flexibility for unit-specific needs, and providing transparency) greatly improves the level of reported job satisfaction. Technology may be able to help too. Some health systems are adopting AI-powered staffing tools to anticipate patient surges and match available nurses accordingly. Flexible scheduling is not just an HR perk - it's becoming a competitive advantage in nurse recruitment. 2. Make Mental Health Support a Core Job Benefit Gallup research shows that 68% of Gen Z reports feeling stressed "a lot of the time." For nurses, that's layered on top of high patient loads, life-and-death decision-making, and exposure to employers are beginning to treat mental health resources as core infrastructure, including: On-site counseling for immediate support networks to create safe spaces for shared sessions after critical incidents. By normalizing these supports in hiring, during onboarding, and in everyday operations, employers signal that their nurses' well-being is a priority and part of the job description - not a personal luxury. 3. Integrate Better Healthcare Technology That Actually Helps Nurses Nurses need tools that work, and those tools must enhance patient care rather than create administrative headaches. Gen Z nurses, as digital natives, are less tolerant of outdated or inefficient systems. Modern nursing is being transformed by new technology designed to improve efficiency, boost patient safety, and reduce nurse workload. Smart IV pumps automate accurate medication delivery through built-in dose error reduction, reducing the need for constant manual monitoring by nurses. Smart beds enhance both comfort and safety by repositioning patients, detecting attempts to exit, and syncing data directly to electronic health records, reducing manual documentation and preventing fall risks. Electronic Health Records (EHRs) centralize clinical documentation, support AI-powered alerts, provide mobile charting options, and streamline team communication, helping nurses focus more on patient care. Across the board, these innovations reduce manual work, accelerate decision-making, and contribute to more efficient, coordinated nursing workflows. Organizations investing in these improvements can market themselves to job seekers as innovation-driven workplaces. 4. Redefine Work-Life Balance in Nursing The leading causes of nurses leaving the workforce are "stress and burnout" and "workload," but for Gen Z, work-life balance for nurses is not just a factor - it's often a deal-breaker. The profession's traditional schedules - with unpredictable shifts and mandatory overtime - are in direct conflict with Gen Z's priorities. Some healthcare systems are taking steps toward structural change, including reducing reliance on mandatory overtime, establishing predictable rotation patterns, and expanding paid leave programs to encourage actual rest. Frontline caregivers have suggested adopting rotating shift schedules, allowing remote charting, and even offering "mental health days" that don't count against vacation or sick leave, as changes that could help staff better manage personal needs without compromising patient care. 5. Offer Meaningful Career Development The cultural dimension of nursing workforce trends is just as important as operational ones. The #1 takeaway from a 2024 Forbes article about Gen Z's impact on the workforce is that Gen Z employees place a premium on feeling that they are doing meaningful work and making a positive impact. However, traditional career ladders in nursing often lead to administrative or management roles. Gen Z is reshaping advancement expectations and wants growth opportunities that align with personal purpose and skill-building, not just hierarchical promotions. "Many younger nurses see nursing as a launchpad," says Parker. "They're open to leadership, advanced practice roles, or even branching into healthcare tech and policy. The new generation is more entrepreneurial. They're interested in roles that allow autonomy, creativity, and cross-disciplinary skills. Rather than staying in one unit for decades, younger nurses anticipate pivoting through multiple specialties and settings during their career. Gen Z also values transparency, collaborative problem-solving, and approachable leadership. Including frontline nurses in policy discussions, creating cross-generational mentorships, and rewarding contributions based on impact can keep engagement high. Institutions that implemented peer-support programs, frequent leadership check-ins ("leadership care rounds"), and town halls to discuss concerns found better morale and improved ability to handle stress during the crisis. Why These Adaptations Matter The arrival of Gen Z nurses coincides with one of the most challenging staffing landscapes in modern healthcare. Retention is not just about filling schedules - it's about sustaining the profession's capacity to deliver safe, high-quality care. The nursing workforce trends shaping today's hospitals and clinics are driven by both demographic shifts and the lived experiences of these new professionals. Healthcare employers who embrace flexible nurse scheduling, invest in mental health in nursing, commit to nursing technology integration, and prioritize work-life balance for nurses aren't just responding to Gen Z demands - they're building resilience into their organizations. This story was produced by Vivian Health and reviewed and distributed by Stacker. © Stacker Media, LLC.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Pandemic Babies Are Entering Kindergarten & We're Only Now Processing How Weird Their First Year Was
It's been five years since the pandemic first started, but parents who had kids in 2020 don't forget so easily. Especially now, as those 'pandemic babies' head off to kindergarten. As for me, my son was 8 months old when the pandemic started and daycare shut down. He learned how to crawl the same week he was home, and it was a mix of joy and panic as I juggled full-time work with no childcare. When daycare reopened, I worried he'd get sick, yes, but also that he wouldn't learn how to talk since all his teachers (and everyone he interacted with except for his parents) wore masks. Strangely enough, we didn't test positive for Covid until two years later, and fast forward to today with two more kids into the mix, and it turns out that my first one was the most verbal (and continues to be a total chatterbox). But those early days were definitely weird. I checked in with a couple of other moms whose children were also born during the pandemic, and here's what they shared. Pregnancy and Labor Sucked Big Time Katie was living in Brooklyn, NY when her son was born in March 2020. 'I delivered March 25, which was three days after NY State was put on pause…Most notably, I delivered during the week-long partner ban that NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital implemented. My husband was restricted access to the hospital, so he took me as far as he could. We said our goodbyes on the curb right outside of the entrance, and then I had to do the rest without him.' She recalls masked-up surgery, isolated recovery, nurses terrified to enter her room, and missing her husband most when her newborn wanted constant feeding. She was discharged 40 hours after delivery. 'That night, once my family had been reunited, we were all safely home and the boys were asleep—my body started shaking uncontrollably. My midwife suspected that was all the adrenaline I had stored up, releasing.' Across the ocean in London, Hannah described a similarly lonely birth experience in October 2020: 'Being in the UK we had very tough and strict restrictions throughout the whole of my pregnancy. It changed daily! In the end, my partner was not able to be in the delivery room with me until I was about to give birth. Then we had around one hour together before he was told to leave because of the restrictions and to come back the following day.' Leading up to delivery, Hannah recalls that the lack of in-person classes and support left her feeling isolated. 'Online antenatal classes aren't the same. And I really wanted to go to the store to test out all the pushchairs and make our decision together, but we didn't want to risk exposure so we bought everything online.' It Was Lonely and Anxiety-Inducing For many parents, the hardest part wasn't just the birth itself but the long, quiet aftermath. The missed 'village' of grandparents, friends and new mom groups. Ellen in Chicago, IL also delivered her baby in October 2020. 'I randomly was looking back at old notes in my Notes app the other day, and the ones from those early days are bat shit crazy. I had extreme anxiety about her health, breastfeeding, her weight, sleep safety, everything,' she tells me. Even small milestones—like introducing a new baby to friends—were fraught with anxiety or lost completely. I attended multiple baby showers and first birthday parties over Zoom that year and, well, it just wasn't the same as celebrating a tiny human in person ('you're on mute!'). As for us, we had one family come over for my son's first birthday party who we were bubbling with at the time, while other invitees came by our house and congratulated him and us from the street outside. The Kids Are Alright The other day I found one of my son's tiny face masks and asked if he remembered ever wearing it. (At one point the CDC recommended masks for kids ages 2 and up, though by the time he hit that milestone, restrictions had fortunately eased up and his school only advised, not mandated, them.) He just looked at me blankly—no recollection whatsoever. Katie reflects: 'He is a healthy, happy, funny, resourceful kid. I think one positive side effect of Covid was that my husband, who would usually travel a lot for work, was suddenly home all the time. Having him close helped to establish a very deep bond between him and both our boys.' Still, the immune system challenges were real. As Hannah recalls, once her daughter started daycare, 'Whatever she then caught she got bad—chicken pox, scarlet fever, even tiny colds took her ages to recover from. It was very scary!' These days when I have to keep a kid home from school, I try to remind myself that it will never be as bad as during the early days of the pandemic. There was a period in 2021 where my son went a full 19 weeks (I remember, I counted!) without actually making it through a full week, largely due to illness after illness and a very strict sick policy (you had to be fever-free for 48 hours, no green snot allowed, negative Covid tests, quarantine periods, etc.). But the Parents Won't Forget If the kids will grow up barely remembering, the parents are a different story. 'I think about [Covid] every year on my son's birthday,' Katie says. 'He is our goofy little Covid reminder. I still wish that my husband could have been in person at the delivery…He says that I should let this go…but I struggle with that.' Ellen echoes this. While her daughter is thriving, she admits the pandemic likely made her and her partner extra anxious beyond the normal 'this is my first kid' type of stress. 'It probably made us a little weird,' she says. (Remember when we were all wiping down groceries with Clorox wipes and hoarding toilet paper?) Ultimately, these pandemic babies have proven exactly what we hoped for—that they are resilient, adaptable and joyful despite the strangeness of their first year. But for the parents, the memories linger. It's not all bad, though. 'I can appreciate how strong our family is,' says Katie. 'We lived through something really hard and found the strength to do that in each other.' As I prepare to send my "pandemic kid" off into a new school year, I couldn't agree more. The Pandemic Taught Us That Kids Are Resilient. Parents Are Not.
Time Magazine
4 hours ago
- Time Magazine
The Clashing Advice Over COVID-19 Shots for Kids
Should you give your baby a COVID-19 shot? The answer isn't as straightforward or as much of a consensus as it used to be: In an unusual move, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is recommending a different approach to childhood vaccination than the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Both groups agree that families should make individual decisions in consultation with their doctors about whether kids should be vaccinated. But the AAP has a stricter stance for the youngest eligible children in the U.S., recommending that all of them get COVID-19 shots. The CDC stopped recommending COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children older than six months following guidance from the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in May. The CDC does, however, recommend the shot for children who are moderately or severely immunocompromised. A day after the AAP released its recommendations, Kennedy fired back at the organization on social media, accusing them of allowing pharmaceutical-company donors to guide their recommendations. AAP maintains that its recommendations are based on science. Here's what to know about the clashing advice regarding COVID-19 vaccines for kids. What does the AAP recommend in terms of COVID-19 shots for children? Whether most children should get a COVID-19 vaccine should be based on their particular risk, the AAP says—taking into account their underlying conditions, such as asthma, obesity, or diabetes, as well as whether they live in a household with people at high risk for developing severe disease. That risk is higher for the youngest eligible age group—ages 6 months to 23 months—which is why the AAP recommends that all kids in this age group get vaccinated. 'For the youngest kids, the hospitalization rate is similar to that for adults 50 to 64 years old,' says Dr. Sean O'Leary, chair of the AAP Committee on Infectious Diseases. 'It's not nothing. And that's for something that can be prevented by a vaccine, which has been better studied than any medical product in our history. We have a very strong level of confidence in the safety of the vaccine.' HHS did not respond to TIME's request for comment. Why are the recommendations different? Generally, the CDC sets the schedule for which vaccines people should get and at which ages. The CDC makes its decision based on advice from its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). ACIP is made up of independent experts who volunteer to review data, discuss their findings, and make recommendations to help guide the CDC. But Kennedy—a longtime vaccine-skeptic who now oversees the CDC as head of HHS—fired all members of ACIP in June, accusing them of following industry interests. Kennedy replaced them days later with people he had selected, 'many of them with strong anti-vaccine views,' says O'Leary. Read More: How Having a Baby Is Changing Under Trump After ACIP was replaced, AAP—which typically works closely with the advisory committee and other liaison groups in setting vaccination schedules—decided not to attend ACIP's first meeting under the new administration in the spring. 'We saw from that meeting that ACIP has gone off the rails, essentially, in terms of the way they are operating and the messaging from the new members, which is very much around sowing distrust about vaccines and not making evidence-based vaccine recommendations,' says O'Leary. Weeks later, the AAP and other liaison groups were asked to discontinue their participation in ACIP work groups, O'Leary says. 'We received an email un-inviting us,' he says. The reason provided, he says, was that the organizations represented 'special interest groups,' which O'Leary says is a 'poor interpretation of the rules. All of the organizations at the table have expertise, and there are a lot of reasons to have representation from professional societies.' Which advice will doctors and pharmacists follow? O'Leary says pediatricians are anticipating having to have more conversations with families about the conflicting vaccine advice, and that the AAP is providing guidance to help inform those discussions on its website and via emails to its members. 'Politics has entered the exam room in a way that it never has before,' he says. 'These discussions will be contextual, depending on how well the pediatrician knows the family, what relationship they have, and how frank they can be with them in the discussion.' Ultimately, he says, the message from pediatricians should be this: 'We are committed to the health of children, and our recommendations are based on the best available science.' Read More: What the New COVID-19 Vaccine Guidance Means For You Pharmacists must take a slightly different approach, since they are only allowed to vaccinate according to the CDC's recommendations, while doctors can vaccinate outside of strictly approved conditions or populations in so-called 'off-label' use. Since current CDC recommendations say that families should make their own decisions about whether their children receive the shot, pharmacists will vaccinate kids if parents want them to have the shots, but won't specifically recommend that people get them. 'Our guidance is to always follow what the CDC or HHS recommends,' says Rick Gates, chief pharmacy officer at Walgreens. If families come in with questions about whether their child should get the COVID-19 shot, pharmacists will probably refer them back to their pediatrician or family physician. Will insurance cover COVID-19 vaccines for kids if the CDC doesn't recommend them? It's still not clear how insurers will respond to the differing recommendations. 'This is a real concern,' says Dr. David Higgins, an infectious-disease expert at AAP. Traditionally, a recommendation from ACIP means that a shot will be covered, since any vaccines recommended by the committee have to be reimbursed by insurers under the Affordable Care Act. It's not clear how insurers will interpret the individual choice of families when it comes to vaccinating children. The AAP is urging insurers to continue covering the COVID-19 vaccine for infants six to 23 months, despite the fact that ACIP does not recommend the vaccine for all kids in this age group. 'The AAP is already engaging with private insurers and policymakers to ensure our evidence-based recommendations are covered,' Higgins says, 'and we will continue to advocate to make vaccines accessible to every child in every community.'
