No one can avoid the subject with all the media attention. However, most of us live in a dream world and think things like foreclosure will never affect us. Well, it’s time to wake up. The national housing crisis is real and very close to home.

Sunday the Charleston Post and Courier reported on foreclosure statistics in the Tri-County area. They were staggering! Charleston County had 451 foreclosure filings for the 2nd quarter of the year and Berkeley County had 225 for the same period. That’s a 59 percent increase from the same quarter last year. Dorchester County experienced a 73 percent increase from last year and even areas like Mount Pleasant doubled with around 200 filings. No one is exempt from this crisis, Kiawah and Seabook islands had a dozen foreclosures. Up until this point I knew there was an issue, but didn’t realize my local community had been affected in such larger numbers.

Trio has been working with a nonprofit organization over the last few months to address the foreclosure issue.

Family Services Inc., based in Charleston, received a grant from the federal government at the end of 2007 to assist South Carolina residents with mortgage default counseling. By working with a homeowner and his or her lender to develop a reasonable action plan that offer relief to the borrower and help save these folks’ home.

Last year Family Services’ staff assisted more than 500 S.C. residents in foreclosure and was able to save more than 350 homes from foreclosure. Already this year, they have assisted more than 800 homeowners facing foreclosure throughout South Carolina.

The more people they can reach the more homes they can save. All of their services are free to anyone having financial difficulties.

On August 9 they will hold a statewide mortgage default clinic in Columbia at the Radisson Hotel on Bush River Road from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. It’s a one-day event where homeowners can meet with a HUD-approved counselor one-on-one to discuss their options.

I would urge South Carolina homeowners having trouble paying their mortgage, to attend this clinic or call 1-888-320-0350 to receive free foreclosure counseling. To learn more visit www.ForeclosureHelpforSC.org. The sooner a homeowner’s issues can be addressed the more likely they will have a positive outcome.

After coming across some interesting statistics about newspaper audiences from Journalism.org. I thought I would share one in particular that really stood out to me. Take a look at this graph of “Daily Newspaper Readership by Age Group.” This graph represents the percentage of individuals reading newspapers in an average week from 1999-2005 (editor’s note: in walks the Internet and Web 2.0).

The great staff at CoolPeopleCare have done it again…giving back to nonprofits. Their new initiative allows virtually anyone to raise money and awareness for their favorite cause by donating a percentage of any merchandise purchased through their online store. And the best thing is…it’s easy.

Basically, CoolPeopleCare will issue unique coupon codes to individuals who seek to raise money for schools or nonprofits than can be used on their online store. Here is how it works…

- Send an email to sam@coolpeoplecare.org stating that you’d like a coupon code.
- They’ll email you your code that you can share with anyone you want – Facebook friends, blog readers, coworkers…anyone.
- When someone uses that code in their store, they’ll get 5% off their order AND 5% will be donated to your favorite cause.
- It’s that easy.

So, think about it. If there’s something out there you want to support (your church, your school, a local nonprofit), send an email to the address above and get a code to share with the world that never expires.

Check out my recent profile on Palmetto PR Divas, a fun and informative public relations blog created by Kim Banks of Simko Communications and Liza Jones of Payne Jones Public Relations. These girls really know the meaning of paying it forward. Once you are profiled you get to nominate a fellow PR professional to be the next profile. Keep up the great work, ladies!