While it was clearly summer in Charleston last week, Sunday’s rain brought  along late-winteresque temperatures, and when Tea Room opened at 11:30 a.m. on Monday, the Peninsula was sitting at a brisk 59 degrees despite a bright, cloudless sky, and many people strolling around Church Street were bundled up in long pants and coats.

Meanwhile, many folks, including Elizabeth Crofoot and Mara Brockbank, pictured here with friends, chose instead to don spring dresses and hats to enjoy their first lowcountry lunch and delicious dessert of Tea Room 2024.

In an email to Monday’s volunteers, Tea Room co-chairs Amanda Ayers and Jorie Stryker wrote, “No matter which job you performed, it was an important one that made today run as well as it did ... we saw all of you working joyfully, and we saw how touched our guests were to be in such a beautiful place with such joyful people. We had several people tell us how blessed they were to have found us today ... we were all just as blessed, if not more so!”

The behind-the-scenes fellowship is what so many of our parishioners look forward to, but since the Tea Room is our annual parish fundraising event, we are also very eager to keep those seats filled! On the Saturday before opening day every year, youth minister David Gilbert and his team of youth groupers take a huge stack of flyers and go around to area shops to encourage retail workers and customers to stop in for lunch the next week. This year, David rewarded their efforts with some boba tea from Vivi’s Bubble Tea on King Street.

Tune in next week for more pictures and all the Tea Room highlights!