Bluffton and Hilton Head ask - and this Facebook page kindly answers

Heather Price can feel strangers’ pain.

Not their actual pain, obviously, but the pain she imagines they must be in when they’ve been humiliated for no reason on social media.

She can feel it. And, in one very particular way, she can fix it.

About a year and a half ago, she started a page on Facebook called “Bluffton/Hilton Head Ask and Answer.”

The idea for the page came to her when she was thinking about something she saw on a local resale page on Facebook.

On this page, a wife of a Marine, whose husband was deployed, posted a picture she took of a bug that she kept seeing on the floor of her house.

The woman told the group that she was new to the area and the mom of a crawling baby.

“What,” the woman asked, “is this thing?”

Instead of answering her, though, people cut her down.

This page is not meant for things like this.

Can’t you read?

Don’t you know where you’re posting?

It was nasty, and Price didn’t like it.

“It hurt my feelings for her,” she said.

So Price, a longtime Bluffton resident, thought about it.

We’ve always been taught that there’s no such thing as a stupid question.

And there are so many people who are new to this community.

There should be a page where people in Bluffton and on Hilton Head Island can feel safe to ask whatever question is on their minds and know that others will want to help them find the answer.

“Bluffton is not the Bluffton, I grew up with,” she said. “Sometimes I feel like I just moved here.”

Price considered starting the page herself, but dropped the idea.

No one is going to join that.

Then she saw the very same shut-down happen yet again to someone else on Facebook.

Another person got attacked for being curious in the wrong place.

A simple question. A snarky response.

So Price did it.

She started the page.

She still didn’t believe anyone would join, though.

Today, she has more than 2,400 followers in the very active, but closed group.

Anyone can join the group, of course, but Price checks to make sure everyone is real and everyone has ties to the area.

Her vision is for a lively, friendly and helpful spot, free from salespeople pitching their products, free from hurtful comments and free from rumor and hysteria.

She is part journalist, part mayor, part activities director, part meteorologist, part police officer. She checks facts, disperses information, maintains community spirit, encourages conversation, monitors storms and power outages. And she gets tough when group members step out of line.

Earlier this summer, when discussions on the page became heated, she posted a reminder: “I will not allow this group to be tainted or a place where people cannot ask their questions or report community happenings without fear of negativity. So let’s review the rules and guidelines …”

She ended her post with a firm threat: If you can’t get along, I’ll post a bunch of YouTube videos of Mister Rogers and Daniel Tiger.

The lesson? NEVER mess with the mom of an energetic toddler.

“After I posted that, someone said ‘Will you run for president?,’” Price said, laughing.

The questions on the page are what you would expect and also from left-field.

There are dozens of them a day.

▪  What’s the best place here for sushi?

▪  Where can my daughter dye her hair blue?

▪  My neighbor foreclosed on his house, left town and now his pool is a breeding-ground for mosquitoes. Who do I call about that?

▪  When is the Bluffton Christmas parade?

▪  Anyone know a veterinarian who doesn’t charge an arm and a leg on X-rays?

▪  I need a really good bookbag. Anyone have a recommendations?

▪  Good spots around here for a photoshoot. Go.

▪  What’s a good colorful flower to plant right now?

Group members share their experience, their brain power, their advice and sometimes even their literal helping hand.

Price has lots of stories of when the people on her page have overwhelmed her by their kindnesses to one another.

They’ve rallied to help people devastated by a house fire.

They’ve donated baby gear to a young mother in need.

They’ve kept an eye out for lost dogs, wallets, watches.

We often hear about how social media has ruined us, how the Internet has made us callous, cruel and self-absorbed.

Price’s page — essentially a small town in outerspace — proves otherwise.

It is an old-fashioned local gathering spot where people can pop in and share their thoughts while still living their 2016 lives.

And it still surprises Price that people joined.

“Sometimes I’m just like, ‘Wow,’” she said.

“‘Wow.’”

This story was originally published September 23, 2016 at 4:08 PM with the headline "Bluffton and Hilton Head ask - and this Facebook page kindly answers."