AdvertiseHereH

Daily Archives: 07/19/2016

Easley NJROTC cadets complete leadership academy

EASLEY — Four Easley High School Naval JROTC cadets graduated from the Area Six Leadership Academy on June 25, held at the Citadel Military College.

One week of vigorous mental and physical training designed to develop the future leaders of the more than 60 NJROTC units throughout North and South Carolina. 180 cadets were involved in the training and were awarded a silver aiguillettes upon graduation. The honored silver aiguillette is the only aiguillette that can be worn on the right shoulder — more responsibility and initiative is expected from a cadet that wears one.

Physical fitness is the initial training at the beginning of each day followed by personnel and bunk inspection, classroom instruction, orienteering, close order drill, manual of the sword and of course proper etiquette. In order for a cadet to graduate they must pass a physical fitness exam which consists of one minute of push-ups, one minute of curl-ups and a one mile run and the requirements vary by age and gender.

Easley cadets who completed the academy were cadets Brandon Marsh, Kelsie Hart, William Frazier and Heidi Jacome.

 

Appalachian Music Program signups now open

COUNTY — Would you like to learn how to play the guitar, banjo, fiddle or mandolin? Enrollment is now underway for the Appalachian Evening Music Program.

The summer session will begin the week of Monday, Aug. 1, at various locations. The program is open to students from third grade through adults of all ages and is designed to teach students to play Appalachian music. The cost is $60 for a six-week session, and rental instruments are available, if needed, for $25.

Enrollment period is open now, so anyone interested in signing up for the new session should contact one of the following program directors:

Easley, Tuesday nights, First Baptist Church. Contact: Susan Ware-Snow, (864) 979-9188 or susu9196@gmail.com.

Pickens, Monday and Thursday nights, Pickens Community Center. Contact: Steve McGaha, (864) 283-4871 or blindpunkin54@yahoo.com.

Six Mile, Monday nights. Contact: Sunshine Dennis, (864) 630-4039 or waandcs@gmail.com.

The Evening Music Program is sponsored by Preserving Our Southern Appalachian Music (POSAM), a charitable non-profit organization. For more information about the program, visit www.YAMupstate.com, Facebook: “YAM (Young Appalachian Musicians),” or contact Betty McDaniel (director) at (864) 878-4257 or mcdanibw1@gmail.com.

 

Pickens Farmers market set for August opening

PICKENS — Area farmers and those who love the vegetables they grow will now be able to get together in Pickens, as the city has announced the opening of Market and Music, coming to downtown in August.

The Farmers Market will be held on Court Street every Saturday throughout August from 4-7 p.m. Following the market, those attending can head to the city’s amphitheater behind the historic Bradley-Boggs House on Main Street for music beginning at 7 p.m.

The first event will be held on Saturday, Aug. 6, and will feature vendors from all over the area.

“This is our trial run this August,” city of Pickens employee Becky Horace said. “We are not sure how it will all work out, but we are hopeful for a huge turnout of both vendors and people looking for fresh produce and to enjoy the music.”

The event is led by the city of Pickens with help of volunteers.

If you or someone you know would be interested in being a vendor, contact Horace at bhorace@pickenscity.com.

 

New show planned at Foothills Playhouse

By Jason Evans

Staff Reporter

jevans@thepccourier.com

EASLEY — Memories will come alive in the latest production at the Foothills Playhouse.

“Rememberin’ Stuff” opens Friday evening at the playhouse and runs through the weekend.

The show features a young cast, said Haley Kreft, who is co-directing the show along with Ryan Oliver.

“It’s all young people, ages 12 to 20,” she said.

She describes the show as a “dramedy.”

The show revolves around a high school drama club sharing their memories — memories that spark the scenes onstage.

The scenes run the gamut from hilarious to poignant.

Parents may want to leave very young kids at home for the production due to some of the themes, Kreft said.

“There’s some heavy stuff in there,” she said. “One of the girls has a monologue about being sexually abused. There’s a boy who talks about food stamps and being in line at the grocery store and hearing the people behind him judging his family for using the food stamps. A girl comes into Act 2 who actually as a baby — she got pregnant when she was 16. It deals with a lot of teen issues.”

“Rememberin’ Stuff” is a B-Side production at the Foothills Playhouse. Shows offered as part of the playhouse’s regular season are the A-Side shows, Kreft said.

B-Side shows allow for something extra.

“In between every main stage show there’s a B-Side show,” Kreft said. “It’s different from what we’d normally put on on the main stage.”

The directors are both members of the Foothills Playhouse’s youth board. Kreft is secretary and treasurer, and Oliver is vice president. Kraft has served on the board for about a year and has been taking part in Foothills Playhouse shows for about five years.

“A lot of kids in the show are on the youth board,” Kreft said.

Youth board members usher for all the Main Stage shows and also do service projects. They take part in Easley’s Arts Festival and Christmas Parade each year to help spotlight what’s going on at the Foothills Playhouse.

Youth board members also participate in work days for the theater.

“We’ll come in and work on building sets and stuff like that,” Kreft said.

The youth board is open to students in seventh through 12th grade and would welcome more members. Contact the Foothills Playhouse for more information on joining the board.

Performances of “Rememberin’ Stuff” will begin at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday, Kreft said.

Tickets are $5.

For more information, visit fhplayhouse.com

 

Tales from the front porch

The best stories were told on the front porch in the evening. Grandmama and Mama would sit in the rocking chairs, weary from the day’s activities. They’d sip glasses of iced tea.

We children would run through the dusky evening with our Mason jars, home to lightning bugs for a brief time.

There would be holes punched in the lids of the jars with an ice pick from the kitchen.

I remember being very careful when we punched the holes so the bugs could breathe.olivia6-25 Page 4A.indd

We’d run and laugh and when tired out, would come back to the front porch and sit on the steps.

And there we’d hear family stories, told and retold over the years.

There was one about our great Aunt Bonner, who was Grandmama’s older sister. She’d grown up in the house we lived in that was home to five generations of our family. She had a wicked sense of humor, and there were no dull moments when she was on the premises.

She was the one sent to the Maxton depot to pick up Aunt Mary Bellamy, who was coming to visit from Wilmington.

Aunt Mary was very proper and very proud. So instead of taking the buggy to pick up Aunt Mary, Sister Bonner hitched the mules to the wagon and brought Aunt Mary home to Sycamore Hill in a style she was unaccustomed to.

Sister Bonner was the one who’d hide in the graveyard in the evening draped in a sheet and would rise from behind the tombstones to startle anyone passing through. She was incorrigible.

Sister Bonner would come to visit when I was a child. She was a very old lady but lively, with a quick wit.

Grandmama said Sister Bonner was always up to something. Our great Aunt Olivia, the baby of that generation, had long, thick, wavy blond hair that came down below her waist. She could sit on it.

But Sister Bonner thought a trim would keep Aunt Olivia cooler in the summer. Or so she said. So Sister Bonner took the scissors out into the yard, sat Aunt Olivia down and cut her hair so short she looked almost bald.

Grandmama said all the girls wore 12 petticoats in the winter and six in summer. But even so encumbered, by our standards, they pursued lots of activities. They rowed the canoe down the river, rode side-saddle, swam, danced and played instruments. Friends would come to visit and stay for weeks.

Music was a big part of their lives, and they could all play and sing. Aunt Olivia was said to have a beautiful voice, and Grandmama would accompany her on the piano. As children, when Aunt Olivia would visit, she’d sing to us. She had a repertoire for children’s ears — “Froggy Went a Courting,” “String Beans and Irish Potatoes” and “I Wish I Was Single Again,” one of our favorites.

Summer was always a time of long visits from relatives. And they were a family of talkers.

We children were an almost forgotten audience on the front porch, hearing about the memories they all had from growing up at Sycamore Hill, where summer went on forever and watermelons were plentiful.

Old times there are not forgotten.

 

Courier Letters to the Editor 7-20-16

A growing problem

Dear Editor,

I want to thank all who voted in the June primary and run-off elections. Your participation and support was greatly appreciated.

I met many people during the county council campaign and gained some insight into the problems our county faces. Most are broader and deeper than most realize.

For example, all the county council candidates in all the races supported a new, renovated and/or bigger jail. Talking with patrolmen, a deputy, DSS, the solicitor, an employee at the jail and even a couple of former inmates, I came to realize the problem is beyond just building a new jail. The solicitor said 80 percent of those in the LEC are there for methamphetamine — making it, stealing to get money for it, getting high on it and then committing some other crime. Build a bigger jail, yes, but realize it will fill up in a short time.

There is also a legal aspect to the problem — not enough prosecutors, court time and public defenders — but that is not the scary part.

Meth is a devastating drug — poison. Look at some of its ingredients: acetone, which is paint thinner; lithium, used in batteries; toluene, used in brake fluid; anhydrous ammonia, used in countertop cleaners. Nor is meth like alcohol or marijuana, which take years to become a habit. A person becomes addicted to meth after using it once or twice. Also, the rehab success rate is extremely low — less than 15 percent — for meth addicts, so it is a tough clinical problem, too.

Add in most users are on government assistance, so they are sustained in their drug use and crimes — a maintained class, a class that is growing in the county. So it’s a social problem.

What’s the solution? Pseudoephedrine (PSE) is a key ingredient. Making PSE prescription-only like in Oregon and Mississippi could be one step. The drug companies will not like that, but our legislature must seriously consider this.

Since the rehab rate is so low, the cure is most likely to be generational — doing more to make sure our youth never try the stuff in the first place. Opportunity is the key there. If a kid graduates high school and lands a job here in Pickens, that’s the kind of habit we want him to fall into. Without such job opportunities, he could fall into a bad habit, and too many obviously are.

I’m all for building tourism, but that should not be the focus of our economic development. Tourism creates minimum-wage jobs. We need gainful employment — jobs generating a living wage and career paths. This is the economic piece of problem/solution.

I learned we are facing a very broad challenge here — law enforcement, legal, clinical, social and economic. It requires a coordinated effort across agencies that frankly I just don’t see right now. It needs to be undertaken, though, because the situation is quietly getting worse.

Alex Saitta

Pickens

 

 

Expanding Options

Dear Editor,

As a parent of children attending Pickens County schools, I have been disheartened and discouraged by the actions of the School District of Pickens County in its recent school closing decisions. These decisions and the contentious environment surrounding them have not only impacted the parents directly, but also our family members, friends and neighbors. The concerns of everyone affected now center on providing the best possible educational opportunities for our students. An option to provide a superior education here in Pickens County has presented itself with the 2018 opening of Clearview Collegiate Academy, which will serve grades 6-12.

Clearview Collegiate Academy will provide a host of advantages to its students. Core courses will be coupled with unique project-based learning modules in the middle school years. For the high school students, CCA will offer the opportunity for a student to obtain two years of college credit during the 11th and 12th grade years. During these college-level courses, students will receive more face-to-face instruction time than is required by the dual credit provider. CCA also plans an elite sports program with a goal of 30 percent of participating athletes receiving at least one offer to play on a collegiate level.

What is exceptional about this learning environment is that it meets the students on their own level and formulates a plan to have them achieve a competitive academic and athletic level when entering college. If a student is not yet ready for college-level learning, CCA will prepare that student for the transition to college-level work by providing needed interventions and free tutoring.

The CCA charter school is currently seeking accreditation through the School District of Pickens County. This accreditation process includes an initial letter of intent, a formal application and finally a vote from the SDPC board members. This vote provides an opportunity for the SDPC board to rise above prior conflicts and political agendas and to prove to the residents of Pickens County that they can make decisions in the best interests of the students.

I ask that every resident and/or parent in Pickens County contact each of the school board members individually, requesting that they vote “yes” for accreditation of the Clearview Collegiate Academy.

Deana McAnulty

Pickens

 

Pickens is home now

Joyce Ann May was born and raised in New Haven, Conn. She graduated from Colchester High School and attended Manchester Community College, where she took classes in secretarial science. She also took courses at Hartford Computer Institute and earned a diploma in computer operations. A few years later, she went to Middlesex Community College in Middletown, Conn., and received a certificate in real estate.

Joyce and her first husband were married in 1958. They have four children and three grandchildren. While raising her children, Joyce worked at several different places, doing various jobs. Two of her favorite places of employment were Pratt Whitney Clerical, where she worked as a secretary in the engineering department and New Britain National Bank. She worked as a secretary assistant there.

JoyceAfter Joyce’s children were grown, she moved to the small town of Lempster, N.H., with a population of only 800. While in Lempster, she lived in a log cabin. She was very active, working hard at raising sheep.

Carol Baker/Courier
After Joyce May and her husband made a trip to Pickens during a vacation at Lake Hartwell, the two liked the town so much they bought a house. They have lived in Pickens for 12 years now.

Her father had health issues, so Joyce moved back to Connecticut to take care of him. After his death she moved to Zephyrhills, Fla. She and her second husband, William May, a retired air force chief with 30 years of service, decided to take a trip in their camper up to South Carolina. While they were camping at Lake Hartwell, Joyce told her husband that she would like to ride up to look around the town of Pickens that she had heard the people at the campgrounds talking about.

Both Joyce and William were impressed with the people and the town. They liked it so much, they bought a house and have lived in Pickens for 12 years.

One of Joyce’s favorite things to do is read. After settling down in Pickens, the first place she visited was the library. While there, she learned about a group who met there once a month to knit and crochet.

Joyce joined the group, and it was at the library that she learned about the historic Hagood Mill.

She volunteered her time and talents and worked there for 11 years, talking to the people who visited the mill about sheep shearing and the process of how wool is turned into yarn, and how to weave.

Joyce said she enjoys being outside working in her vegetable garden. This year she planted and has grown peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, green beans, butternut squash and cucumbers. She said that whenever she is outside in the garden, her two dogs, Auggie, a collie, and Fritz, a mini dachsund, are always with her.

Joyce has a very pleasing personality. She has made many friends in Pickens. On the first and third Monday each month, she meets with the writers group at the Pickens Library. She likes to write short stories and poetry. One of her poems has been published. She also likes to weave and knit.

Although she has lived in several states, she said Pickens is the place she likes best.

Easley resident Carol Baker highlights interesting local residents and helps us get to know more about the fascinating people who call Pickens County home. If you have someone somewhere who you think people should know about, contact us at news@thepccourier.com.

PHS player earns honors at volleyball AAU championships

PICKENS — Pickens native Lexi Wierzbicki received an award at the 43rd annual AAU Girls Junior National Volleyball Championships in Orlando, Fla., on June 22. The rising Pickens High School sophomore was honored after her club volleyball team finished third in the nation in the 15U Premier National Championships for Axis Elite Volleyball Academy, located in Simpsonville.

LexiWierzbicki was a catalyst in the team’s national title chase, finishing with a record of 10 wins and only two losses.

Axis Elite 15 Open lost in the semifinal match against the No. 1 overall seeded Palm Beach Elite Juniors in straight sets. The semifinal loss ended a stellar run by Axis Elite, which came in as the No. 21 overall seed out of 80 teams in the division.

Wierzbicki was a huge part of the success of the team, as she amassed 85 kills in 149 attempts, with only 18 errors in 12 matches. She also accounted for 16 blocks, 14 digs, nine aces and an attack efficiency of .450.

Those numbers earned Wierzbicki  recognition as one of 12 All Star/All American players for the tournament out of at least 700 girls.

Wierzbicki and Pickens High volleyball teammate Sydney Bolding also received honors earlier this year when the pair were named honorable mention and special mention, respectively, by PrepVolleyball.com on its annual list of the top 59 freshmen players in the country based on their performances during their freshman seasons. The rising sophomores produced massive numbers a year ago.

Wierzbicki helped lead the Blue Flame to a 27-13 record in 2015. She finished the season with an impressive 202 kills, 93 kill-blocks, 37 aces and 37 digs.

Pickens High School coach Jennifer Gravely lauded Wierzbicki, saying “we have a great future ahead of us.”

SidneyBolding made a major impact her freshman year as well. She contributed 183 kills and 93 kill-blocks, even while suffering an ankle injury at one point in the season.

“Bolding is definitely a player to watch in the future,” Gravely said.

With the talent of Weirzbicki and Bolding, combined with the rest of the talented Blue Flame players, the Pickens volleyball team is looking to get back to the State championship game this fall for the first time since securing back-to-back titles in 2013 and 2014.

 

Registration open for fall soccer, volleyball

PICKENS — The Pickens Recreation Department is now taking registrations for its fall soccer and volleyball seasons.

Soccer registration will be open through July 22 at the Pickens Recreation Center on Sangamo Road in Pickens.

Age divisions offered for soccer are 5-6, 7-8, 9-10, 11-12 and 13-15.

Volleyball registration will be taken through Aug. 5 at the rec center.

Volleyball age divisions are 7-9, 10-12, 13-14 and 15-17.

Following registration for both sports, a skills evaluation day will be held for each age division.

The registration fee for both sports, whch provides a jersey to be kept, is $45 for in-city residents and $55 for out-of-city residents.

Birth certificates are required at registration, and birthdate cutoff is Sept. 1, 2016.

If you are interested in coaching or need more information, call the rec department at (864) 878-2296.

 

Courier Obituaries 7-20-16

The Pickens County Courier runs in-county obituaries free of charge. Pictures can be included for an additional charge of $25. Please ask your funeral home about this service. All obituaries must come from funeral home.