Wish I could make this event

On Thurs, Jan. 29 Burry Bookstore and Black Creek Arts Center are co-hosting a book and author supper from 5:30pm-7:30pm. Supper will be held in the gallery at Black Creek Arts Center. Co-authors Aida Rogers and Tim Driggers from Sandlapper Magazine will be sharing stories from their book entitled, “Stop Where the Parking Lots’ Full.”

A few days ago I heard a partial interview with these authors on ETV radio and they were really interesting. This is one of those things that I think falls into the category of "pleasant surprises" in the Hartsville, South Carolina area. I teach on Mondays and Thursdays from 5:30 to 7:50 in Coker's evening program or I would be attending this event, which was highlighted in today's "Chamber connection. An event like this is possible in our community because we still have a small, community bookstore Burry Bookstore, and it is one of the valuable businesses in our community. And, how many small cities in South Carolina have a resource like Black Creek Arts Council? None that I know of.

St. Barts was just about SRO for King Remembrance

Hartsville's most visible People to People representative is Clayton Richardson. He was visible again today as the MLK, JR. Commemoration program he coordinated for People to People came to life in words and music for a full house at St. Batholomew's in downtown Hartsville. Ms Eunice Johnson did an masterful job of coordinating the program from the lectern and a great deal of community spirit was packed into the 58-minutes.

Anisha Green sang the Lord's Prayer and then finished with God Bless America. Anna Dickinson provided the musical message Climb Every Mountain. The Hartsville High Singers joined by the Wesley chorus provided a musical selection and the entire church joined for Lift Every Voice and Sing.

The packed Church heard from Julius McPherson of Mayo and Somin Lee of the Governor's School and Blake Terrell, a senior at Coker, introduced Phillip Woo of Coker as the keynote speaker. Phillip discussed some of Dr. King's early mentors and some of the many specific actions that made Dr. King an American hero. In addition, Brenda Kelley of the Hartsville Planning and Zoning Department told how important it is for all of us to be involved in community. Mayor Michael Holt reminded the group of how important it is to keep history alive for our young people so that they can learn how to be in position to affect their history.


As part of the continuing efforts to make all of us realize what a treasured place we are living we talk about Hartsville -- The Art of Good Living. Today's Commemoration was another example of the many pleasant surprises to expect in our great, small city.

A free lunch was provided for all attending by the members of the Chi Lambda Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and the St. Batholomew's Church family and People to People.

This event was truly community at work. As the last words on the program admonish, "Let us continue building a strong united community."

Day for Community Thinking/Building

The Dr. Martin Luther King holiday is becoming a day of dedication to community to service. According to NPR this morning (January 20) there will be double the number of people volunteering throughout the country. Among those volunteers will be President Elect Obama and his wife. And tomorrow, he is being inaugurated as President of the United States. When he calls for us -- All of us -- to be part of the solution we will have a gut feeling that he has been there.

In Hartsville today there will be several MLK Day remembrances. One part of the Senior Communication Seminar that I am teaching is geared to life after college. I have told the seniors that our class today will be at the ceremony. One of the speakers will be a Coker sophomore, Phillip Woo, talking about some of Dr. King's mentors. Phillip will be introduced by Coker senior Blake Terrell. One of the main people in pulling this People-to-People sponsored event together is long-time community activist Clayton Richardson. They usually have a strong group and today might even be larger because of the Hope in the air with the leadership transition taking place tomorrow.

Back in 1960 it was John F. Kennedy who told Americans, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." Dr. King spoke eloquently about service and commitment and led effectively through courage and determination. President Elect Barack Obama has given every indication that he will be calling on all of us in the spirit of Lincoln, in the spirit of Kennedy, in the spirit of King in the spirit of Reagan in the spirit of Americans to rally to our communities and our country. I hope we will all be thinking about the opportunities to become part of something that is bigger than ourselves.

The Inaguration is New Day for all of us

Rich Harwood, a long-time community building thinker, used a prayer as his weekly blog this past Tuesday. As Rich closed he talked about how this is a time for us to turn -- to turn toward each other and to turn toward our community. Let's use the hope that is part of next Tuesday to find ways to create authentic hope in our greater Hartsville community.

Strong interest in Community is apparent

The other day in the Writing for the Media course I am teaching at Coker this semester, I was talking about the need most of us have to 'Know what is going on.' The authors of the ELEMENTS OF JOURNALISM call this the "awareness instinct." The attention I felt this morning talking with United Methodist Men from three local churches seemed to underline that instinct. There appears to be a strong interest among people to know what is going on in their communities and what they might be able to do to help make them better. (As a sidelight here. I was asked to talk about the Selling Hartsville initiative and now am wishing that I had used this opportunity as a way to listen instead of talk because the short responses demonstrated a wealth of information that could be mined from these active Methodist Men.)

One of the things we did with the experience this morning was share the visitor questionnaire that is part of the Selling Hartsville initiative. It is often fun to see how Hartsvillians answer questions like, Please share your impressions of the Hartsville community. Here are some of their answers, which mirror a lot of what we get from visitors:
** Beautiful ** Great Place to Live ** Small town, everyone knows everyone.
** Rebuilding roads and growing ** Great little city ** well kept
** there seems to be some concern about drugs, gangs and crime
** lots of energetic people ** great facilities ** a good small town
** cohesive, needs to take advantage of available funds to improve outside downtown
** good ** a unique city,a remarkable mix of cultural and family oriented activities
** a sharing town -- good support of charity and community outreach
** Need increased emphasis in educational improvement
** need support and uplift of those with limited income
** a genuine small town atmosphere with a sense of community and cultural events
** good ** If schools improve, the community will grow ** my town for 60 years
** community is disconnected, particularly the pastors and churches
** Progressive city ** progressive, proactive, leader in the Pee Dee
** community oriented, friendly, a lot of cultural opportunities
** why do downtown businesses close so early on Saturday?
** It's great!** Big main street * diverse community as compared to other area towns
** Hartsville is a city that has the potential to be the greatest city in the state but is letting a few issues hold us back. Overall is very good but we could be great
** where is the new industry and the business growth ** ...efficient
**comfortable with people and leaders **great place to live and raise a family
** friendly with a lot of involvement ** viable downtown, community, clean
** dynamic in terms of lots to offer ** Hartsville has good community
** Hartsville has a wonderful community.

I think you can see from these responses that this would have been a great group to get more in depth input from on the question, "How can we make Hartsville an even greater community?"

The message to this group has been the message I have been sharing for several months. If we want Hartsville to be Hartsville or even better in five, ten or 20 years we need not be so complacent and find ways to make sure we impact how things are and how things will be. I did use the idea of "Que Sera, Sera"(sp?) 'What will be will be' and suggest that What will be is what we make it. If lots of us focus on continuing to make this a great community we might surprise ourselves as to what will be.