cwc life dec 13

www.cwclife.biz Dec-Jan 2014 | Cayce-West Columbia Life | 1

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As if the holiday season isn’t flying by fast enough, this year we have the shortest time frame between Thanksgiving and Christmas at 22 days. To put it in perspective, the longest time frame is 28 days. Need-less to say we will be digging out Christmas decora-tions this weekend, which happens to be the weekend before Thanksgiving.

There’s a special feeling when pulling the decora-tions down from the attic each year. One thing I notice is that my “helpers” are getting bigger and stronger. The attic trip was always a special time for me as a child, and that special excitement has definitely passed down to my children. The attic has a distinct smell unlike any other. Many surprises and old memories are rekindled with each trip up the folding ladder. The trip to the at-tic is nostalgic for me, and educational for the kids. The old crib and baby memorabilia take up one quadrant, Christmas decorations another section. Mom’s record player touts its high fidelity sound, and old stuffed ani-mals are relegated to confinement inside a trash bag.

We have an overabundance of Christmas decora-tions, so we pick and choose which ones make the cut. Last year I allowed all three kids to accompany me on this mysterious attic excursion, and I am look-ing forward to this year. Society has made decorating for Christmas before Thanksgiving sort of taboo, like wearing white shoes after Labor Day.

I’m throwing caution to the wind. We will be deco-rating before Thanksgiving, and listening to Christmas carols while being thankful for all the blessings God has bestowed on us. I think I’ll even wear my white shoes to the Christmas Eve service.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your family! May it be the best Christmas ever.

COVER STORY8 Harvest Hope Food Bank

COLUMNS10 Word for Today Pastor Rocky Purvis

DEPARTMENTS5 Events7 CWC Leaders Darlene Cox12 Spice of Life Christmas Recipes

inside

Publisher and Editor -in- Chief Todd Shevchik

[email protected]

Editorial ConsultantAllison Caldwell

[email protected]

Editorial AssistantTiffanie Wise

[email protected]

Sales Manager Anne Reynolds

[email protected]

Account Executives Donna Shevchik [email protected]

Ron Branson

[email protected]

Assistant Editor/Production Manager

Kristi Antley [email protected]

Graphic Design

Jane Carter

Web DesignPaul Tomlinson

Contributing Writers

Jackie Perrone, Marilyn Thomas

Contact Us: 225-B Columbia Avenue, Lexington, SC 29072 • 803.356.6500

[email protected]

L-R Anne Reynolds, Allison Caldwell, Kristi Antley, Tiffanie Wise, Ron Branson


December 8th2p - 6p

Tour the beautifully decorated Homes in Congaree Park & Bridgepointe

Reception Following 5:00pm - 8:00pmat Stone River Featuring Heart ‘N Soul

Heavy Hors d’oeuvres & Cash BarOnly $25 per person

Reserve Your Tickets by Calling Justin Black: 803-791-1880 x610* Tickets also available at the door at Bridgepointe on event day

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DecemberDecember 7- February 23Snowville, EdventureSnowville is a winter world where chil-dren and the young at heart can expe-rience a fantastical place where every day is a snow day! www.edventure.org

December 7South Congaree Christmas Parade, Main Street, 3:30 p.m.South Congaree will host their An-nual Christmas Parade on Main Street South Congaree. Anyone interested in entering the parade contact Jerry Smith 843-680-6956 or [email protected].

December 7Cayce Historical Museum Annual Holiday Open HouseThe sights, sounds, and tastes of Christmas, each room of the Museum will be decorated with trees and crafts from the 18th century to present. The Open House will also feature live en-tertainment, docents dressed in period attire, and light refreshments.

December 8West Metro Holiday Parade of Lights, 12th Street, 5:30- 7:15 p.m.Come out and see the spectacular lights on 12th Street in West Columbia. For more information please log on to www.westmetroparade.com

December 14Christmas Peddler Craft Show, Tri-City Leisure Center 10 a.m.Located at 485 Brooks Ave., West Co-

lumbia, SC. Local/regional arts and crafts show. Handmade items, visit from Santa and Olaf the Elf, Door prizes. Lo-cal entertainment. www.lcrac.com

December 15Crafty Feast, Columbia Metropoli-tan Convention Center, 12-6 p.m.Shop wares from more than 100 vendors focused on crafts that are unique,up-and-coming, experi-mental, and handmade or repur-posed. $2 per person, kids 12 and under free. See vendors or volunteer at CraftyFeast.com.

December 30Lights Before Christmas, Riverbanks Zoo, 5-9 p.m.Riverbanks.org

Through December 31Holiday Lights on the River, Saluda Shoals Park, 6-10 p.m. Icrc.net/saluda-shoals

Deadline for advertising and editorial inclusion in the February 2014 issue of CWC Life is January 8, 2014. Call us at (803) 356-6500.


Darlene Cox has been making beautiful music all her life, and her community is the richer for it. “I’ve always loved music,” she says, “and I’ve always stressed the joy of sharing it. I’ve been richly blessed.” She looks back on a lifetime of sharing in the form of music performance, teaching and directing. This is how it all started.

“I wanted to learn to play the piano ever since I can remember, but my family could not afford a piano and it didn’t seem pos-sible. Then, when I was a little girl, some friends in the military were going overseas and were looking for someone to take care of their piano for seven years! It just came into my life then, and even after their re-turn they decided they did not want it back, so I’ve had a piano ever since.” That instrument was later donated to Red Bank Baptist Church, where it continues to serve the greater Lexington community.

Darlene was born in Columbia. When she was in seventh grade, her family moved to Lexington County. She found great sat-isfaction at Lexington High School, where she discovered choral music. Singing joined the keyboard in her performance skill; now her resume includes an impressive variety of teaching and directing all areas of music. Armed with a University of South Carolina degree in music education, voice and piano performance, she has made a name for her-self through several decades of teaching mu-sic in our public schools.

“I taught at schools in Richland District One, and then in Lexington District Two,” she says. “And I have been involved with church music always, first at Red Bank Baptist and then at Northside Baptist in Lexington. I have a nickname as a stand-up musician, since I would often play the piano accompani-ment while standing up to direct a choral or choir group.”

Along the way, this accom-plished musician has gath-ered many awards: Teacher of the Year at Saluda River Elementary, and again at Brook-land-Cayce Elementary. She was honored with the Lexington District II Heroes and Heroines Society Award, and served as ac-companist for the Honors Chorus at Lex-ington II. Darlene has been president of some of her clubs, also, including Junior Women’s Club and Westover Acres Club.

She keeps in touch with many of the hundreds of former students she taught, and says many of them have gone on to careers in music. “I always stressed to them the importance of sharing music with oth-ers,” she says. Now, in retirement, she has moved to the other end of the age scale, and leads a vocal group called the Silver Saint Singers at Northside Baptist. In ear-ly December, the Silver Saint Singers will perform a Christmas program called The

Greatest Story Ever Told at North-side Baptist, at Agape Senior Living, and at Jenni-Lynn Assisted Living.

Another artistic side of Darlene Cox’s personality is her love of decorating. She enjoys dolling up her surroundings for various seasons and holidays, and is of-ten called upon to head up decorating for the Westover Acres residential area where she lives. She also takes responsibility as coordinator for special events for her Sun-day School class, the Vessels of Light Life Group and the XYZ group at Northside.

Darlene met her husband when they were students at USC. They have three daughters — all musical — and four grandchildren. n

by Jackie Perrone

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Darlene Cox


Reflections of Thanksgiving, just re-cently passed, and Christmas, yet to come, usually invoke images of smiling families celebrating the holidays together while seated around a table spilling over with an abundance of food. For 18 percent of our state’s population, however, this vision is only an unfulfilled dream.

According to statistics from Feeding

America, the nation’s largest hunger-relief charity, this large fraction of South Caro-lina residents represents “food insecure people.” Even more tragic is the fact that this figure includes 25 percent of the state’s children under the age of 5, who go to bed hungry every single night.

Because of this harrowing problem within the Columbia area, business leaders

and members of the faith community ral-lied together in 1981 to create the Harvest Hope Food Bank. Its mission is simple: “to provide for the needs of hungry people by gathering and sharing quality food with dignity, compassion, and education.”

The organization now serves 20 coun-ties with hubs in Columbia, Florence and Greenville, enlists the help of 476 non-profit agencies to distribute food, and co-ordinates the efforts of more than 8,000 volunteers. Last year, this nonprofit char-ity supplied approximately 28 million pounds of food that nourished about 2 million people statewide. Should a natural or manmade disaster strike, Harvest Hope is also the primary agency sanctioned by the South Carolina Emergency Manage-ment Division to supply food during such a situation.

A large distribution center and ware-house facility was opened at Shop Road in Columbia in 1998, and a full-time emer-gency food pantry (EFP) on 12th Street in Cayce has served the Lexington County area since 2009.

From Cayce to Lexington, and BeyondThe Cayce EFP provided more than 2

million pounds of food to nearly 32,000 families in fiscal year 2012. With high un-employment rates and other precarious economic factors, these totals represent a 13 percent increase over the previous year.

In addition to serving walk-in traffic at the EFP, Harvest Hope also works with 59 agency partners to disperse food directly to Lexington County communities. According to Communications Manager Skot Garrick, Harvest Hope’s senior feeding program supplies “hunger boxes” to 12 Lexington County sites each month; provides food for the county’s children at 16 locations (most of which are elementary schools); and de-livers provisions directly to hundreds of families living in remote Lexington County communities through mobile food pantries.

The accomplishments of Harvest Hope can be attributed to cost-effective methods that minimize overhead and administrative

FooD For ThoughT

harvesT hope FooD

Bankby Marilyn ThomasPhotos courtesy of Harvest Hope

FooD For ThoughTexpenses. Out of every dollar they receive, 98 cents is spent to supply food to those in need. Furthermore, each donated dollar is “transformed” into five pounds of food.

Volunteers Make It HappenThe key component of their economic

success could be attributed to the numer-ous volunteers who man the helm of the operations. According to the website, 63,000 hours of voluntary service saves the organization more than 1 million dollars in staffing costs each year.

“Almost any given day, there are more volunteers in the building than employees,” explains Debbie Summers, Harvest Hope’s Director of Volunteers and a Lexington County Council member. “We keep the staff very small, and count on individuals to give a little bit of their time. Our volunteers are awesome people! We are very blessed.”

One such volunteer, Melanie Burnett, has helped with the intake registration pro-cess and the filling of orders at the Cayce EFP for four years. “Harvest Hope is a valu-able resource for the community,” she says. Working for the organization has been “a wonderful experience,” she adds. “I enjoy seeing families and how happy and grateful they are for the food, and I enjoy working with the individuals here. It’s just some-thing the community needs.”

Don’t Wait for Christmas to Give BackConcerned citizens seem to be more

aware of others’ needs during the holi-days especially, and traditionally offer tre-mendous support near the end of the year. However, “People are also hungry in Janu-ary, February and March,” says Summers. “There are many opportunities to help throughout the year.”

Her suggestions include collecting food for a New Year’s kick-off in January, or host-ing a Valentine’s or spring-themed food drive. “The demand for food is always there, all year long. Anything the greater Lexing-ton County community could do to help would be greatly appreciated,” she adds.

“We especially need volunteers at the

Cayce location right now,” says Summers. Specifically, openings are available in the intake registration process, re-quired for participation in the program.

Occasionally a visitor will arrive near closing time. When this happens, they are given a box of shelf-stable food to sustain them until the next day, when they can return to officially reg-ister. Those who want to receive food assistance must apply in person at a par-ticipating site. They are asked to bring photo identification for themselves, and social security cards for every member of their family.

“We help them in the best way we can to overcome that difficult situation. We try to give people as much food as we can,” explains Summers. Special software moni-tors the number of monthly visits clients make. “Two-thirds of the people who come to see us only come one to three times a year,” she says.

“We encourage everyone to donate food to help us meet the ongoing de-mand,” says Garrick. Donation sites are open Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. “Anyone can learn more about our mission, our locations and how to donate time, money or food by visiting HarvestHope.org,” he says. n

How To Help—All Year Long• Volunteer to staff special events• Sponsor or contribute to local

food drives• Donate money• Help with product rescue • Provide administrative or professional assistance• Sponsor a mobile food pantryLearn more at HarvestHope.org.



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It’s hard to believe we’ve finished off the Thanksgiving turkey, survived Black Friday, and now we’re getting ready for Christmas. When I was younger, it seemed as if Christmas would never get here, but as I grow older, Christmas is here before I know it. Per-haps you can identify with one of these. You know Christmas is almost here when: • Therearemorepineneedlesonyourcarpetthanonyourtree.• Yourcreditcardissmoked,alongwiththeturkeyandham.• AtriptothemallandbackismorechallengingthanaNASCAR

race. • You’repullingall-nightersbecauseofthewords“someassem-

bly required.”• YourChristmaslistiswritteninblack,butyourcheckbookisin

the red. • Santa’sbellyisn’ttheonlyoneshakinglikeabowlfullofjelly.• Theinfamousfruitcakereturnsfromits12monthsofhiding.• Andfinally,It’saWonderfulLifehasbeenshownforthe13th

time. Have you ever seen It’s a Wonderful Life? It’s about George

Bailey, a man who is about to take his life on Christmas Eve but through the intervention of his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody, he realizes his life is worth living. The truth is Christmas is all about the Wonderful Life.

ThemostfamousverseintheBiblesays,“ForGodsolovedtheworld that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” In John 10:10 Jesus says, “Ihavecomethatyoumighthavelifeinallitsfullness.”Doyouwanta wonderful life? You can have it! It’s found in Jesus!

Andbytheway,ifyoudon’thaveachurchhome,joinusDecem-ber15,22,24,and29foranewseries,It’saWonderfulLife.Andthat’s the Word for Today.

Pastor Rocky PurvisNorthside Baptist Church

Northside Baptist Church4347 Sunset Boulevard, Lexington • (803) 520-5660

NorthsideBaptist.orgBlended Service 9:15 a.m. Contemporary Service 10:45 a.m.

Life Groups 8, 9 and 10:45 a.m.

Wood-Fired since 1939

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cwccwcPeppermint-Dipped OreosOreosWhite candy meltsAndes Peppermint Crunch baking chips

(or crushed candy canes)Melt the white candy in a small saucepan

over low heat, stirring frequently. Dip the Oreos, shake off excess melted candy, and dip or sprinkle with peppermint chips. Lay dipped cookies on wax paper to harden, and enjoy! Gingerbread-Lemon Tarts1 18-oz. roll refrigerated gingerbread cook-

ie dough or sugar cookie dough2 Tbsp. finely chopped crystalized ginger½ cup purchased lemon curd¼ cup sweetened condensed milkFinely chopped crystalized gingerLemon peel strips (optional)Powdered sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease thirty 1- ¾-inch muffin cups; set aside. Knead cookie dough and chopped ginger until well combined. Divide dough into 30 (1 Tbsp.) portions. Place dough portions into prepared muffin cups. Bake nine minutes or until dough is slightly

firm, but not set. Using the back of a rounded ½ tsp. measuring spoon, gently press a shal-low indentation in each shell. Bake about two minutes more, or until edges of shells are firm and golden. Cool in pan on a wire rack for five minutes (re-form indentations, if necessary). Carefully remove tart shells from cups and cool completely on a wire rack.

In a small bowl, combine lemon curd and condensed milk. Spoon filling into cooled tart shells. Sprinkle with additional chopped crys-tallized ginger. If desired, top each with a lemon peel strip and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Place filled tarts in single layer in an airtight container and chill and for up to three days. Let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before serving.

Praline Pecan Crunch Snack Mix8 cups Quaker Oatmeal Squares cereal2 cups pecan pieces½ cup light corn syrup½ cup brown sugar, firmly packed¼ cup margarine or butter (½ stick)1 tsp. vanilla½ tsp. baking soda

Head oven to 250. Combine cereal and pecans in 13x9-inch baking pan and set aside. In large microwaveable bowl, combine corn syrup,

brown sugar and margarine. Microwave on high for 1 minute 30 seconds; stir. Microwave an additional 30 seconds to 1 minute, or un-til boiling. Stir in vanilla and baking soda and pour over cereal mixture; stir to coat evenly. Bake 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Spread on baking sheet to cool; break into pieces and store in an airtight container.


The Cayce Beautification Foundation was organized as a nonprofit organization and established in 2010 to enhance the City of Cayce in partnership with local residents and businesses. The Foundation consists of a collection of indi-

viduals who live or work within the city limits. Each year, the Imagine Cayce Gala is held in the fall to introduce cur-rent projects. The goal is to ensure the City of Cayce remains a beautiful place to live, work and play.

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