Current Issue

Browse Past Issues

Contents

From The Editor

Out and About

Picture This

Just Married

Good Eats

______________________

by Robin Cowie Nalepa / Photography by Anne McQuary/Hey Baby Smile

We love everything about living in the Capital City, from the eclectic mix of people to the steamy Southern air to the gently waving palmetto trees. However, our city – just like any other – has its share of problems and difficulties, and living here is not easy for everyone. Fortunately, Columbia has plenty of helpful people who are always ready to pass along some food, raise a little money or simply offer hugs.
Central Carolina Community Foundation and Columbia Metropolitan magazine are thrilled to take a moment to thank some of those who make giving back a priority for themselves, their families or their businesses. On Sept. 16, we will present the first annual Best of Philanthropy Awards: Honoring Our Community Champions to winners in five different categories, honoring them with a $500 donation made in their name to the charity of their choice.
Because anyone could submit a nomination for a candidate in the Columbia area, we received many worthwhile entries.?Committee members discussed each nomination, and after careful deliberation, the following winners were determined to be the best of the best.?
Join us to honor the winners.

Student Community Champion: Anna Price
Anna Price is a typical pre-teen. She attends Dent Middle School. She likes to spend time with her friends. She chips in around the house and does chores like vacuuming, watering the plants and cleaning her room.
So, it’s not unusual that on a hot summer afternoon, Anna is selling lemonade to her neighbors. But instead of dreaming of the new jeans she might purchase with her profits, Anna focuses on how she can help others.
In May 2008, Anna was diagnosed with a brain tumor. While undergoing chemotherapy treatments to shrink the tumor that has since blinded the 12-year-old, Anna set up a lemonade stand. She donated her profits – more than $500 – to Palmetto Health Children’s Hospital Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders.
During her treatment at Palmetto Health, Anna met many children facing life-altering illnesses. It was those children who touched and inspired her, says her mother, Robin.
Naturally, when Robin speaks of her daughter and how the illness has affected their family, the tears flow. Yet, a mother’s pride is evident when Robin talks of Anna’s caring spirit and recounts all the ways Anna has raised awareness and funds for local charity groups.
“I have heard her say, ‘You don’t know the impact you can have on other people no matter the size of your gesture,’” says Robin.
In the past two years, Anna participated in the USC Dance Marathon fundraiser for Palmetto Health Children’s Hospital, led the survivor’s lap at the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life event and volunteered her time and art work for the Festival of Trees fundraiser. She’s also coordinated a pop-top tab collection to benefit the Ronald McDonald House and donated stuffed animals to the Richland County Sheriff’s Department. Last fall, Anna raised more than $1,000 for Palmetto Health Children’s Hospital at a lemonade stand at the Rockbridge Bazaar.
“You know what? I’ve always wanted to help,” says Anna. “I think it’s because people treated me so kindly when I went through chemotherapy. I just want to give back.”
Her mother says she’s very proud of the way Anna has coped throughout her illness. Not only has Anna reached out to help others, but also she has made all As in school, participated in the Junior Cotillion and taken piano.
“I couldn’t have done this without my family and the Lord,” says Anna. “If every person shows just one person a kindness, then the world would be a better place.”

Group Community Champion: Knitting for the Needy
Talk and knit. Talk and knit. Talk and knit. There is a rhythm to the weekly meeting of the Knitting for the Needy. Aged hands click needles and loop yarn to fashion tiny booties, warm hats and cozy blankets.
Yet the group of residents at Still Hopes Episcopal Retirement Community does much more than just fashion pretty items for their own enjoyment. Through their creations, others find warmth and comfort.
Since the group began meeting three years ago, the members have made and donated hundreds of items to those in need of TLC. Babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Palmetto Health Richland receive hats and booties made by the group. The homeless receive scarves. Chemotherapy patients nestle under blankets created by Knitting for the Needy members. Bears given to breast cancer survivors don knitted dresses and aprons.
Nursing home residents wear handcrafted slippers. Deployed American soldiers sport lovingly made caps.
Members of Knitting for the Needy like Penn Gregg see their activities as a kind of fun therapy, with a wonderful return. Penn gets to talk and connect with friends, see the creative items that are made and feel good about helping others.
“It is more blessed to give than to receive,” says Penn. “For us, it’s joy.”
Sarah Flores, the activity assistant at Still Hopes, helps coordinate the weekly meetings and the distribution of all the items. She sees the effect the group has on its members and says the impact is great.
The group also focuses on giving back to Still Hopes by raising over $2,000 for the Resident Assistance Fund and fulfilling a pledge of $1,000 to the Marshall A. Shearouse Center for Wellness. They sell beautiful handmade articles in the community gift shop, with 100 percent of the proceeds going to these worthy causes.
Since beginning in June 2006 with Elizabeth Nassif, who was an activity assistant at that time, Knitting for the Needy has ranged in size from eight to 17 members with ages from 70 to the mid-90s. Some members are life-long knitters while others just learned. Ann Bowman, one of the original members, learned to knit as a teenager. She finds the group activity relaxing and looks forward to it each week.
“It gives us something to do that is helpful to other people,” says Ann. “It really seems so easy, too.”
The charter members include Mildred Allen,?Ann Bowman, Julie Durant, Mercedes Gay, Marvis Hemphill, Ursula Lamatsch, Mildred Lellis, Dale Pedrick, Joyce Sumwalt, Polly Rogers and Louise Williams. The group also includes the following residents who have joined over time: Janet Carlisle, Mary Clarkson, Jean Doster, Virley Evans, Pat Flowers Peggy Nettles and Beth Walker. Staff members Sarah Flores, Denise Heimlich and Elizabeth Nassif are also contributing members of the group.

Individual Community Champion: C.J. Bilka
On a muggy summer Saturday in a downtown Columbia parking lot, C.J. Bilka and a crew of volunteers set up tents, unfold tattered tables and arrange an assembly line buffet of hot dogs, chili, chips, bananas, cakes, pies and soda. Along with the food items, Bibles, socks and t-shirts are laid out for the taking. C.J. directs the volunteers on how to fill the cups with ice and lay out the bananas. He has the operation down to a science.
He should. For more than eight years, C.J. and the volunteers with His Hands Ministries have offered a free hot dog meal to the homeless every Saturday, without fail.
C.J., along with friend Joyce Sims, began the lunches when they learned that the homeless had no options for receiving food on Saturdays. Initially, C.J. would provide for a few dozen people. Now it’s not unusual for more than 100 people to show up.
“We serve everybody who shows up and gets in line,” says C.J. “These people just want a good meal and a happy face.”
As C.J.’s reputation as the “Hot Dog Man” grew, people knew they could count on him not just for food, but for other items as well. T-shirts, tennis shoes, toiletries – if someone is in need, C.J. makes sure they are provided for.
Early on, C.J., who has a full-time job in state government, absorbed all the expense. In time, local churches offered His Hands Ministries donations. Even local businesses, like Publix Supermarket, now help with the cause.
Even with community support, C.J. puts in about 30 hours a week in addition to his day job to provide the Saturday meals and receives no compensation.
“C.J. does this from his heart,” says one volunteer, who has worked with His Hands Ministries for years.
Yet C.J. insists it is the volunteers and not he who deserves recognition for all that is accomplished through His Hand Ministries.
Volunteers, like Robbie Rorke of Lexington, say C.J., whose voice sounds like loose gravel, has a tough reputation as a no-nonsense kind of guy, but treats everyone with compassion.
While walking through the crowd, C.J. greets those he meets with a steady gaze, a handshake or a pat on the back.
“I could be out there,” says C.J. “Any of us could. The Lord has blessed me.”

Family Community Champions: The Singletary Family
Offering a helping hand is a tradition in the Singletary family.
Marilyn Singletary’s parents were missionaries who taught their daughter the need for and importance of community involvement. When Marilyn and her husband James started their own family, they knew they would pass this powerful lesson onto their two sons, Michael and Andrew.
The family takes the idea of service to heart, giving their time and effort to make a difference. The Singletarys, who live in Neeses, recognize need great and small, and take action locally and globally.
“Though they are not wealthy people, they consistently live and work for the benefit of others,” says Leigh Walker, a lead agent with 4-H in Orangeburg County. “Typically, one family member will identify a specific need, and the entire family will pitch in to help work toward a goal to meet that need.”
No project is too great or small for this family to take on: rolling silverware in a soup kitchen; visiting residents of a nursing home; collecting winter clothing to send to impoverished residents of an Indian reservation; planting a vegetable garden and sharing the produce; repairing a local playground; or organizing a spaghetti dinner to raise funds for tsunami victims.
The Singletarys never seem to be idle. Most recently, Michael, 15, has been successful in collecting and shipping more than $25,000 in medical supplies to Haiti, including examination tables, walkers, first aid supplies and diagnostic testing equipment. Michael collected donations in the Midlands, and the family hauled the goods to the Midwest to be shipped to the earthquake-ravaged nation through a Kansas-based missions organization.
Andrew, 19, recently started Re-Bicycle. The college student refurbishes used bikes to like-new condition and donates them to local children and residents of third-world countries where the bicycle is a primary means of transportation.
Andrew says when it comes to philanthropy, he simply followed his parents’ lead.
“They are just really giving people,” he says. “They volunteer most of their free time to doing extra. My mom especially – she’s always got her hands in something.”
In June, Marilyn led a dozen 4-H members in a service project. She taught them to sew. But instead of making something for themselves, the group made quilted sleeping pads to send to Haitian orphans. In the fall, the Singletarys will host their annual Halloween party for local youth and collect donations for a local mission.
“You don’t have to be famous or rich to help someone in need,” says Marilyn. “If we all chip in, our community and our world would be a better place.”

Local Business Community Champion: Michael Tucker
owner/operator Chick-fil-A Lexington
More than 30 years ago, Michael Tucker heard a speaker at his local Rotary meeting that moved him to action.
That speaker, Kathy Riley, executive director of The Women’s Shelter, spoke about the organization in Columbia and its mission to give emergency and temporary housing to homeless women who are in crisis situations.
Michael was so moved that he contacted Kathy to see how he could help.
At that time, Michael, as owner/operator of the Chick-fil-A in Woodhill Mall, began providing one meal a week to the women receiving assistance from the shelter. Beginning in 1995, Michael also led other Midlands Chick-fil-A restaurants to sponsor The Women’s Shelter Thanksgiving Souper. This annual community-wide event offers a simple $2 meal for purchase on the Thursday before Thanksgiving, and the proceeds go directly to the shelter. The event raises $25,000 to $30,000 annually for the shelter.
“Chick-fil-A has always been recognized as an excellent corporate citizen across the nation, but Mr. Tucker’s dedication to helping The Women’s Shelter provide service for the homeless is above and beyond the usual corporate philanthropic initiative,” wrote Kathy Riley when she nominated Michael as a Community Champion.
Yet, when Kathy speaks of Michael, it’s evident her appreciation of him goes beyond the boardroom and has a foundation in the kind of person she believes him to be.
“He thrives on doing the right thing,” says Kathy. “He is dogged in his belief. He represents everything that is good and kind.”
One reason Michael says he was moved to action was a similar philosophy of “you get what you sow” shared by The Women’s Shelter and Chick-fil-A.
“[The Women’s Shelter] spends their money wisely,” says Michael. “They do a great service, and it’s been our privilege to work with them all these years. It’s been a tremendous partnership.”