SCHOOLS: Sara Collins Elementary, Beck Middle and JL Mann High
Charming home in the popular Parkins Mill Area! Situated on over 1.26 acres this home offers over 5,000 square feet of family living space.
Main level features formal living room, dining room, study, kitchen that opens to eat-in breakfast area and rec-room with wet bar. Owner’s suite also on the main level with fireplace and cozy sitting area.
Owner’s bath features a double sink vanity, walk-in shower, separate soaking tub and multiple closets in the dressing area. Four spacious bedrooms and two full baths on second level.
Immaculately manicured back yard with large brick patio and arbor has easy access from kitchen living room or office. Two attached car garages plus basketball court.
Great location just minutes to downtown Greenville!
Beautiful townhouse located in the Townes of Brookwood 1 well located near I-385 in Simpsonville. A stones throw from GHS, YMCA, Gated community, swimming pool. Large Master Bedroom with Large Master Bath and 2 walk-in closets! All bedrooms have walk-in closets. All windows with plantation shutters. Home Owners Association takes care of lawn.
SCHOOLS: Augusta Circle Elementary, Hughes Middle and Greenville High
Stunning Augusta Road area home completely renovated and expanded on one of the most coveted streets in town! Lined with sidewalks, mature trees and well maintained homes.
Photo provided.
This beauty features a formal dining and living room that exude charm and character. Gorgeous updated kitchen with large area for breakfast or gathering table mud room and showstopper of a great room with vaulted ceiling and magnificent gas starter/wood burning fireplace.
Photo provided.
This wonderful living space opens onto a one of a kind covered porch with outdoor fireplace that features a reclaimed wooden mantle all while looking over your very large flat rear yard. On the main level this home features an office guest bedroom with ensuite bathroom, laundry room and master on the main that boasts his and her closets, tiled shower, separate tub and double sink vanity.
Upstairs you will love the large bonus room. There are three generously sized bedrooms upstairs that feature spacious closets.
Walking distance to Augusta Circle Elementary and just a few minutes to Prisma Health. Augusta Road area shopping and dining and downtown Greenville.
Teddy Roosevelt played by Doug Mishler. Photo provided.
Chautauqua is where stories are told and history comes to life. This season’s theme is “Reinventing America,” beginning with an opening night benefit show.
“An Evening with Teddy Roosevelt,” the first character study of the year, will start the winter season at 7 p.m. on Jan. 31 at the Younts Center for Performing Arts. “This is the only ticketed show of the year. All other events are free to attend,” said Carolina McIntyre, administrator and historical interpreter.
On Feb. 1 and 2, Roosevelt will also stop by Wade Hampton High School for two shows. “There will be about 600 people at Wade Hampton, so be sure to arrive early,” McIntyre said.
Roosevelt will be played by Doug Mishler, who is no stranger to this character.
“Teddy is dynamic — in a way outrageous and profound,” Mishler said.
Mishler has been part of Chautauqua since 1993 and has 20 active characters. He has made 800 first-person presentations of over 24 historical figures, with Roosevelt being one of his favorites.
“It’s almost too easy to act as Teddy because so many of my other characters are so serious, like Jefferson Davis and Pablo Picasso,” Mishler said.
However, studying and fully engulfing himself as Roosevelt isn’t an easy task. “There are 36 books Teddy has written and thousands of letters and speeches he gave that I have studied,” Mishler said.
Roosevelt was also more than just a president. He was a cowboy in the Dakotas, a soldier on San Juan Hill and a political advocator, according to Mishler.
“No one changed American politics more than he did,” McIntyre said.
While attending the event, the audience may learn whether or not Roosevelt had a pet, how he faked being attacked by American Indians, or bird calls and their scientific names. “Teddy has to be prepared for whatever the audience may ask,” McIntyre said.
Photo provided.
IF YOU GO:
“An Evening with Teddy Roosevelt”
7-9 p.m. Jan. 31
Younts Center for Performing Arts, 315 N. Main St., Fountain Inn
Will Donovan working hands on with the clay. Photo by Sarah Batory.
When Will Donovan, a local ceramicist, isn’t throwing clay in his personal studio, he is crafting tableware for restaurants in Greenville. He also works with Clay King in Spartanburg and as a studio manager and teacher at Hollowed Earth Pottery.
To say he sleeps, breathes and lives clay is an understatement. “Clay has always been a very active pursuit for me,” Donovan said.
It was an existential crisis that led Donovan to clay. Originally from Myrtle Beach, Donovan attended North Greenville University and enrolled his freshman year as a business major.
Photo by Ashley Cuoco
“The day before classes started, I had a weird existential crisis,” Donovan said. “I switched to art on a whim but had never taken an art class before.”
Creating a new schedule at the last minute, Donovan decided to take ceramics to fill a spot. Digital art wasn’t an interest to him and painting along with printmaking classes were full.
“I started liking ceramics so much that I would often be in the studio after hours,” Donovan said. “I liked the 3D part of it, having to touch it, mold and shape it.”
Photo provided
After graduating, Donovan put out feelers to gauge where he could continue ceramics. “I was actually mowing my previous ceramic professor’s lawn in exchange for studio space and the ability to practice for two years,” Donovan said.
During this time, Donovan discovered he was able to sell his work in the Greenville Farmers Market, where he started to take commission orders. Soon, local restaurants started to notice his work and asked if he would make tableware for them.
“I have been able to make tableware for Husk and Soby’s while working on a commission for Larkin’s right now,” Donovan said.
Photo provided
Currently, for the first time in two years, Donovan is working on something for himself. The project is a tea set with canisters that hold the tea leaves, the lids with woodland creatures for the knobs and tea bowls.
“I am happy about this project but it was kind of easy,” Donovan said.
Donovan’s ceramic journey has been both rewarding and stubborn, but the first thing he has put all of himself into. “I feel like I have put so much into it that I had to pursue it more.”
An example of Matthew Baumgardner's cube work. Photo provided.
Sculptor and painter Matthew Clay Baumgardner of Travelers Rest died last year, but his art stands as a memorial to his work as it goes on display in the James B. Duke Library at Furman University through March 2020.
The exhibit is free and open to the public from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays-Fridays, or by appointment, in the Special Collections and Archives gallery, located on the second floor of the library.
The exhibit, “Matthew Baumgardner Cubes,” features dozens of his cube works, paintings and other artifacts that reflect his process and provide an introduction to his career. Presented by the Furman Department of Art and Special Collections and Archives, the exhibit was organized by students enrolled in Art 281.
Sarah Archino, a Furman professor and art historian, said the estate of Baumgardner approached the art department because of the mutual respect between retired Furman art professor Michael Brodeur and Baumgardner.
“I think [the estate] was looking for an institution with students that could undertake the type of research and writing that was necessary for the project,” Archino said.
Baumgardner moved from New York to Travelers Rest in 2006, where he designed and constructed a home-work studio on an acre of land, and worked until his death in November 2018.
Said to be “deeply spiritual,” according to his survivors, Baumgardner once described his art this way:
“My work imparts a transformative experience that resonates with my longings to channel universal and spiritual planes; I want to transport the spirit, to remind us all that we are perfect beings passing through a transient world. My soul craves expression through poetic and timeless art that beckons the viewer to return time and again to find renewal and fresh experiences.”
In the coming weeks, works by Baumgardner will be featured in the main display cases in the Roe Art Building, forming an auxiliary exhibition. The Roe Art Building is open to the public from 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Mondays through Fridays.
In order to retire, being financially stable is a must. According to a study from SmartAsset, a New York financial technology company, Greenville County is one of the top places to save for retirement in South Carolina.
Out of all 50 states, South Carolina ranked 11th for best places to save for retirement by state.
To measure the places that were best prepared to save for retirement, the study weighed four criteria in counties across the country: 401(k) performance, pension performance, local economic conditions and access to financial advisors.
To determine which counties allowed people to keep the most of their paycheck, or “paycheck friendliness,” the study measured paycheck size, purchasing power, unemployment and income growth.
Each of the four factors was indexed to create one overall score.
The counties with the highest scores are the best places to prepare for retirement:
York County — 30.84%
Greenville County — 26.87%
Charleston — 26.49%
Richland — 23.52%
Beaufort — 23.27%
Berkeley — 20.81%
Dorchester — 20.69%
Spartanburg — 20.15%
Lexington — 20.14%
Pickens — 19.48%
As the final factor, the number of financial advisors per capita for each county was observed. Then, the scores were indexed.
In addition to savings plans such as 401(k)s and public pensions, financial advisors can be a valuable resource to help people plan for retirement.
Prisma Health is eliminating 327 employees, or about 1% of its workforce of 32,000, to improve operating efficiencies and streamline the organization, officials announced today.
Prisma Health has eliminated 200 other positions across its Upstate and Midlands locations since Oct. 1. Employees were being notified today of the layoffs.
“The health-care environment in which we operate is becoming increasingly challenging for a variety of reasons, including lower reimbursements and increasing numbers of patients who are underinsured or uninsured,” said Mark O’Halla, president and chief executive officer of Prisma Health.
O’Halla said that when Prisma Health was formed 26 months ago, they began integrating and consolidating functions to gain the benefits of scale and to remove costs from the organization. Duplicative executive management positions were eliminated, leadership was restructured, and there was a significant cost savings in supplies, technology and other areas.
“We are taking steps to ensure that everything we are doing — both clinical and non-clinical is delivering quality and value,” O’Halla said. “As part of this ongoing work, we have identified a number of additional expense-reduction strategies — many of which impact our workforce. These are difficult decisions, but we need to make them now so we can provide the quality care our patients deserve in a financially sustainable manner that positions us for future growth opportunities.”
Areas affected span the organization, including administrative, corporate and clinical areas across all campuses. Prisma Health is providing the affected employees with severance pay and outplacement services. They’ll also have the opportunity to apply for open positions across the organization.
In addition, Prisma Health Greenville Memorial Hospital’s 15-bed Subacute Unit and the Children’s Residential Program in Greenville will be phased out in the coming months.
Patients treated in these programs have a number of other local options, officials said, and Prisma Health is taking the steps necessary to ensure that there is minimal disruption to patient care during the transition.
“We’re committed to building a stronger organization, where patients will experience consistent, high-quality care, regardless of which Prisma Health location they choose forcare,” O’Halla said. “At Prisma Health, the patient is at the center of everything we do.”
Prisma Health has 18 hospitals, 2,984 beds, more than 300 physician practice sites and serves more than 1.2 million unique patients annually.
A search on Etsy would render just the trench coat needed for Eli Warren’s latest photography project. “The Coat Project,” a series of 197 portraits spanning 74 people all wearing a vintage Christian Dior black trench coat, is now available at M. Judson Booksellers.
Warren, a fine art photographer with a studio at the Greenville Center for Creative Arts in the Village of West Greenville, got his inspiration for the project from a previous photo shoot.
“Last year, I randomly saw my friend wearing a big trench coat,” he said. “I asked him if he would come in for a shoot and it became one of the images I am known for.”
While his friend’s trench coat isn’t the one used in the book, it paved the path for what would end up being Warren’s creation.
The individuals in the book volunteered for the shoot and were told to interpret the coat in their own unique way. “I wanted people to interpret the coat the way they wanted to,” Warren said.
Poses ranged from dancers in the air, to reflective moments, with photo shoots being only 10 to 15 minutes long. Warren said that, originally, the project was to be shot on film, but he quickly learned it was too time consuming.
When people came in for the shoot, they were expecting a boring trench coat, “but it’s not,” Warren said. “It is really heavy with a lot of fabric and has a ton of character to it.”
Photo by Eli Warren
With the coat, Warren was able to view how creative everyone could be. He plans to put the coat in a shadow box because it has history now and was worn by so many people.
“The coat aged through the project,” he said.
Throughout the project, which took three months to complete, over 8,000 images were taken. From there, Warren narrowed down the selection to 700. Approximately 199 images were used in the book.
“The Coat Project” is a self-published book, which Warren said was a challenge but having a background in graphic design helped. “This project made me feel like this is me and this is what I want to do.”
As Warren figures out his next project, he is currently working on an exhibit at the GCCA that will be on display next February. The exhibit will include enlarged images of people’s faces expressing loose depictions of darker emotions.
Left to right: Nancy Burkard, Bruce Meahl, Rod McClendon and Chris White. Photo by Will Crooks.
Mill Town Players will perform “Moonlight and Magnolias” in the Pelzer auditorium for the first time Jan. 17-Feb. 2. The play, directed by Noah Taylor, gives the audience a behind-the-scenes look into 1939 Hollywood.
The play follows legendary producer David O. Selznick, who is the producer of “Gone with the Wind.” The film crew is five weeks into shooting when Selznick has a sudden epiphany.
The script is awful and the director seems unaware. With only five days to start from scratch, Selznick, director Victor Fleming and writer Ben Hecht lock themselves in a room to rewrite the script.
“This is all based on a somewhat-true story of the writing of the screenplay for ‘Gone with the Wind,'” Taylor said.
Photo provided.
While subsisting on bananas and peanuts, Selznick, Fleming and Hecht begin to write the script from the book. “It is a huge undertaking that proves to be comical and zanny,” Taylor said.
With a sense of heightened reality, the curtains are both metaphorically and literally pulled back to give the audience a glimpse into old Hollywood. Taylor said that his favorite aspect about the play is that it is kind of a love letter to movies from old Hollywood and old movie magic.
“I believe this play will be a huge success,” Taylor said. “The actors and creatives are very on board with this project and committed to make the most of the story.”
IF YOU GO
Jan. 17-Feb. 2
214 Lebby St., Pelzer
Performances at 7:30 p.m. except 3 p.m. Sundays
Ticket prices: $10 for seniors (age 65+), military and students (ages 18 and under); $12 for general public
Inmates at the gate to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Photo provided by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau and the South Carolina Council on the Holocaust is acknowledging the milestone with International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 28.
With the help of the council, people like Greenville’s Trude Heller and Melinda Menzer, are sharing their stories about how they, or their families, were impacted by the Holocaust.
The commemoration of the anniversary will be held at the University of South Carolina’s Alumni Center in Columbia at 10:30 a.m. During the event, 6 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust and millions of other victims of Nazism will be honored.
Heller, wife of the late Max Heller, said she fled to Greenville from Nazi-controlled Vienna, Austria, in 1942 when she was 15 years old. Heller was born in 1922, and as an only child, was doted on by her parents.
Trude Heller during her dancing days. Photo provided.
Heller attended a nice school, danced from ages 3 to 11 and helped her family run the two shops they owned in Vienna, she said. But when she turned 15, her surroundings suddenly changed.
She recalled that it was a Friday in 1938, and Austria was supposed to vote on whether or not the country would join the German side, or what is known as the Anschluss. That Sunday, Heller’s entire town was covered with swastikas in the span of an hour.
“I was going out to an exercising class for an hour and when I went in, there wasn’t one swastika to be seen,” Heller said. “When I came out, the whole city was swastikas.”
It all happened in an instant. Heller recounts stories of synagogues burned to the ground and police officers who were already in Nazi attire.
Max and Trude Heller on the day of their wedding on Main Street. Photo provided.
“From that day on, all me and my parents wanted to do was leave,” Heller said. “They killed 80 of my family members.”
Heller said that her aunt, who lived in Poland, was forced to watch her three children be brutally murdered at the hands of Nazis. Events like this happened throughout Europe and parts of Russia, and demonstrated what it was like to be Jewish during WWII, she said.
Melinda Menzer, a Furman University professor, recounts her own story. In Jurburg, Lithuania during 1941, Nazis invaded. The Mincers, relatives to Menzer, were faced with four massacres that took place there.
“The Nazis rounded up the Jews and contained them,” Menzer said. “Over the next four months, four massacres would occur, with 300 men killed in the first, including the rabbi.”
Jewish cemetery where men where shot during massacres in Jurburg. Photo provided and not affiliated with Auschwitz.
The first massacre was the only one performed by the Germans.
“The other three were by other Lithuanians killing their neighbors,” Menzer said.
According to Menzer, the Lithuanians involved were Christians. They forced the Jewish population to tear down synagogues and burn books.
“They also forced the Jewish people that had survived to walk in a parade while people threw objects at them,” Menzer said.
Keeping these stories alive helps the council to educate South Carolina teachers, students and the general public about the Holocaust and helps everyone see the relevance of the events.
“The Holocaust is the story of how people who had been living peacefully for generations can be inspired and motivated by hate to murder,” Menzer said. “It is clear to me the relevance of what happened to my family in our lives today.”
Smaller memorial honoring 500 women and children killed in a massacre in Jurburg. Photo provided.
Jade, an Amur leopard, was transferred to the Greenville Zoo in 2011 from the Potawatomi Zoo in South Bend, Indiana. Photo provided by Greenville Zoo.
The Greenville Zoo has confirmed that Jade, the zoo’s 9-year-old Amur leopard is pregnant. The public will have the opportunity to observe an ultrasound at 11 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 16.
Weather permitting, the staff conducts an ultrasound each Monday and Thursdayfrom the public side of the Amur leopard enclosure, allowing zoo visitors an opportunity to view the process and learn about the animals.
A zookeeper is usually on hand to share information during the procedure. Jade is expected to give birth within the next four weeks.
Jade was transferred to the Greenville Zoo in 2011 from the Potawatomi Zoo in South Bend, Indiana. In November 2016, the zoo imported Nelkan, its 13-year-old male Amur leopard, from Zoo Hoyerswerda in Berlin, Germany, as part of the Amur Leopard Species Survival Program.
Jade will have ultrasound sessions every Monday & Thursday, weather permitting, from the public side of the enclosure allowing guests to view the process & learn about the leopards. Ultrasounds will begin at approximately 11am. Here’s a look at our session from this morning! pic.twitter.com/5IWAZughbH
Nelkan was introduced to Jade in January 2017, and their first cubs, a male and a female, were born in April. The births were an important success for the Greenville Zoo’s conservation efforts and the Species Survival Program, zoo staffers said, as it introduced another bloodline into the North American Amur leopard population.
The Amur leopard is one of the most critically endangered big cats in the world, with numbers ranging around 84 in the wild and 180 in captivity.
Approximately 105 streetlights on Main Street will be replaced with new LED lights. Photo by Greg Beckner.
The city of Greenville is partnering with Duke Energy to replace approximately 105 streetlights on Main Street, between North Street and Broad Street starting Jan. 15.
Details are as follows
Current lights are being replaced with new LED fixtures to match current ones installed in the 200 block of Main Street.
Work will be done in four phases to minimize disruptions to businesses.
Each phase is expected to take five to eight weeks.
Work will primarily take place between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, but periodic weekend work may be necessary.
Street/lane closures will not be required.
Parking spaces will be blocked in one area at a time, beginning with area shown in green. Photo provided.
New lights will be more energy efficient and longer lasting while also improving visibility for drivers and pedestrians.
Club Leaders Forum – a consulting source of the private club industry – recently announced that The Poinsett Club, one of the Greenville area’s oldest and most prestigious clubs, has been recognized on its list of “Platinum Clubs of the World” for 2020-2021.
The Platinum Clubs of the World election awards Platinum designation to the top 100 Golf and Country Clubs, top 100 City Clubs and top 50 Yacht Clubs of the World.
Of the 29 City Club honorees from the United States, the Poinsett Club is the only South Carolina club designated as a Platinum Club of the World.
“Selection criteria for Platinum Clubs of the World have high benchmarks that make this designation even more of an honor,” Brent Reeder, the Poinsett Club’s general manager said. “Our members understand how our staff members work each day to provide a superior experience, and we are excited to now have a global recognition of those efforts.”
While this year marks the first time the club was rated a Platinum Club of the World, the Poinsett Club received an “Honorable Mention” on the list in 2017 and has been named a Platinum Club of America for seven consecutive ranking periods.
“Greenville has known the Poinsett Club since our 1935 founding,” 2019 Poinsett Club Board of Governors president Vernon Dunbar said. “As our area has become the North American home to a number of international business interests, word has spread about who and what we are and what we can offer. We look forward to sharing the Poinsett Club’s legacy and tradition with the world.”
Bank of America's Fall for Greenville presented $38,600 to 12 nonprofit organizations from the local community. Photo provided.
Bank of America’s Fall for Greenville board members and event partners presented $38,600 to 12 nonprofit organizations from the local community recently. All funds donated came from the 2019 festival held last October.
Bank of America Fall for Greenville has donated over $720,000 to more than 30 nonprofit organizations over the past 15 years.
Local charities receiving event proceeds include:
Boy Scout Troop 260
Boy Scout Troop 266
Girl Scout Troop 721
Greenville Chinese Cultural Association
Harvest Hope Food Bank
Hispanic-American Women’s Association
Lucky Pup Rescue SC
Newcomers Club of Greater Greenville on behalf of Senior Action, Inc.
Red Shoe Society on behalf of Ronald McDonald House
Shellpoint Mortgage Servicing on behalf of March of Dimes
St. Mary Magdalene BSA Scouting Ministries
Vocal Matrix Show Chorus
Additionally, the festival will award funding through its Fall for Giving grant program. The program will disperse grants ranging from $1,000 to $20,000 to nonprofit organizations involved in the areas of culinary and food, cultural diversity, family and music.
“The continued success of Bank of America Fall for Greenville provides an opportunity to expand our charitable giving,” said Tony McGuirt, 2019 Fall for Greenville board chair. “In its brief history, Fall for Giving has already supported numerous local organizations that work hard to strengthen our community.”
Fall for Giving grant applications will be accepted through Feb. 10. Nonprofit organizations that are interested in applying can visit www.fallforgreenville.net/grant.
For more information about the 2020 Fall for Greenville festival and to download a volunteer application, visit the festival’s website.
