Local camp aims to enrich children’s lives

June 18, 2005

By SHAVONNE POTTS
Index-Journal staff writer

PROMISED LAND — The summer for many children is a time to play in the sun and a time to do nothing.
But this summer, about 100 children are taking part in a summer enrichment program offered by Mt. Zion A.M.E. Church. Each day, campers meet at the Promised Land Enrichment and Development Center for educational and recreational activities.
“We had a vision to provide a safe environment for children of Promised Land and the greater Greenwood area,” said the Rev. James Speed, of Mt. Zion A.M.E. Church.
Speed said after the first couple of years following the building of the church’s development center, he began to see children with nowhere to go.
“It was our desire to do something about that,” he said.
In the first year of the program, more than 800 children were enrolled with an average of 95 coming to the camp each day.
Currently, the staff sees about 75 to 100 children attending the camp.
Children who attend the camp work on character education, math, English and reading skills.
“With character education, we try to help students maintain those essential skills that are often forgotten over summer break,” Speed said.
Students are fed lunch and a snack with help from the USDA.
“It is our hope and solemn prayer that the lives of these children will be enriched by the hands of whom they are touched,” said Linda Cason, center director.
Cason said the program is designed to provide a safe haven where children can go and parents don’t have to worry about them.
She said many of the children couldn’t wait until the doors were open in anticipation for camp.
Although this year’s camp is progressing, Speed said the church has not gotten as big a response from the private sector for help as organizers had hoped.
“It’s a good program and we’ll continue to do it,” he said, “but we need help to take them on field trips.”
The center has a full-size gym where the children play basketball and other indoor sports, but Speed said they would like to be able to go off-site for activities.
“It’s exciting and I love coming here,” said Nicholas Moss, 9, of Columbia. He visits with his grandmother and attends the camp while in Promised Land.
Moss said he enjoys making friends at the camp and learning math and English.
Jumaane Ryans, 11, of Promised Land, attended the camp for the first time. He said it was fun learning more about newspapers and reading the different sections.
“I’ve been reading section A of the paper and then I give it to my mom to read,” he said.
Brandon Wideman, an Allen University student and Promised Land native, works with campers.
“I really enjoy working with them,” Wideman said, “if I can be a good role model and help the children in today’s society.”
Promised Land resident Myshira Hart, a Winthrop University student, attends the church teaching campers ages 3-6.
“It’s good experience working with children. I think it’s a safe place for them to come to,” Hart said. She is pursuing a degree in speech therapy.
Speed said although the church helps college students by employing them, they hope next year to help even more.
Of the total six people on staff, four of them are college students.
In the future, the church also desires to implement a Community Development Corporation (CDC) program.
The CDC would encompass a complete redevelopment of the community with food, educational and senior action programs, Speed said.
The partners of the program are the Greenwood County Parks and Recreation Department, the Self Family Foundation, the Department of Social Services, the United States Drug Administration (USDA) and The Index-Journal.
The camp is for ages 3-18 and meets from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday. For information, call 943-1177.

Gary’s single in 7th gives Post 20 win

June 18, 2005

By RON COX
Index-Journal sports writer

Will Gary singled with the bases loaded and no outs in the bottom of the seventh, scoring Clint Richey to give Post 20 a 4-3 win over the Pendleton Cardinals Friday night at Legion Field to close out the first day of the Lander University-Sand Gnats Tournament.
Gary has had his troubles at the plate this legion season. Before his game-winning single, the former Emerald High School all-star had only two hits in his previous 14 at-bats.
“I just wanted to get the ball in the outfield,” Gary said. “I knew we would score as long as I didn’t hit it right at somebody. I’ve been trying too hard to hit everything way out. Lately, I’ve been working in the cages about not getting long with the ball and I guess it helped out in my last two at bats.
“There was a little weight off my shoulders when I got that hit.”
Richey led off the seventh with a single through the hole at short off Cardinals reliever Ramon Ramos, and Milton Brown followed with a walk. Kyle Behrendt’s bunt turned out to be good enough for a hit to fill the bases.
The Cardinals coach pulled his left fielder in to give the team five infielders.
But Gary, who was hitless in his first three at-bats, knocked the 1-0 offering well over the infielders’ heads for a single.
Post 20 (6-1) plays a pair of games today, the first at 11:30 a.m. at Greenwood High School against the Mega Stars 18 and the second at Legion Field for a 4:30 game against the Renegades.
Post 20 closes out the tournament at 2 p.m. Sunday at Legion Field against the Sand Gnats 18.
The Cardinals got on the scoreboard first, plating one run in the second. However, it could have been much worse for Post 20 and starter Josh Jones.
After a walk and a hit batter, Jones settled down to strike out Pendleton designated hitter Wesley Barber. But third baseman Brock Bailey followed with a blast off the wall in left-center, scoring Kyle Rice easily from second.
But Post 20 catcher Wade Scott took the cut-off throw from Behrendt and put the tag on Jack Posey for the second out. Jones struck out the next batter to get out of the inning.
Greenwood got that run back in the bottom half of the inning without the need of a base hit.
After Cardinals starter Rafael Parks walked the bases loaded, Brown lofted a fly ball to right field deep enough to bring in Justin Jenkins tagging from third to tie the game at 1.
Jones surrendered a one-out triple in the third, but fanned the next two batters to strike out the side. That was the former Ware Shoals High School standout’s last inning of the night, striking out six in three innings.
Nick Milford took the mound for Greenwood to start the fourth and allowed two unearned runs through four innings to pick up his team-high third win.
The Cardinals reclaimed the lead in the fifth. With runners on first and third and one out, Neiko Johnson hit a sharp grounder down the third-base line. Richey made the diving stop and threw from his knees to second to get the force out. But Brown’s double-play turn throw to first was not in time to get Johnson, allowing Kevin Boatwright to give Pendleton a 2-1 lead.
Once again Post 20 got that run back and one more in its half of the inning.
Richey, fresh off the solid defensive play, led off the fifth with a double that bounced to the wall in right, giving Greenwood its first base hit to leave the infield.
A sacrifice bunt from Brown moved Richey to third. He scored when Behrendt singled up the middle to make 2-all.
Behrendt gave Post 20 its first lead, 3-2. The Greenwood High School graduate broke for second, and when Parks’ pick-off throw sailed way over the head of Tyson Dunbar and rolled to the fence behind the warm-up area, Behrendt crossed the plate standing.
The Cardinals tied the game in the top of the seventh. Catcher Tyrone Ellis crushed a one-out double to left-center. Pinch-runner Chris Pethan danced down the line on Boatwright’s grounder to third, and when Richey made the throw to first, Pethan took off for third.
Greenwood first baseman Justin Jenkins’ throw back to third went wide, allowing Pethan to score.

Opinion

Gulag, Nazi comparisons wrong, deserve contempt

June 18, 2005

The prisoners held by the United States at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are radicals who would cut the throats of every American if they had a chance. How should they be treated?
There are some who have honest concerns over what they hear about so-called torture of some of those prisoners. In the reality of the world today, though, one man’s torture is another man’s coddling.
At Gitmo, as Guantanamo is called, the “torture” has been things like mandatory listening to loud rap music, deprivation of sleep, or, what seems to be the most extreme “torture,” being chained to the floor.
Senator Richard Durbin, D-Illinois, however, likens Gitmo to the gulags of the old Soviet Union, where cruelty reigned, and extremely hard living conditions often led to agonizing deaths of prisoners.

THE SENATOR ALSO COMPARED us to Hitler’s Nazis, who put millions of Jews, Gypsies and others to death, and Pol Pot, the Cambodian “king” responsible for the wholesale killing of millions more. Then there was Josef Stalin, who was responsible for the slaughter of many more, including Poles, Czechs and others. Even his own people were brutalized by the Communist dictator.
Durbin’s comparison is way out of bounds. Pardon the reference, but nothing seems quite as appropriate in this case. In the jargon of the streets, Durbin’s hateful commentary sucks!
Durbin owes the American people an apology. Politicizing the situation is bad enough, but doing it in the vilest of ways, as Durbin did, takes political exploitation to a new low. If he really believes what he said, his constituents should show their disgust, as many other Americans do.

RADICALS HAVE MANAGED TO turn the fight against terror into a public relations war against America, as they have been trained to do. They are doing one heck of a con job on the minds of, not only the naïve, but those who apparently would do anything to embarrass President Bush and America in general. It’s appalling how some of our own have succumbed to those radical tactics.
In effect, they are using our own system and values against us. Their audacity has indeed duped many into believing their vicious rhetoric, and many more who seemingly, for whatever reason, want to be deceived.
It’s those like Durbin who take up the terrorist party line and use it in such an abominably political way, though, that deserve our contempt.

Editorial expression in this feature represents our own views.
Opinions are limited to this page.

Obituaries

Annie Mae Louden

NINETY SIX — Annie Mae Louden, 55, of 2525 Louden Road, wife of Thomas Michael Louden, died Friday, June 17, 2005 at HospiceCare of the Piedmont.
Born in Greenwood County, she was a daughter of the late Frank Edward and Mamie Sheard Rayford. She was a former photo lab technician at Wal-Mart. She was a member of Bethlehem Baptist Church, where she was a missionary and a member of the Homemakers Club.
Survivors include her husband of the home; a daughter, Tara Alexis Louden of the home; three brothers, James Rayford, Howard Rayford and Frank Rayford Jr., all of Greenwood; four sisters, Bonita Rayford and Mrs. Furman (Alberta) Calhoun, both of Greenwood, Mattie Jefferson of Columbia and Mrs. James (Bettye) Thompson of Ninety Six.
Services are 2 p.m. Monday at Bethlehem Baptist Church, with the Rev. Johnnie Waller officiating and the Rev. James W. Price, pastor, presiding. Assisting is the Rev. Willie Cromer. The body will be placed in the church at 1. Burial is in The Evening Star cemetery.
Pallbearers are nephews.
Flower bearers are nieces.
The family is at the home.
Robinson & Son Mortuary Inc., Greenwood, is in charge.
Online condolences may be sent to the family at robson@emeraldis.com

Johnny Martin

Johnny Eugene Martin, 64, died Friday, June 17, 2005.
Born in Greenwood, he was a son of the late Claude and Florence Langford Martin. He was a former employee of Greenwood Mills, Durst Plant.
Survivors include a daughter, Crystal Martin of Greenwood; a sister, Helen Alverson of Greenwood; a brother, Walter “Buddy” Martin of Greenwood; and three grandchildren.
Graveside services are 2 p.m. Sunday at Oakbrook Memorial Park, conducted by the Revs. Paul Reid and Ron Taylor.
Pallbearers are Eugene Martin, Brandon Martin, Billy W. Martin Jr., Marty Karter, John Rice and Ronald Spencer.
Visitation is 7-9 tonight at Harley Funeral Home.
The family is at the home of his brother, Walter “Buddy” Martin, 206 Pinehurst Drive.
Memorials may be made to Fraser Presbyterian Church, 400 Cross St., Greenwood, SC 29646.
Harley Funeral Home is in charge.
Online condolences may be sent to the family at www.harleyfuneralhome.com