Festival in full bloom

Gala kicks off state's flower extravaganza

June 2, 2007

By LARRY SINGER
Index-Journal staff writer

Under a clear sky, and with the blessing of an occasional cool breeze, about 150 guests gathered Friday evening in the garden of the president’s house on the Lander University campus for the garden gala kickoff fundraiser for the 40th annual South Carolina Festival of Flowers.
The event was unique for several reasons.
“This is the 40th anniversary of the festival, but this is the first garden gala,” said Kathryn Smith, event chairwoman of the festival gala.
“Marge Ball, the wife of the president of Lander, was gracious enough to agree to be the honorary chair and offer her yard for the event.”
Behind the house, a massive display of blooms was assembled in one long line of vivid and varied colors.
“We had 13 greenhouse nurseries and florists donate the planters that are on display in the amphitheater for silent auction bidding,” Smith said. “There are 13 different styles, themes and varieties of flowers that are just gorgeous.”
In addition to the flowers, a silent auction took place to sell a variety of art pieces that won in previous festival shows.
This year the festival will feature performances in a variety of music styles including bluegrass, jazz, beach, chorale and gospel.
The festival also will have a variety of children’s activities and sporting events, including airplane rides, railroad museum tours, Kidfest and Emerald Farms. Visit our Craftsmen’s Fair, Juried Art Show and Photography Exhibition.
Sporting events will include a fishing tournament, a swim meet, a 5K fun run, golf tournaments, a bike ride through Greenwood County and an Olympic-distance triathlon.
In his fourth year as chairman of the South Carolina Festival of Flowers, Ruple Harley Jr. is familiar with the history of the annual event.
“The festival started 40 years ago as an idea of the Park Seed company, which was having an annual flower day,” Harley explained. “At that time it was held in July and the Chamber of Commerce said we ought to get together and have a festival of flowers. However, July is the hardest time to grow flowers because of the heat. That’s how the festival was born.”
Currently, more than 60 events are scheduled during the entire month of June.
“Tonight is our first event, a kickoff, and one event that we’ve never had before,” Harley said. “This is actually a fundraiser to raise money for the festival. This is the first time the festival has had a fundraiser during the festival.”
One of Harley’s goals as chairman was to emphasize the importance of blooms in 2007.
“It was my goal this year to try and put the flower back in the flower festival, so we’re emphasizing gardens and this like that,” Harley said. “Uptown is going to have a lot of floral attractions, and we have all these floral attractions that people can put in their yards.
Because this is a brand-new event tonight, we don’t have a clue as to how much money it will bring in. I would like to raise two or three thousand dollars. We’re almost sold out of tickets for this event this evening. We’ve got like 10 tickets left, out of 150, so we’re really excited.”
As chairman of an event that stretches over 30 days in a variety of venues, Harley credits its success to the people who give their time to the events.
“The whole key to the festival, and the Festival of Flowers, are the volunteers and the support that Greenwood gives us,” Harley said. “It wouldn’t exist without that.”

Cancer survivors lead the way

June 2, 2007

By MIKE ROSIER
Index-Journal staff writer

ABBEVILLE — Dan and Janet Vandiver held hands lovingly during their single lap Friday evening around the track at Abbeville’s Hite Stadium.
Twelve years ago Dan was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia — and the couple has been holding on just a little tighter each day since.
But Friday, during the 13th Abbeville County Relay for Life, Vandiver helped to represent an elite class of people — the survivors.
The “survivor’s walk” begins the all-night fundraiser for a reason — the people taking those brave steps are why Relay for Life exists.
“It was a pretty rough day,” Dan Vandiver said of his diagnosis. “With treatment we’ve been able to keep moving along. It just builds your confidence to come out and see all of the people out here raising money.
“There has always been a lot of community support here.”
“It’s encouraging to see all the survivors out here, too,” Janet Vandiver added. “The support out here is very encouraging. Having hope is key.”
Members of the Flying Tiger Sports Parachute Center, of Clemson, got the all-night event off to a rousing start with a midfield landing on Dennis Botts Field. Activities for the evening included performances by three bands, games, a silent auction, a womanless beauty pageant and a luminary service.
But for the most part, residents from across the broad spectrum of the greater Abbeville community came together as teams (formed by area businesses, churches and organizations) to do one thing — raise money.
Teams decorated their tents with a particular theme and raised funds by sponsoring games or selling items associated with the theme.
Allison Sullivan, in her fourth year as a Relay for Life volunteer with the Abbeville Area Medical Center, served as this year’s team captain. She found herself Friday evening filling luminary bags with sand.
“This has been quite an experience for me, and it’s been a great experience,” she said. “Our them was ‘Karaoke for a Cure,’ so we’re going to be singing all night long. The judges will go around and pick the best theme, and we all get to come out and raise money for a great cause.” This year’s fundraising goal was $75,000.
Olivia Crawford, with South Side Baptist Church in Abbeville, has been a Relay for Life volunteer for seven years. Of her six immediate family members, half of them have been devastated by a cancer diagnosis.
“There is always that hope that a cure will be found and that’s what all this money is for,” she said. “Obviously, I think this is a great cause.”
Many of the cancer survivors only completed the one lap, but the physical distance traveled Friday evening was of little consequence to anyone. How far they had come to get there was the journey everyone celebrated.
“Stick with the treatment and never give up hope,” Dan Vandiver said before walking away, still hand-in-hand with his wife. “It’s difficult sometimes, but we’ll find a cure (for cancer) one of these days.”

GHS grad mastering vehicle technology

June 2, 2007

By RENALDO STOVER
Index-Journal sports writer

Talk about technology at work.
Michael Haupfear, a 2004 graduate of Greenwood High School and enrolled at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, recently participated in the Formula Hybrid International Competition at New Hampshire International Speedway.
The event challenged undergraduate and graduate students to design, build and compete in an open-wheel, single-seat race car that uses at least 15 percent less gasoline than a traditional race car.
The Embry-Riddle car nicknamed “Shredder” came in first overall among U.S. competitors.
Haupfear, who is working on a double major in aerospace and mechanical engineering at Embry-Riddle, said the process was grueling but well worth it.
Haupfear’s special contribution to the car’s construction revolved around the engine and fuel tank.
“I work on the engine,” Haupfear said. “I designed our fuel tank and a little bit of the fuel system. I also helped with tuning and the labor aspect.”
After the initial excitement of building the car, Haupfear and his teammates went through the rigors of the competition, which included many car inspections.
The first inspection was a brake test.
“We had to lock up all four brakes,” Haupfear said. “If we don’t lock all four, we have to figure out what’s wrong before we can go to the next inspection. It took us two times to pass.”
Haupfear said the second inspection was a noise test.
He explained how the inspector places a decibel meter three feet from Shredder’s exhaust, and to pass, the noise from it had to be under 110 decibels.
Haupfear said although the Shredder was at 117 decibels, his team received a good faith clause and advanced to the next inspection.
It was a huge break for the team, he said.
“We would have had to take off the entire rear axle to fix it and that would have caused more problems,” Haupfear said.
The next step was an electrical test in which a representative from the Department of Energy hooks up 10,000 volts to the chassis and checks a monitor that shows if there are any stray currents. There is practically no room for error.
“We have four capacitor banks,” Haupfear said. “It’s pretty much a heat-resistant Plexiglas that wraps around the capacitors. If there are any stray currents, the 10,000 volts could blow the capacitors, so it’s pass or fail.”
A rulebook inspection is the fourth test.
“They check the car’s ground clearance and driver clearance in regards to the location of the roll bars,” Haupfear said. “They also check driver safety which is all of our equipment. You get three tries for that. The driver also has to be able to exit within a certain time limit.”
While Shredder was being picked and prodded, Haupfear said his team couldn’t help but think about a few of the other schools in the competition.
“We were mainly concerned with Dartmouth,” Haupfear said. “About three years ago, they made this hybrid and we were concerned with them possibly knowing more.”
“McGill from Canada is a pretty prestigious school,” Haupfear added. “Yale, Florida Institute of Technology and Illinois Institute of Technology were our main competition.”
He said only nine cars registered after the initial inspections and only seven made it to competition. His thoughts on Dartmouth appeared to be correct early on as the Ivy League school had two cars register, but only one would run in the competition.
“We were the only team that passed on the first day,” Haupfear said. “The problem for us occurred on race day.”
The problem he refers to was an electrical failure that almost forced the team to miss the acceleration run, the first race of the competition where teams have to finish under 15 seconds.
“We had a wire come loose and we couldn’t find it,” Haupfear said.
The team located the problem and finished third in the acceleration run with Michael Lind behind the wheel.
In the next race, an autocross where team members Craig Czlapinski and Gianpaolo Malatrasi-Gonzalez split time in the driver’s seat, Shredder finished second.
“The endurance event was for the most points,” Haupfear said. “They give you one hour to complete 32 laps and 30 minutes of pit time, which you can use at any time.”
The endurance race was where the Shredder faced another obstacle.
“We blew our engine on lap 24 because our throttle cable snapped and cut through the coolant hose and our engine overheated,” Haupfear said. “We thought we had lost by then.”
The team hadn’t lost yet though.
With the competition based on cumulative scores, a second-place finish in the sales presentation helped the team stay in contention.
Shredder won the Most Innovative Design Award and the Daimler-Chrysler Award for Hybrid Systems Engineering as the team finished second overall.
McGill University won the overall international competition.
“We were all excited,” Haupfear said. “We can still say we got first in the nation because McGill is in Canada.”
With the competition finally over, you might think Haupfear and his teammates are basking in their accomplishment and taking a little time off.
Not exactly.
“Since we did so well in the competition,” Haupfear said. “I have to research all summer on regenerative braking and figure out a way to add that to the car next year.”

Obituaries

Lester Adams

Brewer Lester Adams, 72, widower of Gwendolyn Bailey “Gwen” Adams, died Thursday, May 31, 2007 at Heartland Nursing Home in Columbia.
Services will be announced by Harris Funeral Home, Abbeville.

Virginia W. Greene

Virginia Whitfield Greene, 74, of 634 Cobb Road, widow of Ralph L. Greene, died Friday, June 1, 2007.
Services will be announced by Parker-White Funeral Home, Ware Shoals.

Opinion

Need for ethics ‘reform’ obvious in lots of ways

June 2, 2007

Ethics, or lack of ethics, has long been a consideration as the public considers how its elected officials perform their obligatory duties. Most, by far, have shown they are worthy of the trust their constituents place in them.
Members of the U. S. House of Representatives, including our own Rep. Gresham Barrett, have indicated they are just as concerned and have approved an ethics reform bill to require a more strict enforcement of lobbying laws. It also provides for more disclosure of dealings between lawmakers and lobbyists, including possible employers. It also would increase fines and criminal penalties for breaking lobbying laws.
There are other concerns, though, as evidenced by one case. It involves Rep. William Jefferson, D-Louisiana, who the government says was videotaped accepting $100,000 in $100 bills from an informant. Jefferson says he will not resign and called an FBI search of his office “an outrageous intrusion.” Agents recovered all but $10,000 from his home freezer.
Outrageous or not, it’s a prime example of why ethics reform is needed. It also is a prime example of arrogance and disregard of the American people at its worse.
Reform obviously is needed in more ways than one.