Old News - 2023
Icehouse Market
May 20, 2023
The moment our feet hit the ground to set up our table it started to rain (we're sensing a theme here). Thankfully it didn't last long and the drizzle keep the weather mild rather than muggy. There were 51 vendors, with a mix of produce, soaps, candles, candy, jewelry, and baked goods. We got a good spot by one of the entrances, and there was a steady flow of people asking questions. We meet a few teachers, a few homeschools, and a lot of people who were just curious about what conservation districts do. Overall we the event was a success and we can't wait until the next one.
Annual Recognition Banquet
May 4, 2023
What an amazing turn out! With almost 115 people in attendance we had a full house. Shealy's Barbeque once again provided us with an amazing meal and quite a few people took some extra food home. After dinner our guest speaker Kirby Player took the stage with a presentation that tugged on the nostalgic memories of middle school assembly. After sharing good food and many laughs we presented this year's awards.
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Bill Stangler, the Congaree Riverkeeper, was the first person to be award the Bill Melven Conservationist of the Year Award, which was renamed to honor Bill Melven and his many years of dedicated and distinguished service to the citizens of Lexington County in education and conservation of our natural resources. This year's Legislator of the Year award was presented to the Honorable Paula Rawl Calhoon.
Students of Lexington High School, River Bluff High School, White Knoll High School, Pleasant Hill Middle School Batesburg Leesville High School and Batesburg Leesville Middle School were in attendance to receive their certificates and cash prizes as winners of the 2023 Photography Contest and Poster Contest. This year's photography contest had 8 winners for Division 1, 9th - 12th grade; 1 winner in Division 2, 6th - 8th grade. We even had 3 winners for the Poster Contest (believe me that's a big deal). We were also able to provide 4 scholarship to deserving high school seniors from Gilbert High School and Swansea High School. Dr Corine Jimenez of Piney Woods Elementary was selected as the K-6 grade Teacher of the Year and Alicia Ridder of River Bluff High School was selected as the 7-12 grade Teacher of the Year.
This was our first year holding a raffle and it brought a lot of laughs with two scholarships recipients winning something and Shirley Melven winning the last raffle of the night, a bottle of vodka from Palmetto Distillery. We truly appreciate the businesses that donated gifts for our banquet and hope to involve more local business in our raffle next year.
11th Annual Herb Festival
March 25, 2023
The day started off with clear skies as we set up our table and prepared for the 11th annual Herb Festival, but before long in was overcast with a strong wind blowing. A big thank you to Commissioner Gunter for grabbing some rocks from the area to keep our handouts from flying away. We passed out materials from Certified SC Grown (a coloring book, a harvest finder, and Grown in SC), our brochure, an education flyer, and a packet that contained our upcoming contests. We talked to a bunch of people and hid from the rain as best we could. Even though it rained on and off, it was a fun day, and we look forward to doing it again next year.
