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Summerville Journal Scene
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Words from Watts The Summerville Journal Scene’s Women to Watch has grown year-toyear since it’s beginnings in 2007. Every year the list of nominees from our readers grows, and every year we introduce to our readers ten Women to Watch. The selection is a daunting process – one we look forward to each fall. Just as in year’s past, the 2012 honorees represent a wide mix of professions and charitable organizations of which they are an integral part. They will be recognized at a reception in November at which time they will be presented with a framed photo with their story as a remembrance of their recognition as a 2012 Woman to Watch. This year’s honorees follow an impressive list of past winners:
2007 Rita Berry Loren Bethea Vi Matheny Deb Campeau Jill Henry Monica Karam Vicki Ellis Kristin Sagliocco Kathy Randall Holly Patterson
2008 Barbara Dunning Babette Hamilton Jenny Horne PJ Johnson Alix Kassing Sharon Laney Kay Phillips
Candy Pratt Georgia Toney Diane Walker
2009 Miler Cristy Sanders Kelly Williams Naomi Nimmo Lynn Haney Singleton Becky Ford Jan Parsons Tiffany Provence Tony Fivecoat Annette Young
2010 Lori Dibble Alessa Bertoluzzi
Bette Thomas Betty Settle Deborah Cloutier Jan Waring-Woods Kelly Knight Laura Perdue Marie Williams Susan Morris
2011 Melony Are Sarah Coleman-Lee Angie Crum Elena Furnari Martha Green Cyndy Jackson Lissa Lara Maité Murphy Jennifer Schlette Angela Vest
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Summerville Journal Scene
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Yvonne Caruso A sharp mind helps others BY JIM TATUM The Journal Scene
Paul Zoeller/Journal Scene
t may have been happenstance that Yvonne Caruso came to work for a small manufacturing company in Summerville -- but a lot of people are very happy that she did. Caruso is the President of Grand Forest, a manufacturing company located in the Jedburg area of Dorchester County, near Summerville. The company has three divisions, Gransfors Bruks, which is a distributor of hand crafted axes, Swedpro, which manufactures chainsaw safety equipment, and Woolpower, a distributor of wool undergarments. “It all kind of started as a fluke,” she says with a laugh. “I have a background in management, and a friend of mine asked me to come here to help him with this small company in Summerville. That was 27 years ago.” What started out as a short term consulting job turned into a successful career on many levels, although Caruso is going to sing the praises of
others rather than talk about herself. The people who buy the company’s products – folks who work in dangerous jobs often in harsh conditions – constantly send letters and testimonials thanking the company for their products. “We make protective chaps for people in the forestry industry, people who work with chainsaws every day in all kinds of weather,” she said. “You have to understand that a chainsaw has only one function – to cut things efficiently – therefore if someone has an accident with one, it can be very serious. The garments we make – and we know this because we get letters all the time – have actually saved many people from serious, even fatal injuries. That in itself makes what we do absolutely worthwhile.” The company employs around 25 people, all of whom have worked there for many years, she said. Grand Forest makes it a point to take care of the people who make the company successful, she said. “We take care of our people – they’re the reason for our success,” she said. In 2007, a fire burned the plant to the ground. Not only did this occur around the holidays, but See CARUSO Page 12
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Summerville Journal Scene
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Sarena James Understanding, perspective and sensitivity BY LESLIE CANTU The Journal Scene
Paul Zoeller/Journal Scene
arena James knows what you’re thinking when her six-year-old son has a meltdown at the store. She hears the clucks and sees the eye rolls. She doesn’t have time in the moment to explain the situation, but she believes in shedding light on the challenges faced by families with children on the Autism spectrum, and to that end she shares her family’s story on a website that has become a gathering place for similarly affected families. “It’s as cozy as your living room,” she said recently on a “mommy field trip” to Starbucks, something the stay-at-home mom of three rarely gets to enjoy. James hopes to encourage all people to consider the three principles of understanding, perspective and sensitivity when they encounter a child with special needs – and to remember that those special needs might not be obvious. Her son, Grant, doesn’t appear any different
than any other child, so strangers don’t realize how subtle sensory changes – things like the air conditioning clicking on or the lights flickering – can unsettle him and lead to one of those meltdowns, like the one in Target that prompted James to start her website, On Aisle 9. With the start of that website, James created a community, as well as a sounding board for concerns. She’s not ashamed of her child’s diagnosis, but she finds many families still carry shame and are eager to talk to her for relief. Not so long ago, James and her husband, TV anchor Raphael James, didn’t know anything about autism themselves. When Grant was diagnosed at almost three years old, James only wanted to know whether her son would ever learn. Only time would tell, she was told. So the James family set about on a regimen of therapies to try to release the boy buried beneath a mask of nothingness. “You just wondered, what’s actually in there?” James recalled. While other families celebrate milestones, the Jameses celebrate “inchstones,” she said. See JAMES Page 14
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Summerville Journal Scene
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Wendy Lee Public service runs deep BY JIM TATUM The Journal Scene
ome people spend a lifetime trying to figure out what to do with their lives. Not Wendy Lee. For as far back as she can remember, Wendy Lee wanted to be an EMT. “Truthfully, it was always there,” she said. “It’s always been something I pursued – I can remember even in the first grade when they asked you what you wanted to be when you grew up, I said I wanted to drive the ambulance.” Public service runs in her blood; several members of her family also work in the public sector, in law enforcement and EMS. “I went to nursing school -- hated it,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to do EMS; it’s what I’m about, and I’ve never really wanted to do anything else.” In high school she started doing just that and more, attending EMT school and landing her first job at age 18 with Summerville Ambulance, a private company that ran emergency medical Paul Zoeller/Journal Scene
calls in this area until Dorchester County EMS was created in 1994. She joined Dorchester County EMS that year and has never looked back, although she admits her motivations have changed a little over the years. “When I look back, what originally drew me to the service was the flash of it all, the excitement,” she said. “As you mature, though, your perspective changes. It’s really about the people, about helping and comforting people who are afraid, who are sick or hurt, taking all their needs into consideration. It’s taken me to a different level.” “I would like to become the director one day,” she said. In recent years, she has taken yet another step in her journey, teaching EMS classes at Trident Technical College. “I want to be the one to teach them how to do it, to bring in new blood,” she said. “You get to the point where you want to help others, to teach them what it’s all about. There’s no doubt that EMS is not something one just sort of falls into – it’s a calling; you love it or you don’t.” Lee doesn’t talk much about her career accomplishments, other than to say she is very happy See LEE Page 14
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
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Marlena Myers Education, fundraising her passions BY LESLIE CANTU The Journal Scene
hen Marlena Myers arrived in Summerville 12 years ago as the bride of the town’s beloved mayor, Berlin Myers, she knew virtually no one and no one knew her. It’s a different picture today, as Myers has immersed herself in the community and become an invaluable supporter of local organizations focused on child welfare, health care access and the arts. “I love Summerville. I think it’s a unique town,” she said. Summerville’s former first lady is everywhere – persuading people to open their homes to hundreds of strangers for the Scrumptious Summerville Kitchen Tour, kindly judging local celebrities in the Dancing with the ARK’s Stars competition, and acting as an ambassador for her alma mater, Columbia College. Myers is especially passionate about higher education, and she credits the college for the trajectory of her life and even for meeting her husPaul Zoeller/Journal Scene
band and moving to Summerville. Myers was born in Georgia, but her family moved regularly as the Army posted her father to different bases. She graduated from high school in Virginia, at which point her South Carolinaborn father told her she could go to college anywhere, but he would pay for her to go to college in South Carolina. Myers ended up at Columbia College, a women’s college, that in the early 1960s, had plenty of rules for its students. “We had lots of rules and regulations. Lots of ‘don’t do’s,’” she recalled. Myers didn’t finish, though. Not then, anyway. She dropped out to get married and have two children, and she became involved in charitable organizations in Columbia, including sitting on the board of Big Brothers Big Sisters. It was during a Big Brothers board event that she ran into a former professor, Dr. Selden Smith, who recognized her. When she admitted she’d never graduated, he urged her to return to school. She didn’t think much of the encounter until three days later, when a letter arrived at her house from the professor, again urging her to return. “That was a life-changing event,” she said. See MYERS Page 15
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Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Lisa Hamilton Keeping natural resources beautiful BY ROGER LEE The Journal Scene
Paul Zoeller/Journal Scene
isa Hamilton’s passion for the environment seems to be contagious. “Mrs. Hamilton is leaving an indelible mark on this community in myriadways,” said Pren Woods, who nominated Hamilton as a Woman to Watch. “Her work with environmental issues in our local schools, our community, and the state level is legendary but she does not do this work alone. Her contagion for good environmental stewardship has spread to a generation of young students and their parents.” Hamilton is one of one of first 13 students to ever earn an Urban Studies degree from the College of Charleston. After college she embarked on an economic development career, working with the Charleston Regional Development Center for eight years. But she is best known for the volunteer work she has done since giving up her career to start a family. Hamilton has been a member of the Keep
Dorchester County Beautiful board of directors for 11 years and served as chairman eight times. With her help, the organization has won 38 national and state awards. She has been involved with numerous innovative programs that range from a fashion show featuring recyclable clothing to landfill tours for youth groups. “We have a limited number of (natural) resources so I feel I have to do what I can to help keep those beautiful in Dorchester County and spark a change in others,” Hamilton said. “You have to have pride in your community and take responsibility for the trash you produce. Littering is a conscious choice. We have a lot of education ahead of us but at least it’s getting better here.” Hamilton is very active in local schools. In fact, when her son Wade was a first-grader at Spann Elementary School they teamed up with Carolyn Tomlinson to create the Recycling Troopers program. Nine years later, it is a national program that has inspired countless numbers of students to implement and maintain recycling programs at See HAMILTON Page 14
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
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Whitney Ringler The loving fighter within BY JIM TATUM The Journal Scene
ery few words gut-punch a parent like the phrase, “Your child has cancer.” Like all who go through it, when Whitney Ringler took that punch five years ago, she was completely unprepared for it. Her son, Chase, then barely three years old, was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma, a cancer of the nervous system that causes solid tumors, often in the adrenal glands or pelvises of infants and small children. Generally, the younger the patient, the better the outcome. Chase, however, was on the older end of the spectrum; 30 percent of children his age and stage survive, she said. “It’s almost like being in a bubble,” Ringler said. “You’re in a fog. You read nothing but bad things.” Then you fight. You’re in the fight of your life, she said. “It becomes your life,” she said. “People ask how you manage, how do you do it – you just
step up and do it. You have to. It’s very intense – each day you don’t know what to expect – life becomes all about the cancer. You’re not fighting for you; you’re fighting for your child. It’s a very different perspective.” If there is any upside to such a situation, it is that at least children are resilient, she said. They aren’t worried like their parents are. Her son was young enough that he didn’t really know that the trips to the hospital, the treatments, everything they do are not what all families do. One thing she quickly found – much to her dismay – is that there just is not very much money, and therefore not nearly as much research, into childhood cancers as other forms of the disease. In fact, barely 3 percent of the $46 billion spent in cancer research in the U.S. each year goes to childhood cancers – and that three percent is split up between 12 forms of childhood cancer. “About $18 million is all that goes into childhood neuroblastoma research,” she said. “It sounds like a lot of money – and it is – but compared to what is spent total it’s barely a drop in the bucket.” Yet thanks to new clinical trials and experimental procedures and treatments, Chase has recovSee RINGLER Page 14
Paul Zoeller/Journal Scene
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Summerville Journal Scene
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Monica Shows It’s about the arts BY ROGER LEE The Journal Scene
onica Shows minces no words when it comes to the importance of the arts. “How can we be a civilized community or even a society without the arts,” she said. “It is part of the structure and fabrication of our community.” As a high school senior she wanted to go to a fine arts school but her father reminded her how many actresses wait tables so she shifted focus and the performing arts remained her avocation rather than becoming her vocation. Her artistic talents did lead to her landing a career as a mechanical designer. “I do artistic things, but I do it in a very linear world,” she said. Her vocation brought her to the Lowcoutry where in 1985 Kendle Shows, now her husband, introduced her to the Flowertown Players. The theatre had always been her first love so she quickly immersed herself in their projects. Paul Zoeller/Journal Scene
But she didn’t just perform for the group, she became integral to its development and subsequent survival. “I got to meet a lot of the movers and shakers who created the Flowertown Players,” Shows said. “While I was not part of the old guard, I feel very much like a kindred spirit because I am part of the next generation that learned how important community theatre is from them. I became passionate about what they had created and while I wanted to grow it, I wanted to preserve the ideology that was behind it.” Shows used her passion and talents to help create crowd-pleasing productions, but also to help the group’s board of directors shape the Players’ future. She has been the board’s president multiple times and is its current president. Once she herself became a mover and shaker for the Players, other nonprofit groups came calling. Shows gladly obliged several of them. “Monica Shows has been integrally involved with several of our Arts nonprofits in Downtown Summerville the past several years and when she is involved she gives it her all,” said Susan Morris, who nominated her as a Woman to See SHOWS Page 14
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
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Ashton Johnson Special relationship defines life BY ROB GANTT The Journal Scene
Paul Zoeller/Journal Scene
ften, true inspiration can be discovered in the people and places we see on an everyday basis. For 23-year-old Summerville resident Ashton Johnson, growing up with an older, mentally challenged sister stoked a fire that perpetually burns and led her into a long lasting relationship with Special Olympics. It all began, as far back as she can remember. Her only sister, Melissa, was oxygen deprived while in the womb and suffered severe brain damage. That sisterly love and desire to connect with Melissa, five years her elder, has helped mold her into the driven person she is today. The two spend a great deal of time with one another, finding extra meaning and richness in life through their relationship. “She’s taught me more than I’ve ever taught her,” said Johnson, a recent graduate from the University of South Carolina and former Summerville High School soccer player. “I wish
I could smile nearly as much as she does.” Ashton and Melissa are generally inseparable. “We do pretty typical sister stuff,” Ashton said. “We go shopping and get our nails done. When we’re out there competing in a sport together, we cheer for each other.” Sometimes that’s around the house. “I usually cook the family dinner and just the other night, she came in and said I was doing a great job. She never fails to give the right compliment at the right time… Her vocabulary and speech are minimal but she does a good job getting her point across.” The depth of Ashton’s commitment to her sister, and others similar to Melissa, is immeasurable. It manifests itself in her participation with Special Olympics. “Living and growing up with somebody who has a disability, you have to figure out a different way to bond with them,” Ashton said. “You have to come up with that bond.” Her volunteer involvement with Special Olympics goes back at least half of her life. While at Gregg Middle School, she began helping out with a buddy soccer program and later coached See JOHNSON Page 14
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Wednesday, October 24, 2012
DeeAnn Farrell Feeding hungry kids, families BY ROGER LEE The Journal Scene
Paul Zoeller/Journal Scene
eeAnn Smith Farrell gave up the teaching profession years ago but she is still very involved with local schools. After graduating from the College of Charleston with a degree in Early Childhood and Elementary Education, she spent a few years in the classroom before giving it up to become a fulltime mother. As her kids, Chandler and Madison, got older she volunteered at their schools. The older they became, the more involved she became. These days she juggles the responsibilities of parenthood with the challenges of running a business while also serving in key roles at both DuBose Middle School and Summerville High School. “It started out my husband just needed some help with the PTSA,” Farrell said. “I had always volunteered for various things at my kids school and in the classroom because I was a teacher. I was never the person in charge but my husband asked me to get involved with the DuBose PTSA leadership.” The business experience she received co-managing the family owned Fancy Trimmins shop ended up making the transition into her larger volunteer role an easy one. Thanks largely to her work as vice-president of the organization, the DuBose PTSA was able to drastically increase its annual budget to $30,000. “You think these days kids have everything but if you talk to the kids and the teachers you realize
CARUSO from page 4 the fire occurred exactly one year after Caruso’s husband had unexpectedly passed away. Caruso personally worked to make sure the employees remained on the payroll until plant operations could get up and running again, which took several weeks. That Caruso enjoys her job and gets satisfaction out of helping others is evident in everything she does. She is an active member and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Greater Summerville/Dorchester County Chamber of Commerce. She also serves as the Chair for the Oakbrook Council. She is also a member of the Rotary Club of Summerville where she
what some of them face,” Farrell said. “Not all of them go home to a good meal and someone willing to help them with their homework. It’s important to give kids positive referrals for good behavior and grades and the PTSA helps provide that.” Farrell has written several grants that led to local schools receiving valuable funding. “I didn’t have any experience writing grants but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try,” she said. “There are some fabulous companies out there, like Kohls, that offer grants if you are willing to look.” Farrell spearheaded the founding of a food bank at DuBose that now helps provide nutritous meals to the families of more than 40 students. After her husband, Kenny, was named the new principal for Summerville High School she began also helping with that school’s food bank. “When you look around our schools you don’t normally notice there are kids who aren’t being fed, but there are a lot of them,” she said. “We have kids who come to school hungry. Summerville high school has 46 percent of its students on free or reduced lunch.” Practically every Sunday she makes a 57-mile round trip to Sam’s Club to purchase supplies for the Snack Shack, which raises the majority of funds for the DuBose PTSA, as well as for the SHS and DuBose food banks. Along with members of her family, she also frequently carries cases of drinks and boxes of food up the tall flight of bleachers at Memorial Stadium to the Principal’s Box where SHS faculty members are treated to a pre-game meal. About five nights a week you can find her rootSee FARRELL Page 14
has not only been a member for more than 16 years but has maintained perfect attendance since joining. She has also served in a variety of roles, including president, secretary, and Foundation Chair to tirelessly volunteer with many fund raisers over the years. She also has volunteered for “Women’s Day Build” with the Dorchester County Habitat for Humanity. “I like to give back to the community – that’s important,” she said. “I am heavily involved with the chamber and I’ve been a member of Rotary since 1995. I really enjoy that – I’ve met a lot of great people in the community and I truly believe in (the mission of) that organization.” She also is active in a number of trade associations, including the Forest Resources Association and ASTM, formerly the
American Society of Testing and Materials, which develops testing and safety standards for a variety of industries, she said. But she also makes time for herself; she enjoys playing Bridge and is an avid reader. She also enjoys traveling; indeed that is not only a major perk of her job now but also looms large in plans for a not so distant retirement, she notes. She enjoys spending time with her three children – two sons and a daughter -- now grown up and on their own, she said. And she especially loves the beach, she said. “I’ve been to the Ice hotel,” she said, referring to the resort located about 60 miles from the North Pole and carved every year from the ice. “But I love the beach – the sun is my soul mate, for sure!”
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
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Amy Karpus Spinning plates, feeling fortunate BY LESLIE CANTU The Journal Scene
ometimes the separate threads of one’s life twine together to produce something new and beautiful. That’s what’s happened, and is continuing to happen, in the life of Amy Karpus. Her friend Angela Reeder nominated her as a Woman to Watch because Karpus is an entrepreneur, active community member, overseas volunteer, mom and wife. But Karpus said she accomplishes the things she has only because of her network of family and friends. When she read Reeder’s accolades, she said, “I look at that and think, ‘Yeah, we did that, but it wasn’t just me.’” She’s motivated to give back to the community because, she says, she knows she wasn’t born in this country, into a good family, just for her own benefit. “God has given us so much. We’re so blessed. We’ve got to give back,” she said. Karpus is a physical therapist by training. She Paul Zoeller/Journal Scene
was always involved in sports, and wanted to do something in medicine, so when a mom she babysat for – who happened to be a physical therapist – got her a summer job in a physical therapy office, Karpus found her niche. She met her husband, Chris, at the University of Illinois, then the two headed to South Carolina. At the same time, Karpus always held a soft spot in her heart for Africa. That fondness grew when the family hosted four children from the Royal School and Orphanage in Uganda as their choir toured the Southeast. Karpus began to feel she needed to go to Africa, but her youngest child was only a toddler, so she set that thought aside. As her three children, Kate, Sam and Josh, grew, Karpus continued doing physical therapy work. One day about five years ago, her father came to her with an idea. Her parents had moved to South Carolina, and he worked for a company that had created a new type of rubbery material that he thought would make a good hand exerciser. Karpus had specialized in geriatric physical See KARPUS Page 15
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RINGLER from page 9 ered; the official diagnosis now is “no evidence of cancer,” Ringler says. It was because of that lack of funding for such procedures that saved her son’s life that Ringler decided to organize a local fund-raiser they called “Chase After The Cure.” Three years later, they have raised more than $275,000 for childhood cancer research, and what had started as a one-time local event has grown into a full-fledged, non-profit chari-
JOHNSON from page 11 baseball and softball in the Little League challenger division with her brother Justin, a newly enlisted Marine. Just last year, she assisted with paddle boarding and kayaking. “When I realized there were more opportunities to be involved I took advantage of them,” Johnson said. Ashton recently landed the position as race director for the third annual Special Olympics Annual Run on Folly Beach. She was involved with all facets of organizing the race, including rounding up sponsors and promoting the event. “We had everyone circle off and do a stretch with the athletes,” Johnson said. “Everybody got to talk with the athletes. That helped build
HAMILTON from page 8 their schools. “My little fellow came out of the gate loving recycling and the trash truck which of course warmed my heart,” Hamilton said. She continues to work with first-graders, teaching them about good environmental practices and helping them check the recycling bins at their school. “I have friends who are into competing in triathlons, but I
Summerville Journal Scene ty. “Compared to others, we’re pretty small potatoes but for our size, we’ve done pretty well, I think,” she said. “I think we would like to eventually expand nationwide.” Ringler also noted that intense adversity does help one find inner strength. Chase’s disease most assuredly and dramatically changed her life, but it also matured her and helped her find her place, her quest, her fight, she said. She has purpose, she says, and that is to do her part to help all children suffering with childhood cancers.
“One thing is for sure – you never know what is going to turn into your passion and your life’s work,” she said. “Certainly, I never expected to be president of a charity. Chase is doing well now – so my focus is now these other children.” She also notes that it only takes one person to start something. “You just never know how what you’re doing is going to reach other people,” she said. “Right now, we’re just going to keep plugging along.”
our race. You actually get to see the athletes you’re running for.” The end result saw larger participation in the event, one of the top three fundraisers in the state for Special Olympics. “Events like that are to raise awareness of the Special Olympics and to give the athletes the courage and determination to finish the race,” Johnson said. Other aims were accomplished too. With Ashton’s help, Melissa fought her way through the shifty sand and crossed the finish line first in her division. Parents Keith and Patricia did their part to galvanize Ashton for the future. Both served the United States for over two decades, Patricia in the Coast Guard and Keith in the US Marine Corps. Justin has also volunteered with Special Olympics.
“My parents have been an inspiration for me,” Johnson said. “… They’ve always supported me in everything I’ve done. I’ve got a great family support system.” The Johnson family moved to Summerville a dozen years ago from Jacksonville, N.C. “I’ve never had a bad moment here,” she said. Already armed with a degree in Biology and minor in psychology, Johnston longs to better herself academically too. She currently works as an office manager for her father’s construction company but has applied for nursing school, and is mulling over the idea of graduate school. Perhaps a paid position with the Special Olympics organization is in her future. “Hopefully something like that could unfold for me,” she said.
like picking up trash on the side of the road,” Hamilton said. “That is just what I do and I love it. Kids are dear to my heart so it is easy to immerse myself into school projects.” She helps schools secure grants and manages a teacher’s closet that has now served 1,000 teachers. Hamilton works with local businesses, encouraging them to donate materials to teachers that would likely just be thrown away otherwise. She has served on school
improvement councils, PTSA boards and the Alston Middle School Parent Liaison and Principal Replacement committees and been a team mom for the Summerville High School swim team, Pine Forest swim team and Summerville Storm cross country team. Just this year, she became a shadow for a fifth-grade student at Knightsville Elementary School. Hamilton is also a mother of three and a Sunday School teacher at Summerville Presbyterian Church.
FARRELL from page 12 ing on one of the schools’ sports teams, often with a cooler full of
LEE from page 6 and fulfilled in her chosen career path and glad to be able to serve the people of her hometown. But even if she doesn’t talk much about what she has done, the fact remains that she has accomplished more than most people ever do. Lee started opening day, ground floor, with Dorchester EMS and rose through the ranks to become a shift supervisor and finally Deputy Director in 2006. In her off hours she has not only worked with various civic groups and committees including Kiwanis, Dorchester County Grievance Board, Lowcountry
JAMES from page 5 She remembers the first time he laboriously wrote his name, on the chalkboard-paint covered wall next to her kitchen, while she cooked. Frankly, it wasn’t even clear he knew his name, and suddenly he was putting all the letters together and writing it out. “It was the manifestation of everything we’d been pouring into him,” she said. As with so many other “inchstones,” it was the sudden visible flowering of a seed that had been germinating for a long time, and James knows there are more blooms ahead. There are missteps, too. She smiles ruefully at the rookie mistakes she made when Grant
SHOWS from page 10 Watch. “I tease her that the only board she has not been on lately is DREAM and that we are going to have our turn sometime. I definitely feel like she is a woman that gives a lot and has a lot to give.” Shows has been on the board for the Arts Business Civic Coalition since the early 90’s.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012 Gatorade by her side to ensure the athletes don’t get dehydrated. And when she has a spare minute, which isn’t so often, you can typically find her lobbying a local business owner in an effort
to foster a business partnership for a school or talking to someone about what her own company might be able to chip in for a local charity auction.
Regional EMS Council Board of Directors, and Regional Homeland Security Board, but she has also earned a bachelors degree online and is currently working toward her masters degree. She is also currently the treasurer of the S.C. EMS Assocation. As Deputy Director, second in command over 75 employees, she has learned an entirely different, but no less important side of the service. Navigating her way through days of balancing administrative, operational, and even political issues is a new set of experiences for her, but she is learning a lot and enjoying it. She credits EMS Director Doug Warren with teaching her a great
deal throughout her career and says she hopes to one day be able to fill his shoes. “I would like to become the director of Dorchester EMS one day,” she said. “This is my home; this is where I belong.” Ultimately, Lee says her best advice to anyone starting out anywhere, but especially in EMS or any other public service occupation, is to understand that the impression you make is what people are going to remember. But most of all, one should never become complacent, but always seek to learn and grow, she said. “You have to make something out of yourself – if you don’t someone else will,” she said.
won the “terrific kid of the month” award at Spann Elementary. She failed to prepare him for the changes of the day. Instead, he heard “no” all day long – no, you’re not riding the bus like usual, you’re riding in the car with mommy; no, you can’t wear shorts, you have to wear a suit – until, she said, “on the terrific kid day he had one of the biggest meltdowns of his life.” Autism is a foe that can jump up and sucker punch her at any time, she said. Nonetheless, she fights constantly against having her son relegated to the “other” pile, the “discard” pile. “He’s going to do it in his way. He’s going to do it on his time. But he’s going to do it,” she said. She recalls a recent victory, when Grant asked to go outside during a rainstorm. Grant hates
the sensation of raindrops falling on his head, so she was taken aback by his request. He was purposeful, though, so she let him go. The effort it took him to stand in the rain was visible; he stood there clenching his fists and fighting the urge to run inside. But he kept repeating, “It’s just water. It’s just water.” For any other child this wouldn’t seem a big deal, but for Grant it was huge, and for his mother it was yet another small moment of beauty and grace. “I have a six-year-old teacher in my house,” she said. She’s learned to slow down and appreciate such moments, and she is hopeful about Grant’s future. “I think I’m going to be pleasantly surprised by what he’s able to do,” she said.
“To me getting a variety of artsoriented groups working together is something very vital to the Summerville area,” Shows said. “When groups cross-promote each other it helps build our entire downtown community and helps push people toward the theatre. It allows us to spread the word in multiple arenas.” She has played major roles in helping groups establish business partnerships and served as the board’s secretary. Recently, she
volunteered to produce a dinner theatre to raise funds for the Coalition. The project was a huge hit and she went on to produce four other dinner theatres. She has also worked diligently for Summerville’s Arts Education Week initiative, local PTSAs, the Summerville High School Backstage Boosters and fundraisers such as Wine in the Pines and Critique my Antique fundraisers.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
MYERS from page 7 “You never know what a random act of kindness can do. I truly believe that. … (but) it was not untypical of some of the professors there,” she said. Myers did return, as a continuing education student studying history and public affairs, simultaneously working in the continuing education department and encouraging other women to complete their degrees. She earned her degree in 1980 and immediately set to work in the college’s development office, where she worked for 18 years. She enjoyed her time in the office, which involved traveling all over the state to raise money -- including to the home of Summerville’s mayor, whose wife Janie was also a Columbia College alumna. Fundraising has been a major part of her professional and charitable work. Asking for money is intimidating for many, but Myers said she’s OK with it for causes that are “near and dear” to her heart. “I don’t mind asking people to support a cause I believe in strongly,” she said. “If you don’t ask, you won’t get a
Summerville Journal Scene ‘yes’ or ‘no’,” she said. She was also willing to jump into a completely new, and rather public, life with Berlin Myers. Both widowed, the pair married in May 2000. Myers decided the best way to get to know her new home was to get involved, and early on she attended an information session by the fledgling organization called Children in Crisis. “It was really an eye-opening session for me. The statistics were astounding,” she said. At first, she said, the organization intended to build a children’s shelter. But as state and federal funding priorities shifted, supporters realized a shelter wasn’t the way to go. Instead, they began to focus on creating a children’s advocacy center. The center provides for a centralized place to handle abuse victims’ cases. Children don’t have to be retraumatized by telling their story to multiple officials, and representatives from all involved agencies can sit down together and work out a plan for each child, Myers said. Myers said she’s always impressed by the “incredibly qualified staff.” Of course, none of that existed 11 years ago, and supporters were casting about for ideas to raise money. Pam Linton brought up the idea of
a kitchen tour, and she and Wellyn Moore went to a few to gather ideas. The Summerville group decided to do something more than what other kitchen tours were doing. Instead of allowing people just to look at homes, they decided to bring in chefs and offer tasting menus. They added musical entertainment and floral decorations, and they clustered the tour homes in one location so people could easily walk from home to home. The idea was a hit. The group, which had about $20,000 in the bank, raised $75,000. “After the first year, we realized we had hit on something unique,” Myers said. The tour has continued each year, and the weekend of events surrounding the kitchen tour brings in about 15 percent of the center’s budget. As Myers considers the path her life has taken, she says she feels blessed. “Along the way I’ve met some incredible people and made some incredible friends,” she said. “It’s wonderful to look back on your life and see those moments that were life-changing,” she said.
KARPUS from page 13 therapy, and she typically wouldn’t use the resistance bands already on the market because they hurt her patients. The new material was much stretchier, but also soft and comfortable. Karpus and her father worked together to design new physical therapy tools, and in 2008 they brought the product to market. A new company, ReDesign, was born. The response from therapists was phenomenal, and Karpus quickly branched out by designing tools specifically aimed at children. Karpus also made her company a tool for giving. Ten percent of the net proceeds of each Internet sale goes toward charity. And some of the tools she designed are now in the hands of children in Uganda, after Karpus was finally able to travel there as part of a Palmetto Medical Initiative
15 team. The experience was amazing, Karpus said. She saw incredible poverty, so far beyond poverty in this country, and she read and thought about tackling poverty in a way that produces change. One of the things that impressed her about PMI is how it focuses on improving healthcare in a sustainable way. It has established a health clinic in Masindi that is run by Ugandans and charges a small fee so it can sustain itself. Now it’s expanding health services to the small rural villages, and it’s to those areas that visiting Americans travel. Karpus and her group of 30 saw 1,500 patients over the course of five days, and she was astonished at the problems, like a leg broken three years ago that had never been set and so didn’t heal properly. She was most astounded by the fate of disabled children. “If you have a disability there, you’re probably going
to die, plain and simple,” she said. Karpus wants to change that. She wants to change the lives of disabled children in developing countries, and her next project is to design a walker that can be used on dirt and rocky paths. Karpus is also concerned about the fate of disabled children here, and to that end she serves on the board of the Play Today Foundation, which seeks to install accessible play structures near the Miracle League fields so therapists can do integrated therapy with their young patients. Sometimes all this activity feels like spinning plates, but Karpus feels fortunate to have the ability to give and to live in this time when the Internet empowers people and shrinks the world. She thinks of their driver in Uganda, who exchanges messages with her on Facebook. “They’re not so far away,” she said. “They’re people God loves just like us.”