Tuesday, December 29, 2015

December 7, 2015
Ridge Spring News
Harriet Householder
Sunday at 4:30 Ridge Spring had its own Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony and it was delightful.  Rev. Keys of Helping Hands Ministry and his choir with band presented a program of the Christmas message and songs for all to sing. Mayor Pat Asbill with the help of Noel Steele, Chairperson of the Ridge Spring Harvest Festival, turned on the lights before Santa arrived. This year Santa arrived in a boat being pulled by a John Deere tractor and Santa’s own elf Jim Campbell driving it.  The children got to see and speak to Santa and also got a candy cane.  Thanks goes to Richard Elders for his help and his help over all the years, too. Small town living at its best!!!

There will be not FORS meeting this month.

Saturday five shops in Ridge Spring will be having customer appreciation day and sharing a coke with peanuts or pecans with our customers.  You will also be able to register at each shop for a drawing of a $50.00 Visa Gift Card.  Actually we have two cards so come by and sign up at each shop to win.  Participating shops are Ridge Antiques and Dry Goods, Off the Beaten Path, the Nut House, Olde Treasures and Harriet’s Garden, which will be on Main Street this time with the help of my grandchildren. I do have a limited supply of poinsettias that will be available too.

Mt Pleasant Baptist Church: The Church wide Christmas Dinner will be held on Sunday, December 20th following the Morning Worship Service.  Everyone bring your favorite covered dish and join together to celebrate our Saviors birth. Christmas Eve Service & Communion will be Thursday, December 24th @ 6:00 p.m. “To remember the real reason for the season!”

RIDGE SPRING UNITED METHODIST CHURCH: Big Red Box:  First thanks to the Big Red Box (BRB) Angels. Found on the found porch of the Family Life Center, bag after bag after bag of food for the BRB. Perfect timing too. The month of December the BRB goes to the Helpful Hands ministry for use in their food bank. Approximately 200+ families use this food bank. Thank you again BRB Angles. ( the empty bags are on the porch) It’s not too late to contribute to the BRB for December. Leave your donations on the porch of either the Church or FLC and a church member will make sure it finds its way into the Box.
The Back Pack Ministry sponsored by Bethel Baptist church received items from the BRB in November. We are proud to participate with them in helping to make sure our neighbors don’t go hungry over the weekend. Thanks Bethel for taking the lead on this.
Killingsworth Home, a place for women in transition, received items collected in the BRB in October. Shoes, shower curtains, umbrellas as well as other items were delivered to the Home, with a $100 check. This money helps residents with bus rides they use to and from work.
Christmas: RSUMC is in the Christmas spirit! The Advent Wreath’s 2nd candle, the peace candle, was lit during services on December 6th. The Church and the FLC are being decorated, tree is up, manager scene in place and wreaths on the doors.  The FLC will be home to the refreshments during the Garden Club Annual Tour of Homes on December 13, 2015. The Church and the FLC will be open from
2 – 5 on the 13th and live music will be playing in the Church. Join us during this very special event.
Face Book: RSUMC has a Face Book page. Visit us and see what’s going on.
Services: Unless otherwise noted, service at RSUMC is at 11 a.m. every Sunday.

The Green Thumb Garden Club will again host the Christmas Tour of Homes on December 13th from 2:00 to 5:00.  Tickets may be purchased the day of the tour at all the homes.  Tickets are $10.00 for the tour. The homes on tour are Gene Ray and Sue Fulmer, Kevin and Ann Marie Taylor, and John and Nola Burger. Two churches will be part of the tour with Ridge Spring Baptist Church and Ridge Spring United Methodist Church. Cake and spiced ea will be served at the Joe and Betty Watson Family Life Center Which is next door to the Ridge Spring United Methodist Church.
Leonard Bell will be at the Ridge Spring Town Square selling fresh produce on December 12th and 19th with January 31 being his last day until June.

2016 Baseball/Softball season is coming soon.  Registration dates are every Saturday in January from 9:00 to 1:00 PM at the RSM Little League Ballpark, 217 Musketeers Rd. Monetta, SC.  There will be T-Ball, Coaches Pitch, Minors, Ozone, and Pony League. This year parents will need to register their own children and bring their birth certificates for proof of age. Also parents will be required to work in the concession stand and provide snacks at least once, per child during the season.  If you have any questions or concerns regarding registration please contact Leslie Long at 803.687.0857 or Ashley Bradley at 803.645.1433.

Leonard Bell will be at the Ridge Spring Town Square selling fresh produce on December 12th and 19th with January 31 being his last day until June.

Joanne Crouch, AARS, president
          We again have the pleasure to offer another Silk Scarf Painting Class with Libby Bussinah on Saturday, December 12th from 9:00-1:00 at the Art Center behind the Civic Center (the old gym).  Cost is $45.00.  All supplies will be provided.  The instructor will take the pieces and heat set them to protect the colors. Contact Joanne Crouch to register @ (803)685-5577 (leave message) or email joanne.crouch26@gmail.com to register.

Josie Rodgers:
The tree lighting at the gazebo in Ridge Spring was absolutely delightful!  Mayor Pat Asbill welcomed everyone, and Rev. Key gave the invocation and a brief spiritual message.  Then the singers with Helping Hands Ministry serenaded the crowd with song of the season.  Everyone sang along and even danced.  River (Josie’s grandson) got his praise on as well, dancing to the upbeat music.  Then Santa arrived…this year in a boat pulled by a John Deere tractor!  It was fabulous!  This was River’s first time seeing Santa Claus, and he didn’t cry.  He did study Santa, though, and accepted his candy cane with a smile.  As my daughter Amber remarked, this is one reason we love our small town. 
Ridge Spring Baptist Christmas Cantata "O Holy Night" will be Sun., Dec. 13 at 6 pm. A covered dish meal will be served directly after.
RSM Elem News (Rene Miller):  Music classes, under the direction of Becky Hughes, will present a Christmas musical entitled The Twelve Days of Christmas at 9 am Dec. 18.
The school thanks Stephanie Clark and Vicky Ricker for donating classroom supplies. The supplies were handed out during American Education Week.
We would like to thank those who participated in pictures with Santa, especially Santa, Elf Josh, Lois Workman, Mrs. Murray, Mrs. Platts, and Mrs. Padgett. The PTO will be selling Smencils until Christmas break. They are $2 each and are crayons that smell like cotton candy, pineapple, watermelon, bubble gum, or pineapple. The smell of the crayon lasts as long as the crayon. These make wonderful stocking stuffers. You can see them at www.scentcoinc.com.
PTO will be sponsoring Holly and The Secret Santa, a live production from Pork Chop Productions of Aiken, on Dec. 15 at 1:15 pm. This is the PTO’s Christmas gift to our students, faculty, and staff in appreciation for all their support.
RSM Middle News:  On Oct. 29, young ladies in grades 6-8 participated in a powder puff football game. “Team Never Scared” took on the “Lady Trojans” as Jacob Williams called the game.  The high school football players were the coaches, and “Team Never Scared” took home the victory.
RSM High News:  Senior football players Stanley Rolland & William Bedenbaugh have been selected to play in the Border Bowl on Jan. 9 at Laney High School in Augusta. The two players were nominated by Coach Lipsey and chosen by the Border Bowl coaches.
The Drama Club and HOSA will present a Dinner Drama on Dec. 11 at 6 pm at Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church.  Tickets are $10 per person.  Each student will be hosting and decorating his or her own table, so there will be a wide variety of decorations around the room.  The menu consists of chicken, green beans, field peas, and rice with a variety of dessert options.  After dinner, the drama club will be presenting “Divided We Fall” by Bryan Starchman.  Drama teacher Kerry Jackson says, “This play consists of a series of monologues that look into the lives of students. This monologue-based play is intended to show students that any frustration, loneliness, embarrassment, and grief they may experience is not limited to them alone. The play is designed to show students that although they may think they are alone, there is really love and hope all around them.”
Joey & Tiffany Middlebrooks:  Project Unify is a nationwide effort at increasing socialization of "exceptional" students.  It is an expansion of Special Olympics.  Special Ed students are assigned a "buddy" for the year.  Throughout the year, there are various activities for the athletes and their buddies.  RSM students have been to a kickball tournament and the fair so far.  They are planning on hosting a bocce ball tournament in April.  There should be at least one activity each month.  This year, the buddies were chosen through HOSA.  This is the first year for this group, and they are looking forward to building and getting stronger as time goes by.
Teacher of the Month for November was Ms. Monica Jones, English teacher.  Student of the Month was Jatavis Burton, nominated by several faculty & staff members.

Book Review from David Marshall James:  "Phantom Angel" by David Handler--
This sequel to "Runaway Man" is nothing short of a scarf-o-rama.  Author David Handler brings back (way-up Broadway) P.I. firm Golden Legal Services, home to once-aspiring actor Benji Golden; his mom, Abby (a retired pole dancer); and the office computer whiz/Gal Friday, Rita (a retired lap dancer).
   Abby and Rita are the kind of dames about which the fictional gumshoes of yore used to fantasize knocking on their pebbled-glass doors, in-between puffs of Lucky Strikes and belts of Old Crow.  The tables turn, the worm turns, and the world goes round, and round and round, to a Kander & Ebb beat.
   Benji's Dad was a retired NYPD detective who founded the firm, which occupies its own building, not counting the diner and nail salon at street level, or the crotchety (on several fronts) tenants on the third floor.  This juicily Big Apple-ish story is loaded with even more cinematic potential than "Runaway Man."  Not to spoil the plot, which features:
   An independent Broadway producer, the last of his breed; a Tony-Award-winning director; two of the hottest young stars in Hollywood, come to play on Broadway;
an eminence-noire Hollywood mogul; a runaway Southern high-school cheerleader, hoping to play on Broadway; various and sundry webcam ingénues; various and sundry mobsters; a trio of Feds; Benji's unofficial uncle, Lt. "Legs" Diamond of the NYPD, a protégé of Golden pere; and the titular Phantom Angel.
   There's also a cricket in Times Square-- Miss Cricket O'Shea-- a Wilma Winchell if you will, who reports on the Great White Way in real time, straight to her web site.  She's all thumbs, in more ways than one.
   Enough already…  If you're not tempted by now, you'll be missing a treat.  In the immortal words of “Saturday Night Live” licensed joyologist Helen Madden:  "I-love-it-I-love-it-I-love-it!"  With an all-out Broadway chorus kick.

On a personal note, my article goes into the newspapers on Mondays and today is Monday December 7th “the Date That Will Live in Infamy” as quoted from our President F. D. Roosevelt.  Let us not forget the tragedies and triumphs of our great nation. 

Reminders:
Dec. 12: Shoppes of Ridge Spring Customer Appreciation Day
Dec. 13: Green Thumb Garden Club Tour of Homes

Ridge Spring Library hours: Mon/Tues 8:30 am - 12 pm; Wednesday 9:00 to 4:30, Thurs 8:30 am - 12:00 pm; Fri 8:30 am -4:30 pm, Saturday from 9:00 until noon,
Every 2nd & 4th Monday:  Kids' Corner Story Time 10:30-11:30 a.m., at the Ridge Spring Library. 
Every 2nd Monday:  RSM Elem PTO meets at 6:30 pm in the media center. 

Every Friday & Saturday:  AARS hours 10 – 4 or by appt, free admission 

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