Bamberg County Christmas

Bamberg County Tree Lighting Ceremony

Jerry Durgan, Contributing Writer

Sponsored by the Bamberg County Chamber of Commerce, the county’s tree lighting ceremony was very cold but the singing beautiful and the message worth facing the cold.

Following a welcome by Billy Meyer, Bamberg County Council chair Alzena Robinson spoke briefly of “a time for Christmas” and flipped the switch to light the tall Christmas tree on the Bamberg County Courthouse grounds.

Musical selections by the Denmark Technical College Choir, directed by Yvette McDaniel, were beautiful. It was unfortunate that the Bethlehem- Olar Male Choir was unable to perform this year for they’re always a wonderful addition to festivities.

Led by Bruce Watson, audience participation of Christmas carols was, as always, wonderful.

Throughout the program, a very welcome hot chocolate was provided to the program’s attendees as a courtesy of Bamberg’s First Baptist Church and brownies by Mary Lee Crosby.

Special thanks to Carl and Betty Kilgus, the Bamberg Board of Public Works, Beaubeouf Chiropractic Center and The Advertizer-Herald.

Bamberg & Denmark Parades

Jerry E. Halmon, Staff Reporter

Saturday, December 4,was a great day for a parade and the cities of Bamberg and Denmark welcomed in the holiday season in, grand style with both cities having their annual parades approximately three hours apart. With temperatures hovering around 50 degrees, the City of Bamberg’s Christmas parade kicked off at 10:00 a.m. with Paul Sandifer, organizer of the event for 31-years as Grand Marshal.

“I want to thank everybody that made the parade a success, the participants, attendees and for those who contributed financially,” Sandifer said adding “and thank God for a beautiful day. We’re starting to work on next year’s parade right now.” Sandifer hinted that he hoped that next year’s parade might include Bamberg’s first NFL player and another former Bamberg player that could be taken in the first round this year. Now who could that be?

By all accounts this year’s Bamberg Christmas parade, which featured the theme “Jesus the Reason for the Season” was one of the biggest and best in recent years with between 70-75 plus units participating.

This year’s parade included the Bamberg-Ehrhardt High School JROTC Unit, decorative floats, beauty queens, fire trucks with their sirens blaring, marching bands, and a new entry this year the Bamberg Boxing Entertain, just to name a few, and of course Santa Claus, who arrived by way of a City of Denmark latter truck.

Winning floats in this year’s Non Commercial Division were: 1st Place: Bamberg First Baptist Church; 2nd Place: Main Street United Methodist Church and 3rd Place Trinity United Methodist Church. Winning floats in this year’s Commercial Division were: 1st Place: Bamberg Boxing Entertainment; 2nd Place :Piggly Wiggly of Bamberg and 3rd Place: Ehrhardt Schuetzenfest Queens.

At approximately 1:00 p.m. with temperatures a little warmer and under a bright and sunny sky the City of Denmark kicked off its annual Christmas parade starting at Shuman Owens and progressing north along Carolina Avenue to city hall. This year’s parade featured long-time Denmark attorney Evert Comer Jr. as Grand Marshal, and included of 35 units that included floats, beauty queens, a marching band, a drum line, just to name a few and Santa Claus, who arrived via a city of Denmark fire truck, dispersing candy to the children and adults who lined main street.

“It went very well, City of Denmark, Administrative Assistant, and coordinator of the event Barbara Williams along with city administrative assistant Tammy Brown said.

Wild Game Banquet

Jerry Durgan, Contributing Writer

Edisto Electric Cooperative again played host to the 20th annual Wild Game/City Farm banquet last week at their headquarters on Calhoun Street as part of the National Farm-City observance. A pleasant evening by 6 p.m., the Edisto Electric Coop was packed shoulder-to-shoulder.

This time Mickey Joyner (one of the band members) won the raffled grill, a stainless steel, top-of-the-line outdoor grill, as the winning ticket was pulled at the end of the supper, with Gilbert Miller announcing the winner. All 1,000 raffle tickets were sold this year, Miller said.

“Doing a rough survey, estimates of attendance varied this year, to at least 1,400 fed” Miller said. The Wild Game Banquet becomes more popular each year.

Assessor Wins Awards

On October 8, 2010, the South Carolina Association of Assessing Officials held their annual Fall Conference in Columbia. During the conference, the distinguished Max Rush Award was presented to Doretta H. Elliott, Bamberg County Assessor, for her recognition of outstanding contributions and distinguished services rendered to The State of South Carolina for 2010. The award was presented by Jerry Robertson, Executive Secretary of SCAAO.

Elliott also received the President’s Award. This award is presented in grateful appreciation for the excellent service she has provided over the years to SCAAO. This award is given to one member by the President of SCAAO that has helped the most during their term.