Playground Equipment Coming Soon, Volunteers Needed!
The community playground at the McCormick County Library will be open soon! More than 50% of the funds needed for the play equipment have been raised, and in the interest of getting the park open to the public sooner, half of the equipment will be installed in May. If you would like to help us build and install the equipment, please mark your calendars for Friday and Saturday May 11th and 12th. An all-volunteer workforce, guided by a professional playground installer, will work to assemble and install the equipment. Lots of labor, both heavy and light, will be needed. We will get started about 9 am on both days. Feel free to come by for an hour or for the whole day. Everything needed including tools, drinks, and food will be provided, so just bring yourself and a few handy friends. If you are planning to volunteer, please call or email the library in advance and let us know when you plan to arrive and how long you plan to work. This advance notice will ensure that everything runs smoothly. Contact: 864-852-2821 or mccormicklibrary@hotmail.com
Appalachian Musician & Storyteller John Fowler
McCormick’s Spring Bonanza Festival on April 21st will feature Appalachian storyteller, musician, and ballad singer John Fowler. He will give two different performances at the library. The first performance at 11 am will be a fun-filled program for families and school age children. Along with storytelling, John will demonstrate and play a number of old-time mountain instruments: banjo, spoons, jaw-harp, harmonica and guitar. The second performance at 2 pm will be for adult audiences and will be a celebration of Southern Appalachian culture and influences. Expect historic references and some music history. Admission is free for both performances but seating is limited. This program is brought to you by the Friends of the McCormick Library and by the Humanities Council of South Carolina.
About John Fowler:
John Fowler is from the foothills/piedmont region of up country South Carolina. His Grandma Maude Gregory Taylor was born in 1898 of Scott-Irish descents who settled in Western North Carolina in the late 1700’s. She was from Cherokee County, North Carolina. His Grandma Betsy Holland Fowler was born in the mountains of East Tennessee. Both women were great influences on his life. John’s work is featured on South Carolina Public TV where he has co-produced a number of documentaries for SC-ETV. He is a member of the SC Institute for Community Scholars in which he is currently serving as the project scholar for the Humanities Council of South Carolina. John is one of 17 national storytellers captured in the book Southern Appalachian Storytellers (McFarland Press). He co-hosts a weekly old-time radio show, “This Old Porch,” on North Carolina public radio station WNCW-FM.
His storytelling is a wonderful anthology of Appalachian stories along with songs collected from generations of Carolina old-timers, storytellers and ballad singers. John is a master harmonica player. He placed first at Fiddler’s Grove in 1999 and 2002. He also received blue ribbons in the banjo competition at the prestigious Mountain Dance Folk Festival in Asheville NC (1999) and the Pickins Heritage Day Old-Time Music Festival (2005). As a folklorist and ardent collector he has published several works based on other musicians and storytellers.
His southern charm and theatrical presentation takes his audiences by surprise. His performances are hilarious, creative, energetic, and historically informative. He is simply a treasure to see.
Science of a Warming World
On Thursday, February 9th at the McCormick County Library, Dr. Daniel Pardieck of Lander University will present the science of climate change and discuss the potential human responses to a warmer world. This public presentation is free and will begin at 6:30 pm in the library meeting room.
Earth’s climate system is complex, with significant year to year variability, as well as variability on longer timescales. Climate change impacts also differ significantly from place to place on the Earth. Most, but not all, of this variability is attributable to naturally occurring phenomena. The key questions of interest around the issue, however, relate to the role of humans in accelerating global warming, what impacts of climate change mean to humans and what, if anything, can be done to address accelerated warming. This presentation will touch on these difficult questions.
The focus of this presentation will be on the science, beginning with the basics of climate science, what we know about the climate of the past, how we know that the earth is warming today, what effects are occurring today, how we project climate change and its impacts into the future, what some of those projections are and what are limitations of the science.
Spirited and open questioning and discussion of this important topic are more than welcome.