Wagener Monthly Newspaper Discontinued After 19 Years

By Valerie Sliker, Courtesy Wagener Monthly

With great sadness, I have to announce that this 231st edition of the Wagener Monthly is our final one. I’m full of gratitude for my readers, advertisers, columnists, editors and the publisher. The Wagener Monthly has been a presentation of the Aiken Standard which is owned by Evening Post Industries and published by Rhonda Overbey. I’m very thankful for the dedicated work from Karen Klock, Presentations Editor. I’m pretty sure I have given her more than a few gray hairs.

Dee Taylor started the Wagener Monthly at the suggestion of Scott Hoover just over nineteen years ago while Scott Hunter was the publisher of the Aiken Standard. Taylor credits Hunter, her mentor, for getting the paper approved and published. It wouldn’t have happened without him.

Hoover’s Flooring had an ad in every single issue and for that, I thank you Scott and Sandra. Taylor fondly recalls conversations with Scott Hoover in which they dreamed of what could be possible. She was working days as an ad manager at the Aiken Standard at the time.

Jim Bennett Bids Farewell to WUMC

Courtesy Wagener Monthly

After five wonderful years in the pulpit at the Wagener United Methodist Church (WUMC), Rev. Jim Bennett, at 77 years of age, has decided it is time to take a rest. But you won’t actually find America’s famous Weekend Gardener resting.

Bennett and his wife, Mattie host a community crop garden on their farm in Windsor, SC. Volunteers from different churches help maintain the garden and the produce is donated to the Salvation Army and a local food bank.

Bennett also has returned to broadcasting. With the help of his granddaughter Emily, Bennett produces gardening videos via YouTube under the pseudonym The Old Gardener, a nod to his years broadcasting on cable TV in the early eighties as The Weekend Gardener.

“The Lord has provided things for me to stay busy,” Bennett said. “I like to turn wooden bowls on lathes. I enjoy gardening, spending time with grandkids and family, helping them refinish furniture. I don’t have much idle time.”

Wagener Produce Farm Rises from a Carolina Bay

By Valerie Sliker, Courtesy Wagener Monthly.   Pictured: Bennie and Sylvia Mixon.

Ride a couple miles west of the Wagener town limit on Highway 39 and you’ll find a farmer’s vegetable stand situated on a little piece of nutrient-dense land lovingly called “God’s Acre.” Master gardener and retired pastor Bennie Mixon and his wife of 54 years, Sylvia Bussey Mixon purchased this Carolina Bay over twenty years ago and have been gardening it ever since.

Most Carolina bays are currently boggy or dry, elliptical in shape in a northwest to southeast orientation, as is Mixon’s.  Many legends of their origins exist, but most scientists attribute them to glacier activity. They run in a specific pattern along the Atlantic Coastal Plain from northern Florida to New York. Many are used for agriculture because they contain thousands of years of organic matter that settled in them.

Last year, the Mixons harvested 2600 pounds of tomatoes from 144 tomato plants. This year is looking to be about as good. Several of his tomato plants were well over five feet tall in early July. Mixon currently grows only two types of tomatoes: Amelia and Park’s Whopper. He finds the other types disease ridden.

Congratulations Jordan Robbins and Taunija Swedenburg

The Rosie O. Thomas Scholarship

This scholarship fund was established by family and friends of the late Rosie Thomas. Its purpose is to provide financial assistance to youth within the Chalk Hill Baptist Church that have plans of pursuing post-secondary education.

This year’s recipients are Jordan Robbins and Taunija Swedenburg. Jordan plans to attend USC-Aiken and Taunija will attend Clemson University. These young ladies are active church participants and have been successful students. Much success to each as they continue their journey!

Wagener United Methodist Church Senior Food Program

Are you a senior citizen over 60 in need of some food? If so, the Wagener United Methodist Church in conjunction with ACTS (Area Churches Together Serving) of Aiken can help.

On the 3rd Saturday of every month, food that has been supplied by ACTS is distributed to those that qualify for this service. Along with the age limit, of course there is an income limit as well.  Confirmation of your age and income is a requirement.

 

Apply either through the ACTS office in Aiken on Park Avenue, SW, or come to the church on the 3rd Saturday with your paperwork in hand and we will complete your application. If you qualify, food will be given to you at that time. Distribution time is 8 to 9:30 AM every month on the 3rd Saturday.

 

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