Public Affairs Team and New Board Members Attend Luncheon With Members of the South Carolina Women's Caucus

Thanks to Emily Brady, the Public Affairs and a few new board members recently enjoyed lunch with hundreds of philanthropic women at the General Assembly Women’s Caucus Jean Laney Harris Luncheon. Similar to the diverse cities and towns represented, the women in attendance came from various backgrounds including stay at home moms, working moms, etc. and they were all there to celebrate philanthropic women.

Darla Moore—who more than lived up to her reputation as a dynamic personality—was the key note speaker. She told us “three stories.” The moral of these personal experiences also came in a set of three:

1) being from rural South Carolina is not a hindrance to getting
ahead in life,

2) do not spray money around and pray it solves the problem, and

3) put your boots on the ground and make a difference.


So, Junior League of Columbia, let’s get those boots on the ground for Healthy Children! We will be in more places serving more faces than ever before with our targeted issues under Healthy Children. The year ahead is full of promise as this year comes to a close with several community events and a fundraiser left to go. Please support the upcoming events. And, as placement dawns upon us, give meaningful thought to where you want to put your boots on the ground during the 2012-2013 League year.

Post by: Pamela Adams

Columbia, Start Your Engines!

The Junior League of Columbia is proud to present its 3rd annual Touch A Truck event on Saturday, April 14th from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. at the New State Farmer's Market in West Columbia. To help get the community ready, members of the League's Touch a Truck committee and other members, spouses and children took to the streets of downtown Columbia to help spread the word for this family-friendly event at this year's St. Pat's in Five Points parade held on St. Patrick's Day.

The luck of the Irish allowed the rain to hold off long enough for us and others in our community to walk from the Earth Fare, down Devine Street, and through Five Points to the parade end. Parade walkers distributed 1,000 green Touch A Truck fliers to parade goers along the route and tossed sweet surprises to kids decked out head to toe in green. We enjoyed this opportunity to be a part of the festive celebration just down the street from the League's headquarters.

Touch A Truck features all things that go! Kids have the opportunity to explore big vehicles like fire trucks, cement trucks, bulldozers and school buses and meet the fine people who build, protect and serve the Columbia area . This community event also features family-friendly entertainment, plus information on healthy eating from JLC's Kids in the Kitchen. Mascots, face painting and other amusements round out the fun. Come join us on April 14, from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. at the New State Farmers Market! Admission for Touch A Truck is $6 per person and children under one year old are free with a paying adult.

Post By: Connelly-Anne Bartle

JLC Public Affairs Team Meets with Governor Haley

Last week members of the JLC Public Affairs Team met with Governor Nikki Haley to discuss our new League focus of healthy children and to learn from her what issues she sees facing the children of South Carolina. Stacy Thompson, VP for Community, also joined the group and gave an overview of the League’s history and current work. Governor Haley seemed particularly interested in our collaborations with other community groups such as Palmetto Health Richland Children’s Hospital to organize the Healthy Kids Expo to take action to tackle issues in the community. She was also impressed with the size and dedication of our membership.


Governor Haley shared with us that from her perspective, the two biggest problems for children in South Carolina are the rising epidemic of obesity and literacy. She feels that the entire family needs to be educated on these issues to fix the problems. We told her about our Kids in the Kitchen program teaching about healthy nutrition and the work we have done through Smart Matters to encourage reading and learning for children and parents.

Governor Haley gave us some insight into a new initiative that the Governor’s Office will be launching later this month geared toward improving the quality of life for families in rural communities. Each month a different rural county in the state will be highlighted and provided with much needed resources such as health screenings, access to the DMV services and help to acquire their GEDs. In addition, Haley’s Office will be promoting the positive stories and news from these counties to the rest of the state.

Haley encouraged our members to get involved with this initiative and her staff will provide us with further information. As our time came to an end, the Governor pledged her support to the League and offered to assist with any of our volunteer or advocacy efforts to improve our community and state.

Many thanks to Public Affairs Team members, Katherine Haltiwanger and Jamie Shuster, for making this meeting possible.

By: Emily Brady, Public Affairs Team Chair

2012 Healthy Kids Expo: Can You B543210?

On Saturday, February 25, the Junior League of Columbia, Palmetto Health Children’s Hospital and USC Pediatric Institute Diabetes and Obesity Clinic hosted the 2012 Healthy Kids Expo from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. at the Drew Wellness Center.

This was a free event for the entire family designed to engage everyone in learning healthy eating habits and lifestyle changes and participate in fun workouts to get both kids and parents moving. We entertained around 125 parents and children!

We focused on Palmetto Health’s new health initiative slogan: “Can you B543210?” We had the following stations to educated kids on healthy eating and lifestyle.

B- eat a healthy breakfast

5- eat at least 5 fruits and veggies each day

4- drink 4 glasses of water

3- eat or drink 3 servings of dairy daily

2- limit screen time to less than 2 hours

1- be physically active for at least 1 hour

0- avoid sweetened beverages

Also on hand, we had doctors and nutritionists from the new Palmetto Health Obesity and Diabetes Clinic and USC Sports Medicine to help educate about healthy eating alternatives. We finished the day with Columbia’s own national award-winning Double Dutch Forces, something our President, Kristy Ellenberg, couldn't resist sitting on the sidelines for! Go Kristy!!


Post by: Katie W. Rankin

Lunch with Leaders #2!

A nice lunch, a chance to learn from others in our community, and some informative conversation awaited 30 members of the JLC this past Tuesday. On March 28, 2012, a group of us had the opportunity to learn more about the league’s focus on healthy children and how that focus is shared by various nonprofit organizations throughout the state at a recent “Lunch with Leaders” at the JLC Headquarters. Leaders from the SC March of Dimes, Winston’s Wish, Healthy Learners, CASA, SC Prevention of Teen Pregnancy, Girls on the Run, Children's Trust of SC and Edventure talked to the group about what they thought healthy children meant, the main obstacles against children being healthy in South Carolina, and what we, as members of the Junior League, could do to help support their programs through our focus on healthy children.


While each speaker had individual ideas that focused on their particular organization, an overall theme of awareness and education emerged as the speakers gave us their thoughts on what should be done to help children stay healthy in all aspects of their lives. It was interesting to see how, although through different programs, the organizations shared a common purpose and goal. All of the leaders encouraged us to help spread the word about the programs available; as many people are just unaware of the various ways to get help when needed. I encourage all everyone to look up these organizations and see all the beneficial programs they have available and to tell other people, both in and out of the league, about these organizations when the opportunity strikes. We will be able to help relay our focus on healthy children by helping these organizations reach out to people who otherwise might not know where to go for their needs.

Thank you to the Education and Development committee for planning a great event for JLC members!

Post by: Meggie Baker