THE STATE NEWSPAPER
Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2009
What will the holidays look like at Village at Sandhill this year?
In addition to Santa, "we're going to have choral groups throughout the season," he said. Churches and schools will participate, as well as GMG Music Center and Rice Music. A high school holiday festival with free hot chocolate is set for Dec. 11.
And the popular horse-drawn carriage rides through the town center will be back, he said. A model train display will be open each weekend after Thanksgiving in a vacant space between Learning Express and Reid's. A new merchant, Santa's Closet, is open in the old Sharper Image space.
The Village's 40-foot Christmas tree has new LED multi-colored lights, and management has added a menorah to the town square.
Check villageatsandhill.com for specifics.
What are you planning for 2010?
"We're going to have more events on Saturday that are going to be family-oriented."
The center probably will move its jazz concert series to Saturday night next fall and ramp up the tempo. Management is hoping to generate a sidewalk sale in January or February and is working on a plan for July 4.
Popular events, such as the summer concert series and Valentine's Day carriage rides, will be back. "All the events that people went to this year and enjoyed themselves, we'll have those again next year."
How is the retail center faring in the economic downturn?
The center is between 80 percent and 90 percent leased, McCarthy said.
The stores that have closed so far this year mostly have been national companies shutting down all their locations. "Only a couple have closed because of sales at this location."
McCarthy said to look for announcements after the first of the year for new stores.
Posted By: Louise Rasho on 10-08-2008
Bevis and Tembi Gray live in the small South Carolina town of Orangeburg and run a lively music school called GMG Music Center. The husband-wife team recently launched their Web site on Office Live Small Business. “We wanted people to be able to look us up online and go through our pages and see what our company was about,” Tembi explains in one of our new customer videos.
Well, their Web site definitely does that — and much more.
The Grays' Web site is a place students and parents visit day in and day out to interact with the music school. Parents log into their child’s account to view progress reports. They can register and pay for classes online. Students and parents can consult a calendar to check class schedules or see photos of past performances.
“I consider Office Live Small Business as one of our partners because it added a component to our business that we were unable to have before,” says Bevis Gray. That component is the customer connection.
Microsoft commercial features Orangeburg's GMG Music Center
By Gene Zaleski T&D Staff Writer Monday, June 16, 2008 
Orangeburg-based GMG Music Center will be featured this summer in a Microsoft commercial promoting the corporation’s Microsoft Office Live Internet-based software program.
GMG was selected by Microsoft among six businesses nationwide to be featured in a documentary/commercial on how the software has impacted small businesses. The two to three-minute commercial is expected to come out by the end of July.
The piece is expected to appear on Microsoft’s Web site and possibly on television and in print.
Microsoft Corp. has hired award-winning international independent filmmaker and television producer John Paget to produce the piece.
Paget spent Thursday in Orangeburg with GMG owners and husband-and-wife team Tembi and Bevis Gray talking with the couple about Microsoft Office Live and shooting clips around the city. He had about 1-1/2 hours in footage of the couple.
“I thought, ‘Orangeburg, South Carolina, what are the odds?’ ” GMG co-owner Tembi Gray said. “It has been really, really fun.”
Tembi said Microsoft conducted a national case study of Office Live customers about two months ago. The Grays got the call about three weeks ago that they were selected to appear in the commercial.
Gray said other businesses to be featured are located in California, Connecticut and the state of Washington.
Tembi said GMG acquired the Microsoft Office Live software during Microsoft’s pilot release of the product about three years ago.
The software provides small businesses with a free domain name, a Web site and company e-mail accounts to more comprehensible services available on a subscription-fee basis. Office Live enables small business to carry forth tasks such as management of customers, projects and documents.
Microsoft introduced the Microsoft Office Live program about two years ago in an attempt to offer small-business customers Internet-based business services.
The Microsoft Live program offers three versions providing businesses with differing features and capabilities.
“It provides ... small business with an online presence,” Tembi said about GMG Music’s Web site, which can be found at
www.gmgmusiccenter.com. “I was doing research to see what and who would provide the best service. I wanted it to be free, being a small business, free does not hurt.”
And the Web site has had quite an impact.
Five years ago, the fledgling GMG Music had four students and few instructional resources for the music aspirants.
With musical talent running deep in the family, the Grays had a desire and dream to share this love of music with the greater Orangeburg community in an effort to “raise up quality musicians.”
But with a small budget, getting the message out proved challenging.
Now, the Web site exposure has helped expand GMG’s customer base to about 30 students throughout the Orangeburg County area with the hopes and plans of expanding into northeast Columbia this fall.
“The Web site allows us to focus on what we do best and that is teaching music,” Tembi said. “With the Web site, individuals can go online and see what we are about. It saves time and having to have people always call us. We have so many people outside of Orangeburg find out about us.”
And now the exposure is set to become grander with the help of Buffalo, N.Y., resident Paget, who is no stranger to the film and television industry.
Paget has produced a number of award-winning documentaries, including his first “Route 66: An American Odyssey.” The film won five international film festival awards and was broadcast as a multi-episode series on PBS stations nationwide in 2000.
As a freelance shooter/director, Paget has traveled extensively to shoot projects on-location in Belize, Cuba, China, Dominican Republic, New Zealand, Russia, Samoa, Thailand and South Africa.
Paget describes his last films looking at the Elvis impersonator subculture and a reunion of Alcatraz convicts as “quintessentially quirky Americana.”
“It is a look at American cultural things from a little bit of a witty observational twist,” Paget said, noting the films are original. “I get most of my ideas from reading, really. I read about things and say, ‘Oh, it would make a good story.’ ”
Paget said the Microsoft project is not the first he has done for the company. Last summer, he did a promotional piece on a Microsoft chief executive officer summit.
He says most projects follow the same basic documentary format and require creativity.
“The big story is not the software but their business,” Paget said. “I think it will be very visual with all the music and people learning and playing. We have had more challenging things such as mortgage lenders. By all comparison this is way more interesting.”
Paget has also directed national TV spots for numerous ad agencies, created Web sites, designed/authored internationally released DVD titles, and produced commissioned documentaries for several state government agencies.
OCtech to hold poetry performance event
By CANDACE NEWSON, T&D Features Writer | Thursday, January 17, 2008
Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College will host a New Year's Dub Poetry event from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m Thursday.
The event will feature Maurice Gordon, a jazz guitarist who has performed and worked with the famous dub poet Mutabaruka. Activities will include a concert by Gordon and an afternoon poetry workshop.
"We will feature a presentation that explores the background of dub poetry as a social and political instrument and will provide opportunities for students to add music and other sounds to their own poems and practice performing them publicly," said Tamara Miles, director of OCtech's writing studio.
The poetry assignment follows a model used at Claflin University by Dr. Susan Till, Miles said. Till and some of her students will be at the event to work with OCtech students and perform their own evocative poems, she said.
Representatives from the Charleston Academy of Music will also be on-hand to work with students.
OCtech and the Charleston Academy are combining their educational goals of increasing participation in music and poetry events among students, Miles said. The theme of the event is "Where I'm From."
Claflin graduates Bevis and Tembi Gray, directors of GMG Music Center in Orangeburg, will share their instrumental and vocal talents as well.
The New Year's Dub Poetry event was funded by a $15,000 South Carolina Arts Commission grant. The grant will be used to fund a series of yearlong events that will deepen participation in the arts among OCtech students.
The South Carolina Arts Commission provides grants, services and leadership to arts organizations, schools and individual artists to preserve and promote the arts across the spectrum of the state's cultures and forms of expression.
The event is open to the public. For more information, call 803-268-2513 or e-mail milest@octech.edu.
Creative expression via photography
By DONNA HOLMAN, T&D Staff Writer | Saturday, July 07, 2007
With the aid of an Orangeburg County Fine Arts Center grant, several local youth recently participated in "Life Through the Eyes of a Child," an intensive, four-day film photography workshop sponsored by Orangeburg for the Arts.
"Through our organization, we strive to expose youth to the benefits of the arts," said Tembi Gray, founder of the nonprofit organization. "We believe that giving them an opportunity to express themselves creatively in a positive environment is an awesome thing. Involvement in the arts is good for their personal development."
In conjunction with the Boys & Girls Club of Orangeburg, Willie Booker and Tom Eklund, the goal of "Life Through the Eyes of a Child" was to expose young people to photography as a hobby and career by giving them hands-on experience with the medium, other than digital, Gray said. Participants, who ranged in age from 10 to 16 years old, included Kavon Abraham, Zhana Ayala, Laveniece Colter, Jayneil Green, Donnie Kennedy, Matthew Kirkland, Germaine Johnson, Christopher Muller, Danequa Pou, Alexis Snell, Jasmine Snell, Mary Simpson and Randall Summers.
Veronique Roblin, a professional photographer from Los Angeles, took students from the basics of photography to snapping shots at different sites and experimenting with techniques explained in class. Many of the pictures were taken at Edisto Memorial Gardens. Roblin taught the students to examine their subjects through the camera lens and shoot from different perspectives.
L.A. film director Jerry Digby spoke to the students about his role in the film industry and created a DVD to culminate the photography project.
Ten-year-old Jayneil Green said one of the lessons he learned was to "never give up."
Gray said when her husband, Bevis, started GMG Music Center, they noticed just how many talented kids were in the area.
"We don't want kids to be hindered from participation (in the arts) due to financial reasons," she said. She said Orangeburg for the Arts has operated for four years and conducted projects in everything from music to photography.
"It's amazing when you give a child a camera, what they'll do with it," Gray said.
Check out the unique angles captured by workshop participants on the organization's Web site, www.orangeburgforthearts.org.
Music Center grew from couple's two loves
By DIONNE GLEATON, T&D Staff Writer
When Bevis and Tembi Gray met at Claflin University as freshmen, little did they know that they would eventually become married and united in their love for music and people. The couple has managed to forge their talents as directors of a local non-profit music center designed to educate and train children and adults in the world's universal language.
Whether it's piano, guitar, percussion or vocal training, the GMG Music Center has a staff of dedicated instructors which the couple have combined to help the community, especially its youth, foster an appreciation for the creation, performance and production of music.
Tembi, 26, said the music center is just an outgrowth of her and her husband's appreciation for music and people, especially youth. She is a former employee of local victim's advocacy agency CASA/Family Systems, where she served as project director of the Orangeburg County Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program.
Her husband is an accomplished pianist and organist, whose experience includes his work in theatrical productions and with such gospel greats as Vickie Winans, Lashun Pace and Dorothy Norwood.
"My husband's love for music and people and my love for working with young people has given us something to do. I was a military brat. It was normal to have youth centers on the base, but there was no place for the youth to hang out when I came to Orangeburg. Our interests coupled together real good, so we decided to work together to work on this project," she said.
"We actually opened the doors of the center in March of 2003. Our center offers training for various age groups from 4 and up. Music has always been my background. I want to see more of the community of Orangeburg and surrounding areas become more in tune to various styles of music," Bevis said.
The center was formerly located at before moving to its present location at
in Orangeburg. Music theory is taught at the center, but the production and performance of music are also important tenets of instruction."This gives them a creative outlook. Music is a universal language," said Bevis, who looks forward to partnering with other community organizations in working to support the arts.
In an effort to reach out beyond the center's walls, Bevis, 27, said they are looking at working with the youth particular to be able to provide musical entertainment at nursing homes, daycare centers and other community outlets.
The couple incorporated the non-profit Orangeburg for the Arts in January 2003 with a purpose of providing financial support to individuals who want to pursue their interests in the arts, including music and dance.
This past summer, the organization received an Orangeburg Fine Arts Center grant, which enabled it to provide a piano lab at the Edisto Fork United Methodist Community Center in partnership with the Orangeburg Boys & Girls Club. The lab serves nearly 20 children.
For more information on the center, call 803-534-2999.
’A good community event’By DIONNE GLEATON, T&D Staff WriterSunday, October 29, 2006 | Default | Large Everything from Creole gumbo, she-crab soup and ox tails to smoked turkey legs, pot pie and banana pudding will be featured at Sunday’s Taste of Orangeburg.
The community will get to sample some of the city’s most tantalizing treats at Taste 2006 from noon to 3 p.m. at Memorial Plaza.
“It’s just a wonderful atmosphere. Everybody enjoys good food, entertainment and socializing. It’s just a real good community event,” said Bernice Tribble, executive director of the Downtown Orangeburg Revitalization Association.
South Carolina Bank and Trust is sponsor of the event. Admission is free and food tickets may be purchased at ticket booths located at each corner of the square.
Entertainment begins at 12:15 p.m. with Nathan Salley, the GMG Players and guests at 1:15 p.m. and Visions at 2:15 p.m. Salley has appeared in many venues in The T&D Region, entertaining with his guitar and original sounds. Visions is a versatile band specializing in classic soul, R&B and dance music. The GMG Players is a multifaceted accelerated music program at the GMG Music Center.
'WE LOVE THE ARTS': Prince of Orange Mall showcasing youth art By T&D Staff
Saturday, March 12, 2005 The Prince of Orange Mall is inviting everyone to enjoy the artwork of area students in honor of Youth Art Appreciation Month. The walls of the mall are filled with local talent now through the end of March. Area residents can stroll through the mall to view the abstract art, still-life drawings, self-portraits, pointillism-style fruit art, wood sculptures, mixed median pretzel sculpture, paper mache artwork and weaving craft — all portraying the abundance of talent in Orangeburg County.
Schools participating in the event include Holly Hill Middle School, Lockett Elementary, Branchville High School, Livingston Christian Academy and Edisto High School's upper grade and gifted art students. Other schools will be adding their students' artwork to the collection in the coming weeks.
The Youth Art Appreciation Month festivities will culminate in a special celebration on March 19. That morning Bunny will arrive at the mall at 11 a.m. on the Sheriff's Four Wheeler. After his arrival, all children are welcome to participate in a coloring contest. Every child who colors a picture will be eligible for a chance to win a huge stuffed bunny stocking. Snacks and story-time are also part of the morning event.
At 1 p.m. that same afternoon, a "We Love The Arts" celebration will begin with an opening performance by the Greater Friendship AME Church, followed by the St. Luke's Presbyterian Gospel Choir Songfest. At 2:30 p.m., there will be a guest appearance by Orangeburg's own Del Rae, a free-style jazz artist who is internationally renown.
At 3 p.m., students of the GMG Music Concert will perform many popular tunes.
Throughout the celebration, local guest artist "Sig" Graham Jr. will be doing character drawings.
For more information, call 803-531-4422.
Third annual Wellness Celebration promotes holistic approach to health By DIONNE GLEATON, T&D Staff Writer
Friday, August 25, 2006 A healthier, wealthier and stronger community is what organizers of Orangeburg County’s third annual Wellness Celebration hope to build.
The upcoming comprehensive exhibition is designed to educate the public on the tenets of wellness, spanning from dental hygiene and high blood pressure maintenance to financial independence and spiritual soundness.
The Prescription Shoppe and WORG 100.3 FM will present the third annual TRMC Wellness Celebration from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 26 at the Prince of Orange Mall.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of South Carolina and the Edisto Health Coalition are the two other primary sponsors of this year’s event, which will include more than 50 exhibitors and kids’ games.
The event is a celebration of the tools used to foster mental, physical and spiritual soundness with the community. Demonstrations and entertainment will be among the day’s features.
“The Wellness Celebration is an opportunity for the community to view and learn about the variety of services and products that are available to them in our area. We also like to focus on holistic wellness such as community involvement, economics, family and spiritual relations and physical and emotional well-being,” said Meredith Mellard of WORG 100.3, co-chairperson of the Wellness Celebration committee.
Orangeburg Mayor Paul Miller issued a proclamation designating the last weekend in August as Wellness Weekend in Orangeburg during the inaugural event in 2004.
This year’s celebration will kick off at 7:30 a.m. with a 5K run sponsored by TRMC Healthplex. There is a $10 registration fee for the run. A 5K walk sponsored by the Edisto Health Coalition will follow at 8:30 a.m.
There is no registration fee for the walk, which will weave around the mall’s perimeter. Walkers will receive a free T-shirt and smoothie following their trek.
Sixth District Congressman Jim Clyburn will speak at 11:30 a.m. during the celebration.
There are plans for more than 60 exhibitors to gather inside the mall. Nearly two dozen departments will be represented from TRMC. The hospital and other health organizations will be conducting free health screenings during the event, including those for blood pressure and glucose.
More than 2,000 participants came through the doors at last year’s event.
“We’re anticipating another large crowd,” said Garris, who said new feature this year will be a kids’ game area, complete with free prizes. She said dental hygiene will be among the health subjects discussed, with free toothbrushes and toothpaste to be distributed while supplies last.
Local advocacy agency CASA Family Systems will be among the plethora of organizations attending the event and providing informational materials regarding the services they provide. The Orangeburg County Chamber of Commerce, Orangeburg NAACP branch, Ascension Hospice, Minority HIV/AIDS Council and Low Country Healthy Start will be among other exhibitors.
There will be “Passport to Wellness” drawings for $150 and $50. The “Passport to Wellness” is a form given to participants with the names of all exhibitors. They must have at least 20 exhibitors sign off on the form to qualify for the two drawings.
Aerobics, yoga, pilates and JB Martial Arts demonstrations will be featured at the event, along with demonstrations and performances from the Orangeburg Line Dancers; GMG Music Center, and the interpretive movement team from Cornerstone Community Church.
Displays will be set up at the event, including one by Crusaders for Christ, a cyclist group from Cornerstone Community Church.
Prescription Shoppe Manager Jim Johnson said the event will present the community with an abundance of healthful information.
“Orangeburg County ranked 45th out of 46 counties in health related to statistics of obesity, smoking and inactivity. The celebration satisfied the need for health information in the community,” he said.
United Way of the Midlands launches week-long community service initiativeBy DIONNE GLEATON, T&D Staff WriterSunday, September 05, 2004  Helping an adult to read.
Painting playground equipment.
Sorting clothes for the less fortunate.
These are just a few of the service projects the United Way of the Midlands hopes individuals will engage in during a week of caring that illustrates community support and dedication through acts of volunteerism.
The United Way of the Midlands has collaborated with the Junior League of Columbia to launch its first week-long community service initiative, "Building Brighter Tomorrows Week," Sept. 13-17.
By volunteering through the United Way of the Midlands-Edisto Council, individuals will have the opportunity to make their own impact on the community by devoting an hour or two to help local nonprofit agencies better serve the youth, needy and other populations who need the assistance most.
While more than 90 cents of every dollar donated to the United Way of the Midlands is channeled toward human services within the community, volunteerism goes further than dollars and cents.
"We are trying to give the general public first-hand knowledge of the needs of their local nonprofit agencies. Not only do they need monetary donations, but many times the need for volunteers to provide a service is immense," United Way of the Midlands Marketing Director Anita Brewer Crosby said.
This week will bring together corporations, agencies and individuals in an effort to improve the lives of those served, whether it be through building bookshelves for the overstocked Orangeburg County Literacy Council, or helping sort the massive amount of clothes which CASA/Family Systems, a local victims advocacy agency that provides for children and adults seeking shelter from abuse.
All service projects will be in Orangeburg, Calhoun, Fairfield, Lexington, Newberry and Richland counties. The United Way of the Midlands teamed up with four other agencies, including the Sisters of Charity Foundation of South Carolina, to create "Facing Facts: A Study of the Issues that Shape Our Region." It is a bench-marking tool which will be used to gauge the progress of improving a community's quality of life. It was also used to help create service projects throughout the six counties.
"United Way of the Midlands is sending a message to our community that collectively we can make a real impact. We hope that through this week of Building Brighter Tomorrows, members of our community will volunteer more," Crosby said.
A list of "Done in a Day Projects" in the Orangeburg area includes the following: providing paint and/or labor in painting playground equipment for the Orangeburg Area Boys & Girls Club on Sept. 13 (Executive Director Thomas Eklund said volunteers are also needed to help provide and direct children's activities); sorting a massive amount of clothes at CASA/Family Systems on Sept. 13, and providing materials and/or labor in building bookshelves for the Orangeburg County Literacy Council on Sept. 15.
The Salvation Army is also included on the list of organizations seeking volunteers for data entry and participation in fund-raising in preparation for the busy holiday season.
Eklund said volunteers are the "lifeblood of any organization," including the Orangeburg Area Boys & Girls Club, which has grown from one small club into a group with three thriving community sites.
"Orangeburg is a very giving community. We have many local retired adults that come out ... and work with our children. Our local churches and businesses lend volunteers to assist us with our programs and activities. I really think that the volunteers receive many blessings as they see the faces of the young people that they help. Our children ... look up to our volunteers ... and we are able to serve more children when we have them to assist us," Eklund said.
The club just received five keyboards through a grant from Orangeburg for the Arts Inc. Volunteer keyboard instruction is now provided to children at the club's Edisto Fork United Methodist Community Center site on Tyler Road.
Orangeburg County Literacy Facilitator Barbara Hilliard said she also heavily relies on volunteers in providing tutorial services to adults having trouble with reading, math and computer skills. While the council had 40 to 45 active volunteers during fiscal year 2003-2004, they are in desperate need of more.
Four six-hour training sessions are provided at the council's Holly Street office annually, and one hour per week is all that is requested of volunteers, Hilliard said.
She stressed that tutorial sessions are assigned around tutors' schedules to ensure convenience while providing the much needed instruction. Individuals who can help build bookshelves for the overstocked council office are also welcome, Hilliard said.
"We have a lot of books, and no place to put them," she said.
CASA Executive Director Gilda Cobb-Hunter said volunteers have helped the agency work for the past 25 years in providing shelter and other services to victims of domestic and other abuse.
"Volunteers are an integral part of our work. We value their service and their support, and they really help us help others," Cobb-Hunter said.
Edisto United Way board chairman Warren Harley said whether it's helping the Salvation Army install its new windows, or participating in another project, individuals can help to make a difference in their community.
"I think one of the things that so many people think is that if they don't have anything to give financially, then they're not helping. But some of these folks have other talent. This week is just a great opportunity, and we hope that we get some folks to participate," Harley said.
The Black Nativity' shines on two stages By THOMAS BROWN, T&D Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 24, 2004 Combining the talents of two campuses, the drama departments of Claflin University and South Carolina State University are collaborating for the production of "The Black Nativity."
The Claflin University Theatre Ensemble and the Henderson-Davis Players of SCSU have united forces to put on this gospel song/play by African-American poet/playwright Langston Hughes. Co-directed by Annette Dees Grevious of Claflin and Ursula Robinson of SCSU with Orangeburg musician and Claflin alumnus Bevis Gray as music director, "The Black Nativity" can be seen on either or both campuses. The Claflin production will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday, Dec. 2 and 3, in the W.V. Middleton Fine Arts Center. Performances at SCSU will be presented at 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 4, and at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 5, at the Henderson-Davis Theatre.
"We wanted to bring the schools together and offer the community something in addition to what is traditionally done in Orangeburg," Grevious said. "And we thought 'The Black Nativity' would be a wonderful addition to the local line-up of holiday entertainment."
"The Black Nativity" recounts the story of the birth of Christ through the eyes of a black man who follows the star to the stable in Bethlehem. Combining scripture with powerful poetic verse, Hughes reminds audiences that Christ came to save all people.
Following its debut in 1961, the play was often called "The Black Messiah." Telling the Christmas story in music, verse, dance and pantomime, it is a joyous account based on the Gospel of St. Luke.
Hughes wrote in a style that reflected the day-to-day lives of "ordinary" African-Americans, yet his work honors that fact that there is nothing "ordinary" about the struggles and dreams of his people. His prose and verse were never more powerful and illuminating than in "The Black Nativity."
"This last week of rehearsals has been crunch time, do or die, like with all productions," Grevious said. "We've performed some preview excerpts at the (Prince of Orange) Mall and at Claflin and gotten very positive audience response. We have some very talented students in this production."
In another collaboration, the Claflin University Concert Choir and the SCSU Concert Choir will perform Handel's Messiah at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 30, in the Martin Luther King Jr. Auditorium at SCSU. The event in free and open to the public. For more information, call Helene Carter at Claflin's Office of Public Relations at 535-5351 or Erica Prioleau, director of Public Relations at SCSU at 536-7000.
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