SC Humanities Receives Community Engagement Grant

SC Humanities is pleased to announce the receipt of a $5,000 Community Engagement Grant from the Central Carolina Community Foundation to support the presentation of the traveling Smithsonian exhibit Hometown Teams: How Sports Shape America in Manning, SC.

The Central Carolina Community Foundation offers Community Engagement Grants to nonprofit organizations that are promoting a more engaged, vibrant, compassionate, and connected community in their 11-county service area. Hometown Teams is part of the Museum on Main Street program, a unique program designed to bring high-quality exhibits from the nation’s largest museum to small towns and rural communities.

Hometown Teams: How Sports Shape America promotes an engaged community through a collaborative planning process, the support of volunteer docents, and the opportunity for citizens of all ages to attend the exhibit free of charge. The Hometown Teams exhibit will provide an excellent place for people to meet and interact with others in a non-partisan, positive and celebratory environment. It will raise public awareness of the area’s cultural history and demonstrate how sports play an important role in the community’s identity and sense of place.

Hometown Teams will be on display in Manning from October 31 – December 13, 2015 at Weldon Auditorium located at 7 Maple Street, Manning, SC 29102. A variety of collateral events are planned during the exhibit’s time in the community, including: holding a county-wide, old-fashioned Youth Field Day, conducting an Art Contest related to Hometown Teams in all county schools, the development of a library book reading list and conducting storytelling sessions at the Harvin Clarendon County Library, and a writing contest relating to how sports shape America that will be conducted by the local newspaper.

The support from the Central Carolina Community Foundation is very meaningful in offering this important cultural and educational programming in Clarendon County. Randy Akers, Executive Director of SC Humanities, said: “Sports in South Carolina are as much a fabric of our lives as textiles. While individuals grown and build character, communities develop pride through their hometown teams. The Central Carolina Community Foundation grant will allow citizens in Clarendon County to remember their past while embracing the present and the future.” For more information about the Central Carolina Community Foundation, visit their website at: https://www.yourfoundation.org/.

The mission of SC Humanities is to enrich the cultural and intellectual lives of all South Carolinians. SC Humanities programs and initiatives are balanced, reflecting sensitivity to the diversity of ideas, encourage open dialogue, demonstrate integrity, and are ethical in operations.