Local Outdoorsman Author Event

            The Calhoun County Library held an author event last week to support a local, well-known outdoorsman and author who has published several books, the latest of which being Local Signs & Wonders: Essays About Belonging to a Place.

Dr. Richard Rankin visited the library on Tuesday, February 25, 2025, at 5:30 PM. He writes books and articles on cultural history, nature, and hunting. After a long career as a college professor and administrator and an independent school headmaster, Rankin is now serving as the director of the Interlaken Wildlife Center in Cameron, South Carolina. The Interlaken Wildlife Center’s mission is outdoor education and recreation, the promotion of hunting and shooting sports, and wildlife conservation.

An outdoorsman, conservationist, and Presbyterian layman, Dr. Rankin and his family are the sixth generation living on family land in the North Carolina Piedmont. This property was once known as Rankintown. It is a shrinking countryside about twenty miles west of fast-growing Charlotte, North Carolina. Several days a week, Dr. Rankin travels back and forth to his family home in North Carolina and the Interlaken Wildlife Center in Calhoun County to assist with hunts.

Dr. Rankin spoke to a large crowd about his most recent work, Local Signs & Wonders: Essays about Belonging to a Place. This book is a collection of essays describing how attachment to a family homestead creates a sense of wellbeing, fulfillment, and belonging. Within the book, there are stories that represent personal experiences for him. He discussed one of these essays with us: “Wondering about the Wart Doctor,” and its topic was exactly that! The essay told about a mysterious wart healer who went to. Dr. Rankin’s father, a highly respected family doctor in their hometown. Back then, when people came in with a wart, his father gave them two options: have him cut it open, get a scar, and pay a fee or go to this magic wart doctor for the removal.

Once, Rankin got a wart himself, and his father refused to remove it. He was sent to this mysterious wart healer, and the essay tells the rest of the story. We are not going to give away the ending, so you will have to come to the library and check out your own copy of Local Signs and Wonders: Essays about Belonging to a Place.

We would like to thank everyone who came to meet Dr. Richard Rankin. We had a great crowd of people who knew him, knew the Interlaken Wildlife Center, and knew that Southern stories are some of the best. We are happy that we came together and supported this local author!

Crafty, Busy Bees

            Calhoun County is the home of many talented, crafty people and the Calhoun County Library has dedicated a program to bring them together twice a month.

Bee Creative is a program where you can come and enjoy practicing your craft. We make quilts, create felt plushies, design custom fabric wallets, and much more. However, if these projects aren’t your style, bring what you would like to do! We have had patrons make jewelry, paint, and even work on their writing skills. Bee Creative is about practicing any fun hobby in a social setting along with other crafters. If you’ve never been to a Bee Creative program, imagine walking into a friend’s house, sitting down, working with your hands, and talking about whatever is on your mind. How relaxing and productive does that sound?

Bee Creative meets on the second and fourth Tuesdays of every month from 5 PM to 7 PM. This is an all-ages program, so don’t think it’s only for grandmas who want to knit scarves (even though we might be knitting scarves!). We have a variety of regulars and we would love to have more regulars join us.

Check out our schedule for upcoming group projects:

March 11 -  Sewing Irish chain quilts

March 25 - Painting Easter eggs

*April 8 - Creating sun clocks (see information below)

April 22 - Designing fabric coasters

May 13 and 27 - Making reusable heating pads with slipcovers

*We will make a sun clock in Bee Creative on Tuesday, April 8, 2025, at 5 PM. Lesa Rice-Jackson will lead this interactive STEM program. You must register for this program. Call us at 803-874-3389 to reserve a seat in this class by 8 PM on Tuesday, March 25, 2025.

Depending on necessary supplies, we will occasionally have classes that require registration, but we will always give you time and opportunities to register for a seat. Most of our classes, however, do not require registration. Just come and enjoy crafting, sewing, and spending time together!

If you have a project in the works and would like some advice, or just fellowship, come join us. We would love to have you become crafty with us. We hope to see you soon!

Teen Outreach Programs

            The Calhoun County Library has many outreach programs available to children and we would like to highlight two of them.

            STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. We like to take this program to the afterschool centers around our community. This allows us to keep those students busy while also allowing them to learn through hands-on experiments. One of the last projects we took to the schools was making their own catapults with rubber bands, popsicle sticks, and cotton balls. We don’t want to give too much away about this project because we would love for the kids to show you what they have learned with us. We do want to give a huge shout out to Dr. Lesa Rice-Jackson and Laura Hair, from 4-H, for helping out. They each attend a STEM program to assist with making sure these kids get a fun way of learning after school and get to see some cool, messy, and sometimes tasty experiments. So, if your child goes to an afterschool program in Calhoun County, ask them about STEM with the library ladies.

            In addition to STEM, we also hold an age-exclusive program for teenagers, called Teen Night. This program takes place on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of every month, from 5 PM to 6:30 PM, and is only for 12 - 17-year-olds. This program gives teenagers from all different backgrounds and school systems a chance to mingle and come together for some fun and engagement. Sometimes, we play games, watch movies, do crafts, and learn life skills, and we are even entertaining the idea of having a Jiu Jitsu night for Teen Night. We always have good food - brownies and milk, pizza, hot dogs, pancakes - so come join us for a good time at Teen Night!

            The Calhoun County Library realizes how important it is to keep children and teenagers interested in the library and we want everyone to have fun with us. We surely have fun with our community kids every month.

Local Author Dr. Richard Rankin Speaks

            Calhoun County has many local authors and the Calhoun County Library is hosting one such author for an event at the end of February.

            Dr. Richard Rankin has a long career as a college professor, administrator, and headmaster. He is the sixth generation living on family land in the North Carolina Piedmont and serves as the director of the Interlaken Wildlife Center in Cameron, South Carolina. Dr. Rankin specializes in cultural history, nature, and hunting. With an interest in those areas, it comes as no surprise that Dr. Rankin is also an outdoorsman and conservationist. That is just one reason why he has written a book about his experiences and thoughts concerning the outdoors. Local Signs & Wonders: Essays about Belonging to a Place is his newest work and Dr. Rankin will be talking about it, entertaining questions, and also giving audience members an opportunity to purchase the book during our “Meet the Author” event. The book is an “essay collection describing how attachment to a family homestead creates a sense of wellbeing, fulfillment, and belonging. As a whole, the pieces reveal how a settled inhabitant's personal identity grows from a local landscape and its history and culture” (taken from Mercer University Press summary).

            This event will take place on Tuesday, February 25, 2025, from 5:30 PM - 6:30 PM. We invite everyone to come show your support for a local author. Come listen to Dr. Richard Rankin speak about his book, buy a copy for yourself, and get inspired reading the words of someone from our community. Join us on Tuesday, February 25, 2025, beginning at 5:30 PM!