Hello Gourders,

It is the fall season of the year with a lot of activity at craft shows and other events where artist can find an excited purchaser of their creation. The SCGS artist displayed their skills at the Orangeburg County Fair in October. I would like to thank all who had anything to do with this event. We wanted to educate the local people on what a Gourd is and how you can make beautiful things with it. Hopefully some people in this area of the state will get interested and form a patch there. I had the privilege of meeting the Fair Director and found that he was impressed about what we had done. I will be contacting those who gave of their time, staffing and setting up the booth, so that we can  get their input and see what direction we need to go in making this event larger, as well as gleam any ideals for future events.

The Board of Directors met at Ghost Creek Gourd Farm in August and among other business voted to have the spring one day event on April 18, 2009 at Ghost Creek Farm with the event being named Ghost Creek Gourd Fest. Plans are underway to recruit instructors for the workshops. There continues to be a lot of interest and we’re hoping the 2009 event will be the largest yet. More information to come.  The next scheduled Board of Directors meeting will be January 17, 2009.  If you have any suggestions or questions you would like for the Board members to consider, please send them to me, or any Board member before this date.

It’s been an unstable year for us as Americans and also for the world. I would encourage everyone to get out and vote for the candidate of their choice.

Again I would like to thank every Gourder in South Carolina who has chosen to volunteer, or help serve another person, or help at any event.

Keep on Gourding,

Dickie Martin