kitchen countertopsIn Summerville, SC

SUMMERVILLE, S.C. (WCIV) — It’s proclaimed as the “Birthplace of Sweet Tea.” And Summerville, South Carolina, loves to share that sweet flavor with everyone.

“Just seeing our sweet community come together for the most amazing tea,” touts Tara Harshaw, who works at the restaurant Sweetwater One Twenty Three.

Harshaw and her fellow sweet tea lovers and co-workers have been very busy putting their twist on the tradition.

“This is our Peach Mint Julep,” Harshaw shows off.

It’s a recipe that adds some Bourbon to the mix. Sweetwater One Twenty Three is participating in this year’s “Hold My Tea” competition between Summerville cocktail makers for the best alcohol-based drink.

That’s part of the build-up to this year’s Sweet Tea Festival, which started in 2011.

For Steve Doniger of the Summerville Dream organization: it’s all about “hospitality.”

Doniger says, “Sweet Tea is about hospitality. It’s about bringing neighbors together. It’s an opportunity to have sweet tea and spend some time, and that’s what the festival does.”

Summerville Dream’s goal is to connect Summerville’s business community with the local community and tourists for a healthy bit of growth.

Doniger says this is one of the town’s most important yearly events this year.

“We’re averaging about 13 to 15 thousand people throughout the day. It’s one of the premier events here in Summerville. We’re really proud of it, and a lot of groups are coming together to make this work. It’s a nice thing for everybody.”

Organizers say attendees will have a chance to taste and vote on a full house of traditional sweet tea vendors at the event- which kicks off Saturday at 2 p.m. going until 8 p.m.

There will be some parking restrictions on Saturday for the festival.

Little Main by Hutchinson Square will be closed from 6 a.m. until 9 p.m.

And West Richardson Avenue between Main Street and South Cedar Avenue will be shut down from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

EMORY, Va. – Needing to push the game into a second overtime period, the nationally ninth-ranked Newberry College (3-0, 1-0 SAC) football team was able to take home the hard-fought 26-23 win over Emory & Henry in their first South Atlantic Conference contest of the season.

Redshirt-sophomore Mario Anderson (Summerville, S.C.) scampered for 101 yards on the day on 16 carries, including the game winning touchdown in the second overtime. Graduate student Dre Harris (Greenville, S.C.) picked up 52 yards on the ground while accounting for 182 through the air and a touchdown. That touchdown was to graduate student Deshun Kitchings (Aiken, S.C.) who only accounted for two receptions on that afternoon for 77-yards.

Junior Luke Taylor (Summerville, S.C.) led the Wolves defensively with eight total tackles on the afternoon including one sack in overtime for a six-yard loss. Senior Devante Gambrell (Anderson, S.C.) notched seven tackles in the contest and recorded a sack for nine yards. Junior Carson Smith (Abbeville, S.C.) was able to force a fumble while redshirt-junior Melvin Lundy (Sumter, S.C.) led the defensive backfield with a pair of pass breakups.

The Wolves waited no time getting on the board as after a near first-down gaining rush by Anderson, Harris found Kitchings in one-on-one coverage down the left sideline and hit him in stride for a 62-yard strike to give the Wolves the 7-0 lead just 38 seconds into the contest. The two teams would trade three-and-outs before Emory & Henry was able to methodically drive down the field to pull even with the Wolves at seven.

Newberry would put three more points on the board on their next drive as redshirt-senior Lawson Reel (Johnston, S.C.) was able to hit from 23-yards out and give the Wolves the 10-7 lead. Reel would be called upon for the first score of the second quarter for Newberry as well as in their second drive of the he would knock a 25-yard attempt through the uprights and extend their lead to 13-7. The Wasps would convert on their field goal attempt on the next drive to pull the score to 13-10, a margin that would hold to the halftime break.

The Wolves would force the Wasps to turn over the ball on downs on their first drive of the second half as a sack on fourth down by redshirt-senior Craig Barksdale (Easley, S.C.) gave the Wolves the ball on their own 36. A deep pass from Harris to graduate student Bryson Woodruff (Roebuck, S.C.) for 49-yards set the Wolves power formation up on the one-yard line where Harris would punch in it in and extend the Newberry advantage to 20-10.

The Wasps responded again with a touchdown of their own on their next drive and would kick the fourth quarter off with a field goal conversion to level the game at 20. The two teams traded scoreless drives before the Wolves would set themselves up in prime position to win the game with the ball and just over two minutes left in the contest. However, a forced turnover in the red zone brought that drive to a halt and forced the overtime period.

Both sides set-up for field goals in the opening overtime period with the Wasps having the opportunity to win the contest, however both sides missed their conversions and they moved into a second overtime period. This time a three-and-out for the Wasps would set-up a 40-yard field goal attempt that they would knock through the uprights to take the 23-20 lead. Newberry however would only need to run three plays in the second overtime period, all three rushes by Anderson that was capped off by an 11-yard touchdown run up the middle to secure the 26-23 win.

Newberry returns home next weekend after their two-week road trip as they welcome in the Flying Fleet of Erskine College to Setzler Field for a 6:00 p.m. kick.

Riley Gracely and his family were looking around the piles of dirt and gravel at Palmetto Fossil Excursions in Summerville when he saw something that looked like a tooth.

The 8-year-old Lebanon, Pennsylvania, boy started digging in the soil, clay and gravel and pulled out a huge fossilized tooth from the long-extinct angustiden shark species, that was 22 million to 28 million years old.

"He got lucky," Riley's dad Justin Gracely said in a phone call Monday.

Sky Basak, who owns Palmetto Fossil with her husband Josh, called it a "once in a lifetime find."

The tooth measured 4.75 inches — about the size of Riley's hand.

The Gracely family was on their annual vacation to Myrtle Beach and made the 2.5-hour trip south to Summerville to go to Palmetto Fossil, a 100-acre pit rich with prehistoric material including all manner — and parts — of sea creatures.

South Carolina has many such locations, buried deep in the earth along the coastal plain, where ocean and rivers ebbed and flowed for millions of years.

Gracely, 40, said he has been visiting Myrtle Beach since he was 5 and he and his mother, a microbiologist, scoured the sand for shark's teeth.

Two years ago, when Palmetto had just opened, Gracely saw something on Instagram about it and made the trek. This summer was their third visit.

Last year, older son Collin, 10, found a 4-inch megalodon tooth, a species that came after the angustiden and the largest fish that ever lived, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. The largest ones were three times the size of the biggest sharks that exist today.

The Gracelys were searching in an area where trucks were dumping material from property where the landowner was building a lake.

Basak said she hunts for specimens every day, 12 hours a day, and she and her husband have found a treasure trove in the new material. They intend to donate all of it to the Mace Brown Museum of Natural History at the College of Charleston, where they often go to just sit and look at the whales and dinosaurs on display.

"Simply speaking, this is some of the richest fossil layer we have ever seen. The colors on the fossils are also amazing, which is caused by the sediment in which they fossilized," according to Palmetto Fossil's Facebook page.

They have found a walrus, parts of baleen whales, beluga whales, giant speartooth dolphin, all millions and millions of years old.

Basak and her husband started the business in 2020 as a "cool part time gig," she said. Within four months it was much more than that. They were hiring staff and now have 11 employees during the summer.

Basak said interest was immediate.

"It's a cool feeling knowing you've got something that old," she said.

They are leasing the land on Sand Hill Road in Dorchester and are looking for a place to settle with enough ancient deposits to carry them through two or three generations.

Their goal is to start a research facility to better understand South Carolina's rich geologic history.

Riley Gracely, meanwhile, is keeping his find in a glass display box. He's shown it to all his friends.

Someone mentioned to his dad that perhaps they would want to donate it for research or display.

"I think we'll let the little guy keep it for a while," Justin Gracely said.

SUMMERVILLE, S.C. (WCSC) - For many people, when they first hear they have Parkinson’s Disease, it can be scary and worrisome. But, a group of people attending a boxing class called Rock Steady Boxing in Summerville, say it’s helping slow the progression of the disease.

Dennis Tianello has been coming to Rock Steady Boxing at Title Boxing in Nexton for two months now.

“My doctor, when I was first diagnosed and everything, I couldn’t walk to his exam room without touching the wall four or five times in the hallways,” Tianello said. “I went back to see him after doing this for a month and he says ‘Dennis, I watched you walk down the hall way. You didn’t even touch the wall.”

Parkinson’s is a progressive disorder that affects motor movement. Through this boxing class, folks say they’ve seen their balance, coordination, and strength improve.

Annie Barra, the lead trainer at Title Boxing, says they recognize the disease is still there, but the program helps slows it down.

“They box and they move around and we challenge them to different things,” Barra said. “It’s a great group of people and it brings them together where they may have felt uncomfortable, we make it comfortable.”

Paul Werksman was diagnosed with Parkinson’s about two months ago, even though he says he had many symptoms long before that. When he got his diagnosis, he started attending Rock Steady Boxing.

“Just being able to work it out and get better myself,” Werksman said. “I know I’ve lost my voice quit a bit. That’s why Don has us speaking very loudly.”

While it’s completely non-contact boxing, Bob Rodenkirk says one of his favorite things in the class is when he gets to go one-on-one with an instructor.

“They’ll get one of those belts on and they’ll say okay, give me everything you’ve got, don’t hold back,” Rodenkirk said. “And boom, boom, boom, boom.”

Rodenkirk says he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s five years ago. He says this boxing class has helped him stabilize things and has helped him feel normal.

The instructor of the class, Donald Wright, says they do more than just boxing. The goal is to get these folks moving and exercising, which is something doctors tell many people with Parkinson’s to do.

“We have a bend, lift, stretch, voice, you toss balls, stack cones, lift, weights, get on the floor, planks, push ups, sit ups if you can,” Wright said.

Rodenkirk says he’s been surprised by the impacts he’s had from Rock Steady Boxing.

“My doctors told me, you’re not going to lose if you try boxing,” Rodenkirk said. “You may think it sounds stupid or I’m just gonna get pounded, but it’s not that at all.”

Many of the fighters added that Rock Steady Boxing has been a great way for them to build new friendships and realize they aren’t alone in their Parkinson’s journey.

The class is held three days a week. Title Boxing owner Chris Bowen says they are always accepting new members. He added that anyone with Parkinson’s Disease interested in joining can come watch a class before attending. More information on the gym can be found on their website.

Copyright 2022 WCSC. All rights reserved.

If you’ve ever wondered what food South Carolinians hate the most, the website Sweet & Savory has your answer.

Matcha tea.

Not too surprising for a state that loves and celebrates its iced tea, sweet of course. It is so beloved, in fact, that Summerville, where sweet tea was born, has an annual festival in its honor, and it begins Saturday. Downtown Summerville becomes a massive open house, food truck roundup, artist gallery, performances and, of course, tea.

Anyway, about matcha tea. It has been used in Japanese tea ceremonies for centuries and is made from dried green tea leaves ground into a powder. Mixed with milk or water, it is said to have a bitter, vegetal, even grassy taste.

The website Love & Lemons, which features vegetarian dishes, says because the actual tea leaves are used rather than dipped in water and discarded, matcha tea has more antioxidants than regular green tea. Antioxidants help combat aging and fight diseases such as diabetes, cancer and heart problems.

Matcha is also green and high in caffeine.

“Matcha’s grassy, umami flavor can be an acquired taste,” Love & Lemons states. “If you’re new to making it, don’t hesitate to add a few drops of maple syrup or honey.”

Now, you’re talking. Sweet tea.

Other states have some interesting hates, including California, which apparently hates Chick-Fil-A. What? Unthinkable in a state that seems to add a Chick-Fil-A regularly.

And horrors to Hawaii. They say no to Coca-Cola. Created in 1886 by a pharmacist in Atlanta, Coke is so ingrained in Southern culture, it has become the universally accepted term for all soft drinks.

Georgia folks, meanwhile, don’t like tuna salad.

Alabama: “The people in Alabama don’t have the stomach for Chipotle. Known for using high quality natural and organic ingredients in its food, this Mexican place cannot seem to crack its Alabama market,” Sweet & Savory says.

Is that a backhanded way of saying Alabamans don’t like organic food?

North Carolina: Big no on cottage cheese.

Neighbors Texas and Oklahoma not surprisingly have opinions about meat. Texas says well done steaks are an abomination while Oklahoma abhors veggie burgers.

And Floridians just can’t get into eating licorice.

The website doesn’t say how it came up with the hate list and a spokesperson could not be reached for comment. It describes itself on its website as a brand of SBLY Media, formerly Shareably, that uses data to inform its stories and grow its audience.

This story was originally published September 16, 2022 5:00 AM.