Finding hidden treasures in the county
Many times, the things I write about in this column are inspired by things I have covered for the paper recently.
I enjoy writing about politics, pop culture and the great injustices in the world, but a lot of the time I just enjoy writing about things I have discovered right here in Franklin County.
Even though I have grown up here and lived here basically my whole life — save the four years I lived in Florence during college — there are still things about this county that I don’t know about. And that’s one of the fun parts about my job: getting to discover these things and then let the rest of the county know all about them, too.
A few months ago I discovered the Mountaintop Homemaker’s Club that usually meets in the East Franklin community.
When I first met these ladies, they were preparing for their annual bazaar where they sell homemade items in an effort to raise money for their organization. It was a quick meet-and-greet because I had to hurry to another story.
This last week, however, I spent an extended amount of time with these ladies when I went to take their picture with Sheriff Shannon Oliver because the ladies were donating handmade blankets and teddy bears to the sheriff’s department.
Once we finished with the picture, the homemakers had a spread of food set out on a table and invited the sheriff and I to stay.
I saw deviled eggs sitting on the table, so I immediately took them up on their offer. I’m not one to turn down good homemade food.
But I came to realize by the time I left that the food wasn’t the only good thing there. These ladies were all as good as gold.
The mission of their organization is to help the community because it is what these ladies feel they are called by God to do. They make blankets and bears and all sorts of things for different organizations, giving up their time to carefully construct each item with care.
They genuinely seem to care about the people around them and they care about each other, too. They took prayer requests before the meal and then prayed over each blanket and teddy bear and for the children who would receive them.
I was very impressed by these ladies, their organization, what they stand for and how they conduct themselves.
I was also impressed by their cooking. I left very full and very close to being in a sugar coma from some wonderful dessert they called a “dump cake…”
The Mountaintop Homemakers Club is just one thing in Franklin County that I’ve discovered recently, and I’m glad that our county offers an organization that is so community-oriented.
