Our "Trashy Valentine" event was SUCH a great time! Thank you to everyone that came out to support the Wellness Council. We'll have pictures up very soon of all the fun times!

The Wellness Council for SC Chooses This Year’s “Community Star”

On Saturday, January 22^nd, the Wellness Council for SC chose the second recipient for its “Community Star” award.  The award is given to an individual, group or organization that displays uncommon kindness and selflessness within the community.  The recipient for 2010 was Eileen Cyrus, Director of Family Services & Faith Relations at Habitat for Humanity of Horry County. Eileen coordinates and teaches new habitat homeowners the basics of owning a home, helps them take responsibility for themselves and their families, including getting out of debt, and she leads her families toward a better future. Nominations for the 2011 Community Star will be taken in the fall, and the award will be given in January 2012.  For more information on The Wellness Council for SC, please visit www.wellnesscouncilcsc.org.

Eileen Cyrus, 2010 Community Star Recipient and Kristi Falk, Wellness Council Executive Director.

For more information on these organizations, please visit www.wellnesscouncilcsc.org or www.eatsmartmovemoresc.org. 

The 2010 Global Awareness Project Synergy calendars are here! The Wellness Council for SC was once again chosen as one of the 12 featured     non-profits for the calendar.  We were partnered with artist Michael Files for the month of March and the collaboration was an overwhelming success. Thank you to Jessica Durivage and Carl Kerridge of Global Awareness Project for putting this calendar together once again, and to Michael Files for an amazing piece of artwork.  To get your copy of the calendar, please contact The Wellness Council Executive Director Kristi Jacques Falk at wellnesscouncilcsc@yahoo.com.

The Wellness Council artwork for the month of March:

From the artist:

Matsaruba, by Michael Files
Acrylic, cardboard, magazine collage, and digital painting
Made for The Wellness Council of Coastal South Carolina

When I first began to work on this piece I started by researching all things health related online. I looked at imagery, articles, and ideas about health and wellness, and I spent time on the website for The Wellness Council of Coastal South Carolina. It was there that I discovered a very inspired article written by Kristi Falk, the founder of the organization, entitled "A Call to Serve." What I really liked about it was Kristi's focus on the heart aspects of service. She spoke of the fact that to really heal this world we all must get in better touch with our hearts, with what we know deep down to be right. As she said, "Some of the most admirable people in history are admired not because of their wealth or knowledge, but because of the size of their heart and their charitable spirit."

It were these words that gave me the impetus to begin with the image of a human heart, I wanted it to be the focal point of the piece to show its importance in everything we do. On top of that I placed the image of "Eartha," a character in a book that The Wellness Council produced to educate children on the importance of healthy habits and taking care of the environment. This image of the child in silhouette represents all children, and our responsibility as adults to teach these children the healthy habits that will leave them physically, mentally, and spiritually stable and able to take care of themselves and the earth, and make it a better place in the future.

The child is depicted being presented and nurtured by a pair of adult hands. The child and the heart glow with a sky blue color and sit upon a Buddhist Health Mandala in shades of green and blue, an image full of symbolism of healthy aspects of life. Around the border of the mandala is a pattern of fresh fruits and shooting from there are arrows of different size. These arrows all have different imagery of a healthy lifestyle: Fresh foods and produce, plenty of vegetables and fruit, running and exercise, leisurely physical activities in nature like fishing to relax the mind, and solar panels to represent our need to take better care of the earth in more intelligent ways. These arrows glow with a sky blue and shoot out from the crucible of the care of the adult's cupped hands. This represents the way that by educating the children we can send them forth into the world to make it a more healthy and loving place.

This sort of extended mandala then sits upon a deep red and orange background. The background is made up of a collage of fast food imagery, the ubiquitous staple of french fries and hamburgers, unhealthy foods high in cholesterol and lacking in nutrition. This vast backdrop reflects the world our children are born into, this sea of unhealthy seductions that they have to wade through.
I chose to enhance the red and the yellow, as they are colors representing animalistic passion and loss of control of our higher selves. The arrows are made to be glowing sky blue as this is the color of peace and equanimity, and the control of our desires. The arrows are made to be breaking through and starting to overtake these raw red desires, the idea being that eventually, through the education of our children, they will overtake and calm down these unhealthy passions in the world, creating a society rich in physical, mental, and above all spiritual health.

-Michael Files, Sept. 2009

The Wellness Council for SC will begin Fall planting of the Victory Vegetable Gardens for Habitat for Humanity homeowners. The project was started last year with a Gardening 101 class held for the homeowners as taught by Gary Forrester of Clemson University Ext. The gardens are part of an initiative to bring wellness to an often overlooked population.

Vegetable gardens are beneficial in saving families money on groceries, as well as getting the family working together outdoors creating stronger family bonds. The benefits the families, especially the children, get from eating fresh healthy vegetables which they helped grow are boundless!

The Wellness Council is currently in need of donations of seedlings of fall vegetables, topsoil, garden tools, and organic fertilizers for this project.

Fall seedlings needed include: beans, brocolli, carrots, cauliflower, collards, cucumbers, lettuce, mustard, garden peas, radish, spinach, squash, turnips.

If you are able to help with this project, please email Kristi Falk at wellnesscouncilcsc@yahoo.com.  If you would like to make a monetary donation for this particular project, please mail your tax-deductible donation to:

Victory Garden Project
c/o The Wellness Council for SC
PO Box 50231
Myrtle Beach, SC 29579