Nearly 300 people were out Saturday picking up trash, sprucing the city’s gateways and working on some 30 different projects at the Living History Park.
It was Serve North Augusta, the collaborative city clean-up effort begun by Victory Baptist and Warren-Belvedere churches. It was also the first big presence for one of the city’s two recently formed charitable foundations.
“Altruism,” Brian Wendzik said, observing the efforts going on at the Living History Park’s sensory garden.
Wendzik serves on the board of directors for the North Augusta Beautification Foundation, and the foundation took part in both the city-wide service day and Spring Fest, hosted by North Augusta Forward on West Pine Grove Avenue.
North Augusta Beautification Foundation board member Robyn Hooker, left, talks to stoppers-by during Spring Fest April 27.
Established late in 2022 and their boards of directors appointed last April, the Beautification Foundation and the North Augusta Public Safety Foundation are now fully up and running.
Each has a budding visibility, and both are now able to take their first tax-friendly donations: news of 501(c)3 status for each came down in February.
“It’s the first time for all of us, setting up or establishing a nonprofit, so it’s a learning journey in itself," said Jason Payne, Public Safety Foundation chairman.
How have things taken shape?
“Organically,” is how Wendzik put it. “We’re not scripting this at all. We’re just, like, responding to it.”
“We want it to be a very caring, close-knit community mindset. That’s where this is going,” he said. Members, partners, donors, “Whoever they are, they just want it to happen, they want it to happen soon, and they want to be the force behind that because it is something special that we have here.”
“There are a lot of people waiting for an opportunity to make North Augusta even better,” added Sheryl Wendzik, Brian's wife and fellow board member for the Beautification Foundation.
“Parallel networks. Working together,” Brian said. “By sharing that communication, you avoid wasted energy, wasted time. By not working together, you end up with a smaller project or maybe just stopping it — but you want it to happen.”
The foundations have each embarked on their first donor-funded projects, too.
Robyn Hooker, board member for the North Augusta Beautification Foundation, was one of those manning the booth during Spring Fest April 27. One of the foundation's first donor-funded projects is to string up hanging baskets along Georgia and West avenues.
'A visual invitation'
A first donation to the Beautification Foundation is start-up funding for about 25 giant hanging baskets that will be strung up along Georgia and West avenues. By “giant,” think 32 inches in diameter. By “start-up,” know the plan is to eventually have 70 of these baskets hanging overhead.
“It’s a visual invitation for people to know that we’re here, the foundation’s here, to get them involved,” Sheryl Wendzik said.
Not just the baskets, “we’re talking about artwork also, and we want to connect to the Riverside Village as well. There’s a lot of opportunity down there,” she added.
Make no mistake, though: the foundation exists to benefit all areas of North Augusta, not just its downtown.
“A rising tide that lifts all boats,” Brian said. “We want to get North Augusta-wide involved in this. Whether it’s East Martintown and Atomic or West Avenue and West Buena Vista to Riverview Park or up Martintown and Knox, or get to Edgefield Road and Knox. It’s everywhere; it's not just a certain pocket.”
Providing “attractive, quality public open spaces and amenities that will enrich the quality of life for citizens and businesses of North Augusta, South Carolina,” is the Beautification Foundation’s mission.
The Wendziks said the goal right now is in increasing visibility, “keeping our hand on the tiger’s tail,” and finding like-minded individuals and businesses who might become members or partners of the foundation.
The NABF has secured a presence at Town Square Olive Oil & Wine for Third Thursday in May, and its leadership is toying with the option of maybe, possibly, hopefully holding a larger event of its own this fall, they said.
“We have a lot of goose feathers flying all over,” Brian laughed.
The North Augusta Public Safety Foundation had a presence at Third Thursday in March. You can find them out for Third Thursday May 16 as well: they'll be behind Your Pie, on West Avenue.
A memorial plaque and 'growing in the right direction'
North Augusta’s Public Safety Foundation has a few goose feathers flying around, too.
Chairman Payne said the more procedural work — setting up a website and a business account with Microsoft — is going on in the background while the outreach has already begun: the foundation had its first presence during Third Thursday in March and will also be out for Third Thursday in May (look for them behind Your Pie, on West Avenue. K-9 Blaze will be there).
Even if the website isn’t up yet, the foundation is set up to take in-person donations, either cash or check, and events are regularly posted to its Facebook page.
First up in donor-funded initiatives is what’s expected to be a $2,500 memorial plaque for the memorial garden that’s part of the design in North Augusta’s new Public Safety headquarters.
Supporting the department’s long-standing community outreach events is also top of the list.
Foundation Vice Chair Becky Dearden said they'll be at NADPS’ Touch a Truck event at Victory Baptist Church on May 11 and will be helping with the department’s softball tournament on May 31.
The North Augusta Public Safety Foundation meets every last Thursday of the month at 6 p.m. at Station No. 2 on West Five Notch Road. Vice Chair Becky Dearden said she's hopeful people will come out and give their input on how the foundation might better serve the city's Public Safety department.
“We really do want some more community involvement,” Dearden said, also noting that having people come to the foundation’s meetings and giving their ideas can be a big help.
All that’s just the short term.
“I want this foundation to be here long after all of us are gone so that 30, 40, 50 years from now we still have a healthy foundation for a pretty robust population of members,” Payne said.
The idea is that the foundation will get to a place financially that it could assist North Augusta’s Public Safety department with major funding.
“If there are big ticket items that the city just can’t budget for to be able to provide them, whether that’s additional equipment or training that our officers need, we would love to just be able to provide that because they’re the ones who are keeping our community safe,” he said.
But, he added, “that’s not necessarily something that happens overnight, so we’re trying to take very deliberate steps with growing in the right direction, to not just be a small-time non-profit but we’d like to certainly be a key stakeholder in the city.”
