It is a great honor and privilege to be the 2009 Come-See-Me festival Chair. I would like to thank the 2008 Board of Governors for instilling their confidence in me to chair South Carolina’s best festival.
There have been many great chairs before me, and I am honored to be mentioned in the same group.
I would like to first thank my wife Kasie for being here with our two beautiful babies, Charlie and Wylie. I want to thank her for being such a supportive figure and also agreeing to be the one who keeps me sane throughout this next year while keeping up with two
newborns. I have always been told that, “If Mama’s not happy then nobody is happy," and I have to say that Kasie is as happy about me chairing next year as I am.I would also like to thank my folks, Jimmy and Candy, for being here and sharing this special recognition
with me. My mom has even jumped on board the past 2 years and is the co-chair for this year’s Moonlight Jazz and Blues.
Next, I would like to thank my employer, South Carolina Bank and Trust of the Piedmont. When I told Tom Camp, our CEO, about this he was quite excited for me. He just laughed and said “Twins and the chair for Come-See-Me, wow, when do you plan on working?” But
really they have been great supporters for the festival and I am honored to work with such great people.
The next group I would like to talk about is the team leaders. The team leaders are the worker bees that keep the festival
running as smooth as it does. You are only as good as the people you surround yourself with, so I went after to of two of the best that I know to be vice-chairs with me for 2009.
Catherine Faircloth is a vice -chair for the 08 festival and has agreed to join me next year. Catherine is married to Freddy Faircloth and has a 26 month-old daughter named Rose. She is a native Rock Hillian and works as a buyers agent for the Stephen Cooley
Team. She is a graduate of Wofford College, but is a Clemson Tiger by marriage. She has been an active volunteer in the community and has served with the Junior Welfare league, York County Chamber of Commerce, United Way, Interfaith Hospitality Network, and the
Museum Gala to name a few. Her first memories of Come-See-Me include her and her neighborhood friends participating in the parade and riding down Cherry rode in trash cans, pushed by their dads, playing pop goes the weasel and popping out on queue shooting toy
bazookas.
Matt Watson has been a jack-of-all-trades the past several years, being the team leader for Beach Bash, Entertainment, and Tailgate. Matt has agreed to help me as a vice-chair as well. Matt is also a native of Rock Hill. He is a graduate of Clemson University
and now works as an agent for Gill Insurance. He is also very involved in the community and participates with Come-See-Me, Kiwanis, York County Clemson Club, and the Lunch Buddy program thru Sunset Park School. Matt along with Catherine rode in the trash bins
down Cherry road, but also remembers cutting holes for the head and arms in card board boxes to wear. They rode down Cherry Road in the back of a truck dressed as Christmas Trees and sang Christmas Carols during the parade. I would like to thank both Catherine
and Matt for joining me as vice-chairs and I look forward to working with you again this coming year.
In closing, I would like to thank you all for coming out and being such great supporters of the festival. I am sure it holds a special place in your heart as it does mine. I am going to tell you a story of my most favorite memory from Come-See-Me. When I wa s
about 9-10 my dad decided to find a frog and enter him in to the frog jump. It was the biggest and slimiest old frog I had ever seen, but my dad had a way to make him look wonderful. He had a miniature black cape with a garnet black “C” put on the back and
wrapped it around the frog. He packed the frog along with his jam box and we headed to Cherry Park. When we arrived it was show time. Dad fired up the music, and it was none other than “2001”. He put on his magic hat, waived his wand and out jumped Cocky the
Frog. That is about where the excitement ended, because our frog didn’t like to jump in game time situations, it crawled, and it crawled very slowly, so it lost but it captured our hearts with its valiant effort.
Again, thank you for this honor and I am looking forward to putting together a great festival for 09! |
