5th Annual Westie Awards

After several weeks and several nominations — each one worthy of recognition — the West Of editorial department again had the daunting task of selecting just the handful of folks who sacrificed their time and energy to make West Ashley a better place to live, work, and play in 2013.
Each recipient may well be worth their weight in gold, but they’ll only be receiving a measly golden cow statuette for their efforts. While these cows may be cheap molded plastic dipped in gold paint, they are a symbol of something much greater. They symbolize community building and altruism on a very local and tangible level. They represent the spirit of West Ashley. Congratulations to the 10 men and women who are honored this year’s Westie Awards. Thank-you for all that you do for West Ashley.

Tom Whitman
Excellence in Community Activism, Senior Crusader 
AKA: The Grey Avenger, Tom Wittman, Tom Whitman, and all the other ways West Of has misspelled his name in the recent past.
Tom Witman has been the front man on the effort to bring a senior center to West Ashley. The retired submariner-turned-therapist has been diligently working for years to bring to our part of town a center that could rival similar facilities on James Island. Working politicians with a velvet glove and calm tone, Witman kept reminding the majordomos, like Mayor Joseph P. Riley, Jr., of the larger numbers of silver foxes that call West Ashley home. Witman, and West Ashley, scored a quiet victory earlier this year when Riley included more than $3 million in the upcoming municipal budget for a substantial down-payment on what is expected to be an $8 million center located on the St. Francis Roper Hospital campus off Glenn McConnell. This commitment came a week after Witman privately worried if anyone was listening to him. They heard you, Tom, loud and clear. And we’re the better for it.
 

Jamee Haley

Local Cheerleader

Pros: Hell-bent on making the Lowcountry everything it can be, commercially.

Cons: Picky about which photos of her can be used.

More than 150 businesses in West Ashley have joined Lowcountry Local First, the nonprofit Haley runs that works to foster more loyalty to local stores and businesses. While she shills for the entire area, Haley, who lives a stones throw from the Ashley River in a neighborhood off Orange Grove Road, has great love for West Ashley’s mix of businesses. Never one to sit on her laurels (or to approve of photographs that she says make her look 9 feet tall – oh, whatever), Haley is close to opening Local Works, a “co-working” office space area in the Neck area of the peninsula up King Street, where budding entrepreneurs “working from home or on laptops in coffee shops” can find a home, replete with office amenities, like a meeting room. While Haley doesn’t limit her efforts to West Ashley, we’re sure a common tide will float all boats. Thanks for the work.

Aaron Siegel
Excellence In BBQ
Educated at the Culinary Institute of America
Exudes a distinctly oaky scent, bleeds red and black
About the only thing as long as the lines at Fiery Ron’s Home Team BBQ at dinner and lunch is the list of national food reviewers palavering over his ribs and sides: Esquire magazine, Southern Living magazine, foodie blog The Daily Meal, and USA Today, to name a few. Owner and pitmaster Siegel has shown that not all the food-buzz in Charleston belongs on the peninsula. “I also got a ‘rising star” award from StarChefs magazine, for having a fresh concept,” said Siegel, on his way to the 1205 Ashley River Road mothership. In addition to his West Ashley shop, he has a sister Home Team on Sullivans Island, and a cousin store, providing food at The Alley restaurant/bar/bowling alley, downtown. Siegel said he’s looking for the next spot to open his next Home Team. You know, Aaron, there are a lot of empty Sticky Fingers spots lying around. Just sayin’.

Lisa Trott

Excellence in Teaching

Winner of the 2013 Charleston County Teacher of the Year

a.k.a. The Cow Lady

Ask around Ashley River Creative Arts Elementary School and the kids love and respect Lisa Trott, who has been at the school for 13 years. The always look forward to her intuitive lessons, laid back class, and stories. Many call Trott the “Cow Lady” because of her affinity for all things Cows (pillows, stuffed animals, Chick-Fil-A calenders etc.). She now has a golden cow Westie Award to go along with her other cows and other awards, such as the Charleston County School District’s Teacher Of The Year for 2013.

Trott always finds ways to keep her Students engaged and the lessons fresh, like incorporating the Beatles’ timeless hit “Yellow Submarine” to teach students about the Hunley and Civil war. Trott’s lessons are designed to engage and help students really grasped the assignment; “When they ‘get’ the learning, when they enjoy the learning, their unbridled exuberance for the learning, all of these things make my job exciting and new each and every day!” And the kids really do “get” it.

 

Joseph P. Riley Jr.
Greenie
AKA: Mayor-for-life, His Eminence, Quality of Life King
For years, praise was heaped upon Joe Riley for charting the rebirth of Charleston following decades of cyclical decline. And then, for years, criticism was heaped on him in West Ashley for only focusing on the peninsula, treating ‘burbs like West Ashley as a redheaded stepchild. His one big project on this side of the river or the past 10 years was a traffic circle planned for the intersection of Glenn McConnell Parkway and Bees Ferry Road – a project that seemed to fly in the face of his New Urbanist mantras. But this year, Riley turned it on, starting work on three Ashley River frontage parks that will someday link up with county parks via a riverwalk. Northbridge Park will soon provide an incredible place for kayakers and other light craft to put in, and Higgins Pier Park will provide walkers an excellent view of the river. Riley spearheaded an effort to buy up acreage along the riverfront south of Charles Towne Landing before developers could move in. His staffers moved, albeit creakily, to solve parking problems caused by expanded dining options in Avondale Point, and got cars out of neighborhood lawns. And, as if that wasn’t enough, hizzoner backed away from plans to expand the James Island Senior Center, in order to create a new purpose-built senior center in West Ashley. He’s had family in Avondale; maybe that explains it?

Andre Dukes

South Carolina Assistant Principal of the Year

WAHS Rookie of the Year

Devoted to his job and his hobby

For West Ashley High School Assistant Principle Andre Dukes, his job is more than just a job. For Dukes his job is a self-admitted hobby, “Curriculum is my passion, I’m always working on ideas to provide various access points for students to jobs or college. I’m always researching and tinkering with new ways to engage students.” In talking with Dukes you can easily tell that he has a devotion to his job. In just one year at WAHS, Dukes has already won the South Carolina High School Assistant Principal of the Year award. Now Dukes can add a more personal award to his soon to be copious collection — a Westie. Dukes says that to win a West Ashley centric award is “a big honor and humbling.” When asked here he plans to put his golden cow, Dukes didn’t have to hesitate to answer; “in my office, it’s based on work done here, it’s an honor to display here The award’s for students as well. I want to put it around my kids.” Dukes is also working on earning his Doctorate, and hopefully another Westie.

Brady Quirk-Garvan

Environmentalist/Promisekeeper
Transplant from Boston, cheers for something called “Socks?”
While it’s been a group effort between the several parks conservancies and the City of Charleston and Lowes and others, Brady Quirk-Garvan gets the Westie this year for helping to bring a community garden closer to fruition at the corner of Sycamore and Magnolia roads. Quirk-Garvan was the main fund-raiser, helping by mid-January to bring in $40,000 in individual donations to complete the money raising. Quirk-Garvan, who works in progressive-themed investing, said that now the shelter has been completed, community planting boxes will begin to be installed in mid-March. He said more boxes would be erected than originally planned, because of increased support and interest in the project.
 

Jason Groce

Comedian, booze peddler, monster

Funny on stage and on Facebook

6’3, 260 pounds dripping wet, which is most of the time

If pink is the new black, then 40 is the new funny. Jason Groce, 40, who trained and works as a graphic designer, has been tending bar at Gene’s Haufbrau on Savannah Highway for the past 11 years. And he has also been hosting the area’s best open mic comedy show once a month (roughly) at Tin Roof on Magnolia Road, going back to 2009. Originally, the show was called Little Caesar’s Palace until an angry letter arrived from a corporate lawyer. Now, possibly skirting legal trouble again, the Tin Roof Open Mic (TROM) continues to cook. (What’s next – Walled Isney Wood?) Free and open to first-timers, Groce keeps the boho spot a welcome respite for those who need to shake off their worries. A member of the Theater 99 company ensemble, Groce this year was the co-winner of the Charleston Comedy Festival’s standup competition. Known for his dry wit and weird, weird way of looking at things, Groce has proved that West Ashley holds its own on the entertainment scene.

Debbie and Wayne Hansel
The quicker cleaner uppers
Crusades against litter
Last Seen: Picking up trash on the side of the road
When you find yourself driving down Orange Grove Road, and you think to yourself, “Gee, this road sure is clean.” And when you wonder why that is, think no further than North Dakota transplants who’ve blossomed here — Debbie and Wayne Hansel. “Litter is my … ‘pet peeve’ isn’t a big enough … ooh, I hate it,” says Debbie. Longtime friend Beverly Rivers nominated them for a Westie after watching them adopt and clean Orange Grove for the better part of 15 years. Recently, a nearby civic club has officially adopted the road. “But two weeks after they did their big pickup, it needed cleaning again,” said Debbie, bemoaning drivers’ thoughtlessness. Wayne, a retired naval engineer, will dispose of an appliance left in yards before sanitation crews can get to it in a few days to ease visual blight. Their sense of the republic passed onto their progeny, one of whom just took a hiatus from a job in the foreign service. Debbie keeps busy playing tennis and helping Rivers maintain high-end gardens. And her and Wayne’s efforts have made sure that this blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this … West Ashley, remains a demi-paradise. At least down Orange Grove Road.