♪ opening music ♪ ♪ ♪ >> Hello I'm Beryl Dakers.

Welcome to Palmetto Scene.

It's time to spring forward as they say this time of year, taking the old and making something new.

We begin this episode by jump starting our health and nutrition programs.

Meet Jeff Witherspoon.

After training other soldiers to work out as a therapeutic way of dealing with PTSD, Jeff, a Citadel graduate and champion track and field athlete, decided to expand his reach and create a virtual program that is literally taking the country by storm.

♪ upbeat music ♪ Dawain>> First thing I will say is, this program is unlike anything you've ever done before.

This program is not just food, It's not just workouts.

It's also community.

This program brings friends and family together in a way unlike anything.

The Facebook page is drama free.

It's hassle free, and you able to find people that are like minded that are interested in fitness, and can push each other along the way.

We're here, because we're in Columbia, South Carolina, where we're having one of our meetups, and we are meeting with the coaches in person.

It's an online based program.

So we're able to meet with the coaches in person as well as meet with friends and now family that we developed in E2M.

♪ hip hop music ♪ woman>> I've been in the program a little under a year.

You've been in the program LC >> A year and a half.

>> A year and a half.

I found out through my cousin.

I saw my cousin was losing weight.

And I was like, "What are you doing and how can I do it?"

>> I had a friend that I saw post about it a lot, and I was reluctant and watched on the sidelines for a few rounds and then finally decided to jump in myself and it's been the best decision I've ever made.

It's...it works.

Barratt>> It warmed my heart so much to see this many people in Columbia, like out of all places, and it's really neat to see everybody come together from surrounding areas.

I just didn't expect it.

I knew it was going to be big, but I didn't expect it to be this big.

Jeff literally set up a program that he's like - he wants us to live longer and do better, and that's really special, and when we fall off we aren't, we aren't chastised, for "What, you didn't do good last round."

We're "No, you're...going to do better this round.

LC>> Just pick back up.

Barratt>> You pick back up.

You find an accountability partner and you just do it.

♪ >> I'm one of the personal trainers for E2M Fitness.

I specialize in the 20 Minute Hit Circuit.

We call it the Sunday Thunder.

I go in.

It's a quick, in and out.

I'm one of six personal trainers for E2M and I also do a spin class on Thursday nights.

Now that the weather is turning a little bit, the weather is getting a little warmer.

So, we're going to try to hit all the main hubs throughout the country.

A lot of them are on the east coast.

So, you got Columbia, Charleston, Charlotte, Jamestown, New York, New Jersey.

We're going to be down in Orlando here in a few weeks.

So, just trying to meet up with all of our clients throughout the country, and we're also trying to give back to the community.

Today we were able to write a 10 thousand dollar check for the women's shelter here in Columbia.

We offered team shirts, everybody got to pick a number one through five and each one of those shirts, a portion, a percentage of those shirts, went to the charity.

We were able to donate back to three or four shelters within the...few communities of E2M Jeff is still in the military and I'm still a physical education teacher.

I teach up in New York, K through 12.

That's my, that's my passion.

My kids are my passion.

You know, this is my passion and we're all from our own basements, our living rooms.

You know, we're all working from home right now.

Brittney Bracket>> We were invited to chat more with the mastermind behind a fitness craze, people can't stop talking about.

Motivating others has become Jeff's favorite pastime, and we're here to learn more about his incredible online community of dedicated followers.

I'm here with the incredible viral sensation, Jeff Witherspoon of Eager 2 Motivate.

>> Hey!

>> How are you?

>> I'm good.

I'm great.

I'm happy to be here.

Brittney>> Tell me how you got started to motivate other people in this way.

Jeff>> Yeah, so the way E2M, Eager to Motivate, the way it started, I've been into fitness for a long time.

It's one of my passions and people have hobbies.

This is my hobby.

So, I like working out in gyms.

I like staying in shape, and so over time, people would ask me for workout tips, meal planning, things of that nature, but I wanted to make sure that I got certified first, did all the school, background stuff first, before I started giving advice to people, and so along with my professors at William and Mary and my colleagues, and my cohorts, we kind of, kind of war gamed how to use the platform best.

So, there was so much functionality in Facebook, that wasn't being tapped.

So, I use all the functionality of Facebook to bring their business to everybody.

Brittney>> Do people have to have specialized equipment to do your program?

Jeff>> I'm glad you asked that question.

So, most of my workouts can be done with very small dumbbells.

Yeah, so very lightweight, and I have some workouts that don't even use weights.

So, some of my stuff can be done with no weights at all, but my program is set up so that if you have a spin bike at home, you have a treadmill, an elliptical, whatever workout equipment you have, I have so many workouts that you can bring in equipment, that you already have.

Anything.

So whatever you have to get your cardio done, I can bring that into my group and help you use that to be more effective.

Brittney>> Very cool.

I can not wait to do your workout, and I hear you have trainers >> Of course >>that are here to wear me out.

So, I'm looking forward to it.

>> Let's get it.

>> Let's go!

>> All right.

♪ hip hop music ♪ Brittney>> After that workout, y'all have me burning up in here.

Where do y'all get the passion for...fitness, and where did it all come from?

>> So, I grew up playing outside, that was our generation, We were biking.

We were roller-blading.

We were doing all the things.

I've played all the sports in the book or attempted to anyways and then I just carried it through into my adult life.

And now I have a three year old and it's so important for me to not only keep up with her, but to teach her healthy lifestyle and healthy habits too.

>> What motivates me more than anything is our clientele.

When I feed their soul, they feed my soul and it's just amazing, the love that is shared in the group.

Brittney>> I can imagine.

You guys have 100,000 clients.

I was blown away when I heard that.

>> Us too.

Whitney>> Yeah, exactly.

Brittney>> I commend the work that you do.

I'm going to try to.

You guys are giving me motivation.

I'm going to have one of these shirts one day soon.

>> Yes.

>> But, thank you for all that you do, and I'm looking forward to this fitness journey as many others are too.

>> Can't wait.

>> Thank you.

Beryl>> Next, we'll visit two ladies that have a history of providing health and wellness strategies to the community.

They decided to join forces to create a cooking show called Sit, Chat and Chew, b ut due to the COVID 19 pandemic, they had to find a creative way to access the community and to reintroduce this concept.

♪ mellow music ♪ Michele Reid-Harper>> I am a certified integrative nutrition coach.

Some people say holistic nutrition coach, but the focus for me is in nutrition.

As a fitness competitor, and a personal trainer, I knew how to get my body and my clients' bodies stage ready, you know, ready to go just tone, tight, the six pack abs, the, you know, the guns for arms, and I was like, "Okay, I got it down.

", but then, over the years, I just wasn't feeling well.

I started to get acne and acne on my back, and, you know, I'd tell people that if you were to open up my six pack and look at the immune system, my colon, my, you know, reproductive system, I was very, very unhealthy, and so that is what started me to realize, wow, you know, nutrition is so much more of the... equation, than I thought, specifically I was having issues with fertility, and that's, a lot of women know, that ...is a tough journey to go through.

It was a four years of going through infertility until we arrived at our blessing, a one and a half year old daughter that we have now.

For me, I was over exercising, and this is why consulting with my clients is so super important because we know exercise is important, but in my journey I was overdoing it.

I had to peel back on that, and I had to rearrange some things in terms of the food.

I had to change my perspective.

>> I got started in health and wellness, because I actually lost my mother at the young age of nine to heart disease.

I'm a southern girl.

So, we're from Orangeburg, South Carolina, and she, like so many others, you know, just traditionally ate a lot of the wrong things.

It's all about our cultural, you know, the macaroni and cheese, the chicken and you know, a lot of the greasy foods that were a staple in our household, and so I sought out on a journey to seek out a career in medicine.

That transformed into a journey into wellness about 10 years ago, because I recognized that the change had to start in the mind, and so there's a saying that where the mind goes, your energy will flow as well, and so I recognized that if I could tap into the mindset of individuals, educate them about health and wellness, but tap into their mindset, help them to become internally motivated to make those changes, then I can make a difference in their lives.

>> I met Donna Jenkins in a medically based weight management program here in Columbia.

She was the personal trainer and I was doing the nutrition coaching for the program, and the program changed over the years, but we became friends and we just had so much in common.

She's so kind hearted, and we really just want to help people, and we realized that, we're both health coaches, but we come at it and we help people in - from different perspectives.

She's the mindset, motivational, mental planning side of things, and then I'm the nutrition side, But Donna and I, we just, you know, we laugh.

We hang out.

Donna>> We were having some strategy sessions, and then we were always sitting down over food, and then we would just kind of talk about or chat about different topics.

Michele >> We sit.

We chat, and we chew, and that actually is literally how we were coming up with the name of our show.

Hello everyone.

This is Sit, Chat and Chew where we are here to help give you confidence in the kitchen, >> confidence with your health Both>> and confidence in yourself.

Donna>> So, Sit, Chat and Chew o riginally was supposed to be a cooking show.

So COVID happened, and it completely changed what we initially wanted to do.

So, what we're doing now is through a virtual membership.

It allows us to do the one on one consultations without individuals having to leave their homes, as well as, participate in virtual cooking demonstrations and cooking instructions via their own home.

Be careful with the prepackaged seasoning seasonings.

You want to be careful, because you can have a lot of sodium, as you mix the different seasonings together.

Michele>> Today, we're going to be preparing something called the deconstructed burger, along with some sweet potato fries, and a homemade honey mustard dressing.

It's everything that you would put on a burger that we love, but it's not going to have the bread.

So, we're excited because a lot of people are excited as well.

They're cooking more at home, because they're working from home, and they just need to know how to do it.

Tanika Bryant>>The fact that we were able to do it virtually, to me, was a plus, Ferguson>> I really was excited that I got to do it in my own kitchen, because I know everything is.

I'm comfortable.

I know how my stove cooks.

You know, it just... and it was still, we were still able to interact.

Gadson>> I liked the fact that I was able to cook, alongside professionals.

So, I can get that immediate feedback.

It's almost like you're in the kitchen with me.

Michele>> Food is medicine, and when we know that, then we can get excited about all the food that's out there that we forgot to eat.

So, let's get back to it.

Let's get back to the color.

Let's get back to knowing that we're giving our bodies what it needs with nutrition.

To this day, you know, we know that we are going to provide great information and just great accountability to people in our community.

Karen J. Clinton>> Ms. Donna, every excuse I try to make, she has something for it.

It's like, she shuts down every excuse, and I need that.

I need that.

Donna>> The better educated you are, the more empowered you are about your nutrition, about your diet, about your health and wellness overall, the longer and more effective and more valuable your life becomes.

If we can change the mindset, we can change the life.

Beryl Dakers>> In order to move forward as a state and a community, we must connect with our past.

The South Carolina Department of Archives and History is an independent state agency whose mission is to preserve and promote the documentary and cultural heritage of the Palmetto State.

During the pandemic, one group sought out this agency as a valuable resource to tell a story that otherwise may have been lost.

♪ soft piano music ♪ ♪ >> The main thing that we do here is to collect, preserve and provide access to the permanently valuable public records for South Carolina, and by that I mean records that were produced by the colonial government, by state government, by county government and municipal government in South Carolina.

In the very earliest record, we've got dates back to 1671, and some of the more recent records we've gotten in from some of the state agencies or up into the 2000s.

...So, we have a span of about 325 years worth of records.

The size of the collection is about 30,000 cubic feet, and based on the numbers of pieces of paper, we can get in one of those boxes, we estimate that we got about 35 million documents stored here.

So, we really do have a huge collection of information.

We like to think of ourselves as the long term memory for the state of South Carolina.

During the COVID pandemic, we've seen an increase of people going to our website, looking for information from our records collection, as opposed to coming in, in person to do research with us.

Yeah, I think, for instance, during the pandemic, it brings people closer together.

They look more towards family.

I mentioned that we have about 75% of the people who come in are doing family history research, and so I think that sparked an interest in that.

One of the things we were able to do during the pandemic was, we put up a revised edition, on our website of our sources for African American geological research here.

We came out with a paper edition in 1996, but a lot has been put up on the internet, and lots more records have come in since then.

So now, this is up on our website, where it gives people information about where to look for information about their family.

♪ >> I'm Janie Harriet, and I am the immediate past chairperson of the South Carolina African American Heritage Commission.

The exhibit is actually Black Carolinians Speak: Portraits of a Pandemic.

...It was important because when the pandemic hit, one of our commission members was standing in line at Walmart one day and said, "Look at the people around me.

They all look like me."

And so he called the Department of Archives and History to find out if there was any record of how African Americans fared in the 1819 pandemic, - 1918 pandemic, and he found that there was very little.

At the time, I was the chair of the commission, and he called me up and says, "Janie, we have to do something.

We have to make sure that South Carolinians, their reactions, what happened to them in this pandemic is recorded, because this pandemic is affecting more African Americans than other cultures in this country.

So, that's why it was important that we do that.

So, the exhibit itself is a collection of art work that was submitted by people that we interviewed.

It is also a collection of some of the interviews and portraits of those people.

We selected portraits of some of the participants for the exhibit.

We interviewed at least two people from every county in the state.

Of course, some counties have more, and we want it to be representative of those people in the exhibit.

So, our curators went through the interviews, and selected those people that were probably most vocal, or their stories resonated, and then we had in the exhibit, some of the artwork that was collected for, by the curators or by the program, and then our curators created these other scenes.

One of the exhibits was a cabinet of questions, the kinds of questions that were asked about the exhibit.

On the wall, we had all kinds of masks because, you know, we all became mask wearers and people started wearing masks to represent their culture, represent their feelings, their fashion.

So, we had a wall of masks.

So, there were a number of things in the exhibit.

Then we had the funeral home director, and we had a nurse.

So, it was ...a culmination of all of the things that we collected in this oral history project.

♪ soft piano music ♪ >> I'm Eric Emerson, director of the South Carolina Department of Archives and History.

I'm also State Historic Preservation Officer and state archivist.

I think it's really important that there are institutions like this, that capture and preserve the public record, basically the record of government, from local government, all the way up to state government, and it's important because, you know, historians...will build histories of COVID based upon the things that the state of South Carolina did, and then it's also important for transparency.

You know, when...we were locked down and people didn't have, you know, access to a lot of things, it's important that they know how governments work and during times like that, especially times of strain upon government.

Transparency is a really big focus for state archives and territorial archives in the United States, as well as the National Archives.

We try to stock the gift shop with items that will be of interest to people who are interested in South Carolina.

So, we have South Carolina related items.

We have books by South Carolina authors.

We have books of South Carolina topics, you know, products that are produced in South Carolina, you know, food products, things like that, anything to be a nice gift for someone who likes South Carolina's flag, the emblems, you know, whether it's a crescent and a Palmetto.

So, it's anyone who's doing research here or is interested in the gift like that, we're the place to come.

I want the average South Carolinian to know that if they're interested in, in their history, their family's history, their family's interaction with South Carolina, whether it's just passing through, or people who've resided here for a long time that they can come here to do genealogy to learn more about themselves, and also learn more about their state, and learn about how South Carolina has been shaped and changed by attitudes and by events for the past 300 odd years.

It's...a location that they can come to to kind of get in touch with who they are, and where they live.

♪ piano music concludes ♪ Beryl>> Finally, let's take a look at a new spin on South Carolina's official snack, boiled peanuts.

We visited a local upstate company that has found a zillion ways to kick up the flavor of these tasty treats.

Carla>> I literally tell people all the time that if I was stuck on an island, boiled peanuts would be probably one of my three foods that I carry with me on the island, because I love them that much.

♪ upbeat music ♪ Brittany>> You're driving by and you see the boiled peanuts, and I think that's what we've kind of always thought of as boiled peanuts.

We've seen them on the side of the road.

We pull over.

We eat them in the car, and that's...kind of the way it is, and I think that's what we wanted to do differently.

We wanted to stand out.

I mean, we're here in the upstate.

We're in Simpsonville, South Carolina in a food hall.

♪ As a southern snack, it's actually good for you.

It's got good vitamins.

It's got good protein.

So, it's fantastic, but then it's just an amazing southern treat.

Adam>> Everybody who's had them knows they're an amazing snack.

In addition to that, it's just, just a thing you do.

It's something about sitting around eating boiled peanuts, that is a special part of the enjoyment of the snack, as well.

Carla>> Growing up as a little girl in the Lowcountry part of South Carolina, there's a lot of boiled peanut stands on the side of the road.

It was just that Sunday tradition after church.

You get out of church and you went to the stand and I had my three books and you try these boiled peanuts that people just put their blood, sweat and tears into.

Adam>> There's a little bit of contention between a few different southern states on who, which southern state had them first.

They actually probably came from overseas.

There's probably some other nations in the world who made them before we did.

Of course South Carolina's official state snack is the boiled peanut, and that's something that we wear a badge of honor about being a South Carolina boiled peanut company, because it's our snack, and so my wife's from Alabama and she likes to say they're from Alabama, but they're not.

South Carolina boiled peanut culture has a lot to do with just tradition, and what we do as a family, and how we enjoy them and all of that.

Brittany>> We couldn't find boiled peanuts in the upstate.

I think traditionally, boiled peanuts have kind of been found on the side of the road, and you never know when you're going to find them.

So, for us we really wanted to have a place where you could come and get boiled peanuts at any time.

...That's really why we got started.

We couldn't find them.

There was a need.

Adam>>...We said let's make our own.

Let's try it and see what we think, and we gave them away to family and friends and they said, "Okay, we need more peanuts", you know...that was a big part of it for us was people wanted more.

So, instead of trying to find a job that we necessarily loved, we decided we turned something we love into a job.

There's more than one variety that people boil.

Jumbos are really popular to boil.

That variety is not necessarily what we wanted to bring.

It's a Valencia Peanut, is what we love and what we find that you know, our customers love, as well.

It's a little bit smaller, a little bit richer in taste, a little bit firmer.

I think it's a little bit pandemic driven, maybe a little bit crop, rain driven, as well, but there was a big shortage this year on peanuts, We were...buying a few weeks at a time, that kind of thing, all of a sudden, everybody was out.

...We kind of started scrambling a little bit.

We were like, we have to...figure out where to get peanuts.

So, we were driving all over the state just to find enough peanuts to keep things rolling and so, you know, we're hoping and praying that this coming season, this coming harvest in the fall that a lot of that's going to turn around.

So, we actually spend about 16 to 17 hours every time we make peanuts.

You get the ingredients, the base ingredients in the pot.

You get it going.

You boil for part of the time.

You simmer for part of the time.

A big part of it is salt to water ratio and the amount of time.

You don't want them too firm, because then they're crunchy.

You don't want them too soft because then they're mushy.

So, getting all of that right and then at that point, once I get the actual original salted peanuts done, what we do is we move on to getting our flavors ready.

Brittany>> For Adam and I, we really wanted to introduce boiled peanuts to a younger generation.

We make some really funny Tik Tok videos and that's really helped us gain a following here in the upstate.

The younger generation always want something new and fresh.

What we did was we introduced new flavors to really hit that younger generation.

Adam>> ...and some people will turn their nose up at flavors and some people won't try the salted original to save their life, just because they want the excitement.

Brittany>> Our most really popular crazy flavor is dill pickle.

People love the dill pickle flavor.

We've done a Guinness boiled peanut for St. Patty's Day and then we've done for July fourth, we've got, of course, barbecue flavor, as well.

Carla>> I was introduced to them at a little street fair thing and I was like, "Oh my gosh, barbecue or cajun", and I started buying them and I was like, "man, these are really good, and then when I started following them on social media and started seeing their reveals of these different like outlandish, crazy flavors and so it's an excitement every week to see like what's going to be the reveal what's going to be the new flavor.

Am I going to like it or not?

I have...tried everything and I haven't found anything that I don't like yet.

Brittany>> It's really important for us to show our kids, you know, what hard work looks like.

We want them to see us working really hard at something that we're passionate about.

Adam>> For them to understand the whole process of what it means to work hard, and then also, while we're working hard to love what we're doing, and so...that's something we want our kids to see us do, and understand and be able to know that, that's something they can grasp as well.

Brittany>> What we think we do differently is we really try to take it a little bit more upscale with our packaging.

We have these really adorable craft cups that we put our peanuts in, and then we also do peanut blites.

So what that is, is it's small snack sized cups of different flavors, because I think what I've seen is people want to try the new flavors, but they don't want to get this huge thing of course until they get addicted.

Right!

♪ mellow music ♪ Beryl>> For more stories about our state and more details on those stories you've just seen, do visit our website at Palmetto Scene.org, and of course, don't forget to follow us on social media: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at SCETV #Palmetto Scene.

For all of us here at ETV and Palmetto Scene, I'm Beryl Dakers.

Be safe.

Stay well, and thanks for watching.

♪ closing music ♪ ♪