Heavenly Rest, Estill, Coordinates Efforts to Get Local Bookmobile Back on the Road

Allendale-Hampton-Jasper Regional Library representatives came to Heavenly Rest to receive the check. Pictured L to R: Frances Chavous, Chairman; Charles L. Carlson, Board Member; Glenice W. Watts, Board Member; Myrtle W. Sumter, Board Member; Chairman, Hampton County Library Board Member Sally Mayse; Carolyn Fortson, Library Director; Joy Yeisley, Estill Public Library Branch Manager; Darlene Thomas Burrroughs, Hardeeville Community Library Branch Manager; and Tommy Peeples, Bookmobile Manager. [Laura J. McKenzie / LJM Communications]

Adapted from an article written by Laura J. McKenzie

The bookmobile for the Allendale-Hampton-Jasper Regional Library System is back on the road thanks to members and friends of The Church of the Heavenly Rest in Estill.

Sally Mayse, a member of St. Mark’s, Port Royal, has been the diocesan liaison for the Southern Deanery throughout efforts to reinvigorate Heavenly Rest, Estill over the past few years. She worked with the Heavenly Rest vestry to restore the church and begin hosting services there again. Three services have been held there this year, with a fourth scheduled for November 27. But she wanted the church to do more. “I decided that we needed a mission as well as a ministry,” said Mayse.

She wanted to find a mission that would benefit the region while also spreading the Word. That led her walk into the Estill Library whose Branch Manager Joy Yeisley suggested she call Carolyn Fortson, director of the Allendale-Hampton-Jasper Regional Library System.

“That call was an answer to a prayer,” said Fortson. All summer, the library system’s bookmobile had been in the repair shop needing both mechanical repairs and body work. “I didn’t know where the money was going to come from to finish the repairs,” she said.

Mayse took the request back to Heavenly Rest’s vestry who generously donated to the project. People from churches throughout the Southern Deanery also contributed to the cause, and then Mayse submitted a grant request to Diocesan Council to contribute the remaining funds needed (the grant request noted they had raised $5,345 on their own, but needed $2,700 more). Diocesan Council enthusiastically agreed to provide the remaining funds through a grant.

Today the mobile library is back on the road, making 10 to 12 stops in the region. Locals young and old are once again able to check out books and DVDs, stretch their minds and share the gift of reading. “It was a miracle,” said Fortson.

On October 26, Allendale-Hampton-Jasper library board members and branch managers found their way to the little church in the woods, Heavenly Rest, Estill, to officially receive the check. Bookmobile manager Tommy Peeples parked the colorful mobile unit under the oak trees and the group came inside the church to hear about its history and hopes for the future. 

---