Time to Get Back to Work

The photo above shows J.H. Oulla and the first set of printer boys at the Connie Maxwell Orphanage standing in front of trays of type in the early 1900's. The orphanage had purchased a printing press to provide vocational training and to publish the Orphanage Notes, a monthly paper. The boys here are taking a break but will soon be getting back to work just as I am doing now on "The Connie Maxwell Story" documentary.

Let me start with an apology to everyone who has been following this project for the long time it is taking me to complete it. When I first began working on "The Connie Maxwell Story" in the summer of 2013, my thought was that it might take a some time to finish but that I could get it ready for the alumni reunion in 2016 if not sooner. I teach communication full-time for Anderson University in Anderson, S.C. so I knew my time to work on the project would be somewhat limited. But I also knew that, unlike many projects of this type, I had tremendous resources at my disposal that would help to speed both research and production. Dr. Atha T. Jamison, Connie Maxwell's first superintendent, had written two histories of the children's home during his lifetime and Dr. Alan Keith-Lucas had written a third that covered the first 100 years of the ministry. Added to this was the excellent job the Connie Maxwell staff and alumni have done over the years of preserving historical artifacts and photographs. The alumni and staff were also more than willing to give me access and assistance so I thought I would be able to knock this out in relatively short order.

Alas, it is now the summer of 2017 and I am still plugging away. The project is going well and I am still enjoying working on it but I've just learned to expect everything to take longer than I think it will initially. There are several segments of the rough cut posted on this site so if you haven't checked those out, please do so. Also, now that summer has arrived again and my university schedule is somewhat reduced (I'm still teaching an online class), I am back at work on the project and hope to make strong progress over the next couple of months. I will post additional segments as these are completed and anticipate linking the segments with soundbites from the many Connie Maxwell leaders and alumni I've been privileged to interview through this process.

I've learned my lesson about making predictions for completion so I won't do that here except to say that I would love to finish it this year since this is the ministry's 125th anniversary. We'll just have to see on that, however.

If you have material, photographs or suggestions that you think can aid me in this project, please feel free to contact me. I would love to hear from you. I'm sure I will be posting specific requests for assistance here and through social media as I work this summer.

Thanks for your patience!