November 2020 Issue

Overcoming Adversity | An Interview with Aiken Mayor Rick Osbon

It has been a privilege to hold the position as Mayor of Aiken for five years now. Has it been challenging? Absolutely, especially due to COVID-19 affecting our world, our country, our state, and our city. But through adversity come self-evaluation and reflection, which lead to innovation, new ideas, efficiencies, productivity, and opportunities to achieve success. Whether a small business, a large manufacturer, or a city, I want you to know — you will be better, stronger, more profitable, and able to reach and help more people because of the challenges we are currently facing. When Team Bella recently asked me about why I love what I do, I immediately

Buying Your First New Car

So I got a new car! Yay! It was much harder than I expected. There were many things I didn’t know I would have to know. So I figured that I would give some advice on the things that I didn’t know so that anyone who is thinking about buying his or her first car could get some insight. The Dealership Finding the place to buy the car was a lot harder than I originally expected. I was pretty much under the impression that I could go to a dealership and they would have exactly what I wanted in the exact color and with all the features I wanted. Wrong!

Artist Spotlight | Go Figure – Artist Cheryl Elmo

The artwork of Cheryl Elmo captures the human experience through the simplicity of everyday moments. Go Figure is a collection of Cheryl’s artwork that focuses on human connections, capturing something special in an otherwise ordinary moment in time. These everyday moments made special will be featured in the main gallery of the Aiken Center for the Arts through November 30. Come and immerse yourself in the different perspectives awaiting you in this thoughtful exhibition. Cheryl first picked up a paintbrush when she was 6 or 7 years old, and she has been painting ever since. She tried many other mediums but always came back to watercolors. She loves to see

Be Challenged

Publisher’s Letter From Your Fearless Leader “Change does not change tradition. It strengthens it. Change is a challenge and an opportunity, not a threat.” Prince Philip of England What a wild ride we have taken on the rollercoaster of life in the last few months. In August, we were getting “Back To” life. September was our “Change” issue, which rolled into October with our “Creativity” issue. We decided to get creative with our branding and we revamped our focus to #bebetterbebella, to start where we are and to find our voices. We are telling our truth. We are honoring the process by accepting where we are at and identifying what

What are Telomeres?

Have you ever wondered why some 60-year-olds look and feel like 40-year-olds and why some 40-year-olds look and feel like 60-year-olds? Thousands of studies have been done on aging, and many are beginning to point to an inescapable conclusion: our lifestyle choices, what we eat, and what we don’t eat may actually affect our aging process. The aging process begins at birth. Lifestyle choices made throughout childhood affect our aging process either positively or negatively. What exactly are telomeres and what role do they play in aging? Telomeres are tiny pieces of DNA that are critical to our ability to stay young as we get older. Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, University

Mary Allen and Eagle Corps Services

I have recently had the privilege of befriending the amazing Mary Allen of Eagle Corps Services. I have known Mary for over a year and was introduced to her husband Richard and their company when they presented at a Rotary function last fall. I was very impressed with the products they offered and how they are changing safety in our community. Eagle Corps Services, LLC is a minority-owned small business owned by Richard Allen, a service disabled veteran who has over 35 years of experience leading safety, security, fire, and emergency response programs. He has successfully run large, complex security and emergency services organizations at major Department of Energy and

First Person Account | Fall of the Berlin Wall

My family has always had a strong connection to Germany, and later, to Berlin. As a result, I have long thought that the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, with the geopolitical changes that resulted, was the most pivotal world event of my life. Although neither had any German ancestry, my parents met in the 1930s, in Heidelberg, where they were both pursuing doctoral degrees. They returned to the United States in 1937, when Hitler’s influence was clearly on the rise. They married and started a family, and my father began his career as a college professor, but when the United States entered World War II, he

Employee Engagement in a Pandemic

It seems like an oxymoron. While our teams worry about keeping safe, learn from home, work from home, and alternate schedules, how do we ensure that they remained engaged with their work? Employee engagement has many definitions, but my favorite comes from Wikipedia: An engaged employee has a positive attitude toward an organization and its values. You may want to read that again. More and more employees are placing higher emphasis on organizational values. Employee engagement is infused into every part of the employee life cycle. Whether you’re an employee or an employer, it’s important to ensure that your values are on display, beginning with the hiring process. Keep in

A Tradition of Women

There is a decades-old tradition among the people of the Hawaiian Islands — among the women specifically, and those of Polynesian descent in particular — to take to their boats and pay tribute to their ancestors in a challenging and meaningful annual event. They race in outrigger canoes between the shores of two islands across wildly open ocean waters. And when they do so, they honor their mothers and grandmothers and all the women who have gone before them, and become an example for all those to come. They use only their own human strength: the power of their arms and backs, their wrists and hands and legs, their will