Featuring an image of shimmering water drops on a background of cool blues, the new "Chill in Aiken" banners are adding a splash of color to downtown Aiken and a little visual relief from the summer heat through the end of August.
The image on the banner, the third to go up in the "Seasons of Character" project, is based on a photograph of the fountains in Hopelands Gardens by Aiken native and artist Linda Prior Hunley, who created the design and concept with Langley-Bath-Clearwater Middle School English teacher Sally Jenkins.
"That fountain - it just feels good in the summertime," Hunley said.
The 60-by-28-inch banners are located at 10 intersections along Richland and Park avenues from York to Pendleton streets and at the intersection of Whiskey Road and South Boundary Avenue.
Other coordinating banners at the intersections highlight the "Character Comes First in Aiken" project - from which the "Seasons of Character" banners grew - and the corresponding character traits for the summer: Honesty, forgiveness and humor.
The banners also greet visitors at Citizens Park, H. Odell Weeks Activities Center and Smith-Hazel Recreation Center.
The "Chill in Aiken" banners join the "Fall in love with Aiken," featuring an orange maple leaf, and the "Joy in Aiken," featuring green longleaf pine needles, banners that decorated downtown streets during the fall and winter.
"All of the images are specific to Aiken," Hunley said.
The Joint Women's Clubs of Aiken and the Aiken Downtown Development Association, which sponsor the banner project, are working to raise funds for a spring banner with the theme, "Bloom in Aiken," and character traits, wonder, creativity and respect.
"The spring banner will feature an image of wisteria with a bee in Hitchcock Woods," Hunley said. "It's a purple color that is so luscious."
The banner project developed from Aiken Mayor Fred Cavanaugh's "Character First Initiative," which began in 1999, said Judy Cross, chairman of the "Seasons of Character" Banner project.
The Joint Women's Clubs of Aiken raised money and installed the first character banners - highlighting sincerity, respect, responsibility and other traits - that year.
The Clubs replaced the banners in 2006, and they remained in place until 2014, when they were taken down and made into pillows by clients at the S.C. Vocational Rehabilitation Department. Proceeds from the sale of the pillows helped fund the new "Seasons of Character" banners.
"The pillows were gone in about a week," Cross said.
The new banners connect the "Character First" traits to the spirit of the four different seasons.
"The banners are positive, and it just makes people feel good to see them," Cross said. "We need to see positive images."
Cross said she has received one grant for the project and is working on others but still needs some funding to pay for the spring banners.
Any contributions to help reach the goal can be sent to Seasons of Character Banner Project, Box 5926, Aiken, 29804.
An Aiken native, Larry Wood is a general assignment reporter. He started at the Aiken Standard in September 2014.