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Profile: Spartanburg, South Carolina Chapter

Submitted by Molly Ford on Fri, 07/17/2009 - 5:04pm.

The “Official Unofficial Drink of the Obama Administration,” as decided by Drinking Liberally’s National Contest, was the Hope Float. The Drink consists of Baileys, Butterscotch Schnapps and Crème de Cocoa, and was concocted by Cass Chulick of the Spartanburg, South Carolina chapter. This week we profile the Spartanburg chapter as it celebrates its first birthday.

Cass Chulick, a chapter leader for Drinking Liberally Spartanburg, was first recommended to Drinking Liberally by her therapist, who thought she might need a social outlet after the tragic loss of her boyfriend to cancer. Cass brought along her friend, Kevin Justus (who is also a chapter leader for Spartanburg), and together they attended a meeting of the Greenville, SC chapter, about 45 minutes away. They had a wonderful time and couldn’t believe they had all these “instant friends who think like we do…in South Carolina!”

After making the trip to the Greenville chapter’s meeting a few more times, bringing along more friends and even Cass’ parents, they started to question why they were making the drive to Greenville when so many of them were from Spartanburg in the first place. Cass’ dad, Al Chulick, took the first steps to make the first meeting of the Spartanburg, South Carolina chapter happen.

The first year was nothing short of a successes. “It has been a truly amazing year to host Drinking Liberally in a conservative southern town,” said Cass. “The gratitude that has been expressed by the folks who have found us this past year is outstanding.”

New chapters can learn from Spartanburg’s experiences. In the beginning, meetings would sometimes amount to just two to four of them hanging out at the bar, wondering if they were wasting their time. But after promoting their chapter on MySpace, spreading fliers around town, and hearing the encouraging words of Justin Krebs at the Living Liberally National Conference (where he noted that, in the nascent days of the original DL in New York City, it was sometimes only two people sipping at Rudy’s), they decided to press on. Now, when the Spartanburg chapter gathers at the Hickory Tavern, between six and fifteen people show up, and that number is anticipated to grow.

“Spartanburg appears to be becoming more progressive,” says Cass. The town had their first Gay Pride March this year, the number of local liberal bloggers is growing, a co-op grocery store is in the works, and they even held a pep rally, “Stand Up for Spartanburg” this spring, where community members got together to celebrate their Spartanburg pride and find ways to better their home. The changing environment in Spartanburg is setting the stage for a fantastic second year of growth and prosperity for this great Drinking Liberally chapter down in South Carolina.