This weeks Spotlight is on Sandy White of Ace Basin ABATE. She was born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina growing up in North Charleston and attending Garrett High School. White graduated in 1982 and worked civil service for 17 years. She lived in California for a few years and returned to South Carolina in 2000.
White’s mom was born and raised in Walterboro, she says, “My family is the Walkers, and she was born here and raised here, all my family’s here. I’ve lost a lot of my family over the years, and my mom had property in Colleton County, and both my sister and I moved to the property in Walterboro.”
White and her boyfriend Billy Humphries own B&S Handyman Services. She has a sister, two boys and two grandchildren.
Sandy is very active in ABATE holding three positions, Assistant Coordinator, Membership Coordinator, and Events Coordinator. Ace Basin ABATE is a chapter under the South Carolina Abate. They are an organization that fights for motorcycle rights. For example White says, “We just had our 47th annual helmet law rally last weekend, and that’s where we fight for the right for people to make their own decision on whether to wear a helmet or not. In South Carolina you’re not required to wear a helmet when you become an adult. We also do a lot for our community. Each month we have a dinner ride that we go to, and we pick a restaurant that is in our community, and we go to that restaurant and have dinner, and enjoy each other’s company and stuff like that. So that’s one of the things that we do.”
ABATE also has a yearly Toy Run. White says, “This is our 24th annual toy run. We are the only organization that gets toys and monetary donations for the children, that stays strictly in Colleton County. Everything we get stays in Colleton County. We partner with Colleton Baptist Association; they give us a list of all the names of the children that are in need in the county. With that list, we gather toys through barrels and jugs placed in local businesses and monetary donations from the public. These businesses support us and support the community as well. It’s a group effort. We have 33 members in our ABATE group, and everyone gets out and participates.
ABATE also provides the families with food to prepare a Christmas meal. They get all the ingredients and everything to prepare their meal, to have the whole Christmas experience. Eighty-Six families received two boxes of food last year. They also provided 26 seniors meals for shut-ins in the community.
ABATE is open to the community, “You don’t necessarily have to be a motorcycle rider to be in ABATE. We do have what they call cage riders. That’s people that ride in their cars. They are welcome to come with us, and they follow the pack wherever we go. We try to include the public as much as possible through our events page, we have dinner rides if they would like to come ride with us and see what we’re all about.”
Sandy and Billy ride a Fat Boy Motorcycle. She has only been riding for a short time, “I just started four years ago. My mom was a big advocate for motorcycle rights, she rode a lot, and I never did until she passed away, this was something that was very near and dear to her heart. When I was given the opportunity to join ABATE. I joined and have been moving up in the group, and doing what I can to help. It’s not it’s not just one person. We’re a family and we work together as a family.”
She likes to spend her spare time with family, “We’ve got two dogs, trigger, and buck. They are beagles. They also like to hunt rabbit and deer. We fish, we hunt, I take care of my stepmom, and help my friends. I don’t have a lot of hobbies. My hobbies are doing things for other people.”
They have made a ride to Sturgis 20/21 and Daytona Bike Week.
White wanted to thank the community for their support, “This goes a long way for a lot of kids in the community, and we thank you very much, because without them ABATE wouldn’t be able to do this for the community.
