Friday, of course, is Groundhog Day.

It’s time for that eagerly awaited moment when Ray Rodgers sticks his head out of his window at the Richland Two office, sees no shadow at all and dissolves into a funk for the remainder of winter.

As for me, I’m predicting four more months of winter. Lest we forget Sept. 21, 1989, let me remind you that Mother Nature is no fairy godmother. Ultimately, she’s going to make us pay for all this beautiful weather we’ve been having!

Wanna bet?

The E.L. Wright Educational Foundation will hold its annual fund-raiser from 7 to 10 p.m. Friday at the Holiday Inn Northeast.

Monte Carlo Night is for adults and features games of chance.

For a $10 donation to the foundation, participants receive a bag of “money” to play with. At the end of the evening, winnings can be traded in on prizes donated by area merchants. There will also be a silent auction.

The E.L. Wright Educational Foundation provides funding for teachers’ projects. (Last year, you may remember, the foundation fund-raiser was a roast of Harry Parone.)

This year, grants have been issued for a math lab, slides for S.C. history, computers for sixth-graders and diskettes for geography. Also, the foundation annually funds publication of the school’s literary magazine, “Trends.”

The foundation’s long-range goal is to equip E.L. Wright with a computer lab. Harry Sunshine is president, and Doris Blocker is secretary/treasurer.

Have you noticed that there seem to be a lot of pink cars on Columbia Northeast roads these days?

That’s largely due to Susan Weeks, a Spring Valley resident who is a top- ranked director for Mary Kay Cosmetics.

Susan’s team was recently named top producer for all of South Carolina!

And one of her consultants, Sande Snead Fulk of the Windsor Lake area, is the latest to win the use of a Pontiac Grand Am — pink, of course.

Remember Jim Manning? He’s the Greengate resident we profiled a few weeks ago, the fellow whose nimble fingers have snared numerous awards for his cross- stitch and needlepoint.

Well, that’s not the only thing he’s good at!

In December, Manning was named Employee of the Quarter at the state Health and Human Services Department. The catch is that he’s not an employee anymore — he retired in August.

However, after Hugo hit, Manning spent so much time helping hurricane victims that nobody could tell he was retired! The award was well-deserved and a really nice gesture on the department’s part.

Now here’s good news. About 30 E.L. Wright Middle School eighth-graders spent a recent Saturday picking up 57 bags of trash along Alpine Road, administrator Virginia Laney reports. That’s more than 850 pounds of trash, folks!

The school’s Environmental Club, supervised by Gale Soltish, is participating in the Adopt-a-Highway program.

Imagine 13- and 14-year-olds giving up a precious Saturday to pick up trash. Heartwarming!

A local wag — who didn’t want to be identified, but you can probably figure it out with a little thought — called to suggest that maybe Clemson University needed to sell that land at Hard Scrabble and Clemson roads to pay off Danny Ford’s contract.

Hey, don’t blame me — I’m just reporting it!

Heard — or made up — any good jokes lately? Jennifer Nicholson, your community editor would like to hear them. Maybe they’ll wind up in print! You can reach her at 771-8507 or toll-free from Lugoff-Elgin, 1-800-922-3448. Or write c/o The State, P.O. Box 1333, Columbia 29202.