Meeting | Topic: How to Downsize and Feel Good About It | Speaker: Candy Waites

Candy Waites is the founder and president of Seniors on the Move, the move management specialists, and is presently serving seniors in the Midlands.
She has an extensive career in public service, among many positions being the president of the League of Women Voters of the Columbia area from 1973 to 1976. In 1976, she became the first woman elected to Richland County Council where she served for twelve years. In 1988 Waites was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives and served for three terms. She was instrumental in the passage of legislation dealing with the reform of campaign finances and ethics policy. She also served as Director of Community Leadership Programs at The Leadership Institute, Columbia College from which she retired in 2010 after a total of 14 years.

For our March 16th meeting, Candy will present on “How to Downsize and Feel Good about it”. Her presentation will focus on why we need to downsize, we will go through a quiz to help you find what you need to get rid of, then Candy will give you some “how to” tips.

Candy Yaghjian Waites has enjoyed moving between the political world and the art world all her life. She has spent her entire career as an advocate for women finding their voices. In her art she focuses on drawing portraits and capturing people, especially children in poignant moments.
Waites grew up in Columbia in a home surrounded by the art of her father, Edmund Yaghjian former head of the USC Art Department and her mother, Dorothy Candy, known for her watercolors and pastels. Candy’s work has been in numerous exhibitions over the years, and she has taught art in the public schools and privately.
PUBLIC SERVICE: From 1973 to 1976, Waites served as the president of the League of Women Voters of the Columbia area. In 1976, she became the first woman elected to Richland County Council where she served for twelve years. In 1988 Waites was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives and served for three terms. She was instrumental in the passage of legislation dealing with the reform of campaign finances and ethics policy.

She has served on countless local and state boards and commissions.
During Jim Hodges’ administration in 2000-2003 she served as the Director of the Division of Children’s Services.

OCCUPATION:
In 2010 she retired as Director of Community Leadership Programs at The Leadership Institute, Columbia College after a total of 14 years. She also taught a course at Columbia College on SC Women Impacting Public Policy.
Two weeks after retirement she agreed to serve as Executive Director of the SC Gubernatorial Appointments Project with the goal of increasing the number of women in senior level positions in South Carolina government.
When that project was completed, she found she was still not ready to retire. So she took a new path as a senior move manager in the Midlands, a service dedicated to helping seniors downsize, manage and organize their moves to more manageable living spaces. She is the founder and president of Seniors on the Move, the move management specialists, and is presently serving seniors in the Midlands.

EDUCATION: Waites received her BA from Wheaton College, Norton, Mass. and her Master in Public Administration from the University of South Carolina. She has two adult daughters.