The Camden-Kershaw County Branch of the NAACP will celebrate its 74th anniversary this Sunday at 4 p.m. at Mt. Moriah Baptist Church, 801 Broad St., Camden. The theme will be “Advocate Love and Defeat Hate.”
The guest speaker will be Pastor Benjamin “Benny” Mingo of Beaver Creek Baptist Church of Liberty Hill.
Mingo is the 12th of 12 children born to the late John and Ella Mingo of Heath Springs. He is a graduate of York Technical College with a major in Technical Drafting and Engineering Graphics Technology. He launched his professional career with Standard Products Company in Winnsboro as a tooling design engineer servicing automakers such as Ford, Chrysler, GM, Honda, Nissan, Mazda and Toyota. Mingo also installed and maintained the CAD/CAM Systems, such as CadKey, MultiCad, SmartCam, MasterCam Concept and XLNC. He later launched another career as a project and design engineer with the German-based company Lang-Mekra where he managed accounts for American Lafrance, Western Star, Sterling and Freightliner. He also served as a senior engineer, overseeing and installation of Lang-Mekra’s U.S. division’s first $2 million multi-axis simulator -- all while continuing his pursuit of his Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of South Carolina.
Mingo is currently employed with the United Kingdom-based company, Spirax Sarco in Blythewood, where he has been a product support engineer since 2006. He was instrumental in transferring and establishing two assembly lines from Longmont, Colo., to Blythewood. He served as a senior engineer for an LMP project which transferred four assembly lines from the company’s London, England, headquarters to the Blythewood location. He holds CI certifications from the National Board of Boiler and Pressure Vessels. He also holds a third-class license from the American Society of Power Engineers for Boiler Operations and is a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt.
Mingo accepted his calling by God into the ministry in October of 2001 and was licensed to preach the Gospel in December 2001. He underwent catechism and was ordained in January 2004 by the Rev. Dr. Eddie McIllwain, moderator, and was elected as pastor of Beaver Creek Baptist Church in September 2005. Pastor Mingo is a graduate of the Morris College Extension Ministerial School of Religion.
Pastor Mingo believes in giving back to the community through his service. He was commissioned by the state of South Carolina to serve as a notary public in February 2002. He has co-chaired numerous health, education and safety awareness fairs in the Fairfield and Lancaster county areas. He organized breast cancer, sickle cell and autism awareness campaigns to support the Susan G. Komen Foundation, James R. Clark Memorial Foundation and Autism Speaks Foundation. Mingo also served as assistant scout master and merit badge counselor for the Boy Scouts of America. He is a Silver Life Subscribing member of the Camden-Kershaw County Branch NAACP.
Mingo is married to Sandra McDaniel Mingo. Married since April 1992, they are the proud parents of Omar Donovan Mingo, who is on target to graduate from Wofford College in Spartanburg in May.
