Volunteers with Salkehatchie Summer Service worked on several houses in Marlboro County. Site leader Bryan Mikels, left, worked on a roof with, l-r, Kendrick Baxter, Hunter Braswell, and Will Betsill of Easley.
After a pause due to COVID-19, the Salkehatchie Summer Service returned to Marlboro County during the last week in June.
Twenty-nine local and state volunteers worked on three houses in Marlboro County and one in Chesterfield County.
Caroline Lawson of Easley has been doing Salkehatchie for 20 years.
Each year, Lawson has spent her vacation volunteering.
“This is my favorite week of the whole year,” she said.
An attorney, she admitted she was not a carpenter or plumber but was grateful for the chance to help change somebody’s life by changing their house.
“And to see us function as God’s hands and feet during our time here in Bennettsville,” said Lawson as she took a break from replacing a floor in a bedroom. “It is the best I feel all year is being able to help people.”
Salkehatchie Summer Service is a pioneering servant ministry at selected sites in South Carolina involving high school and college-age youth, adult community leaders, and persons of different cultures in upgrading housing, motivating community cooperative efforts by helping persons to help themselves and providing all participants with opportunities for personal growth and service.
In the past 40 years, 63,000 volunteers have participated to help 6,000 families.
Leith Fowler, assistant director for Marlboro Flowers Salkehatchie, was in charge of the homes selected.
He said making sure roofs were fixed was the number one priority.
“If we don’t get it dried in, the rest of the house is going to go away,” Fowler said. When Salkehatchie started in Marlboro County, it averaged 170 people.
“COVID slowed us down, but we’re back with 30 people,” he said.
Marlboro Flowers Salkehatchie Director Susan Mikels had been participating with Salkehatchie since 2007.
She and her husband remodeled houses and moved from North Carolina to South Carolina.
One Sunday, they went to the Salkehatchie Sunday program at the Methodist church in Fort Mill.
It is when kids would go to the camps, come back, and talk about their experiences at the camps.
The Mikels decided it was what they wanted to do.
When COVID hit, Mikel said she and everyone was sad.
“This is our one time of the year where we all get together and work to help people,” she said. “It was devastating that we couldn’t do it.”
Arlene Andrews, the assistant director, was pleased to see the Salkehatchie return to the county.
On June 25, they had a special memorial service for Neil Flowers who died in 2019. She said he was the director for over 25 years.
Andrews said camps are done across the state and but were very small this year because it was their first year back.
In the past, they have worked on 10 to 14 houses in Marlboro County.
“This year, we’re glad to be able to reach out to three or four families,” she said. “We know there’s a lot more need and we know that God’s calling us to respond to that need. We have confidence that we’ll be coming back stronger, and we feel great about the group we have.”
One member of the group was Will Betsill of Easley.
He was 23 and had been involved for seven years.
“The work is fun,” Betsill said. “The community is vibrant and beautiful, so it’s just been amazing.”
He encouraged people to participate.
“I think the hardest thing is finding something and then saying yes,” Betsill said. “Get out there, get connected with a church or some kind of community, find people who are doing something great, and just say yes. That’s the hardest part.”
For Ellen Vereen of Clio, it was her sixth year of coming to Salkehatchie.
“I’m excited to actually get dirty and down in the ground and everything,” she said. “I like doing it in my community because I can see the difference. I might see the homeowner at the grocery store, and they’ll point out to their friends, ‘this person.
helped my house.’”
She added while it is only a week for the volunteers, time, the benefits last a lifetime for the residents.
“I just love seeing that difference,” Vereen said. “We fixed their roof so now it doesn’t leak in their bedroom. They can sleep in their bedroom now. I just like being able to see those impacts.”
It was the first Salkehatchie for Piper Eaves of Laurinburg.
“I’ve enjoyed getting to know my team and my site family and sitting down at dinner and talking to them and having laughs in the day in between all the hard work is nice,” she said.
Eaves said she was learning a lot from Lawson and Vereen.
“They are so upbeat and just continue to move on to the next thing when you’re getting hot,” Eaves said.
Eaves encouraged other young people and adults to come out and participate.
“It’s just for one week out of your year. And as Ellen said, it just changes lives,” she said.
Ward Smith, chairman of the board for Salkehatchie summer service, has been involved with Salkehatchie since he was 14.
“Salkehatchie is essential for the homeowners and for the people to participate and volunteer, he said. “It’s just essential for me that we have the opportunity. And at this stage in my life, it’s given people the opportunity to participate and to help people in need. I think that is what gets me up in the morning.”
Last year, Salkehatchie had 11 camps and we had 313 volunteers. And this year we have 32 camps and over 1,100 volunteers across the state.
“We are rebuilding, and we’ll be rebuilding for a while, but it’s already starting to get momentum again,” Smith said. “When I visit the sites, I like to see the interaction with the homeowners and the volunteers’ interaction with the work and each other. It brings a smile to his face.”
For information on how to participate, www.salkehatchie.org.