Home Care In Pageland, SC

Tourism is the main driver of South Carolina’s economy, accounting for about 10 percent of jobs in the state and an estimated annual impact of $29 billion.

The University of South Carolina helps keep this economic engine humming by preparing graduates of the College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management to take on key roles in a variety of businesses and by helping those businesses adapt and grow.

“It’s about getting our students jobs, but it’s also about getting into these businesses and organizations for research then using that research to provide help to the industries,” says Robin DiPietro, director for the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management. “We need industry and, in reality, industry needs us to provide great employees and to provide cutting-edge research.”

That dual mission starts with hiring faculty who have the right educational background and the industry experience to provide students with the perfect balance of coursework and out-of-the classroom experiences to learn the business.

“Most of our faculty come from the hospitality and tourism industry. That's where we started,” DiPietro says. “Not only do faculty need the academic credentials, but they need to have some experience in our field, because that's the primary way it will benefit our students.”

USC’s work on both fronts is essential to the industry’s success. But there also is a learning curve, especially for parents who are looking for a return on their investment in their child’s education.

“I think that’s one of our challenges, trying to overcome this ‘burger-flipper’ image that we sometimes have with parents,” says Duane Parrish, director of the South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism.

Meeting workforce needs

Parrish, a 1981 USC business graduate, has more than 40 years’ experience working in hotels, including when he was a student at USC.

“I graduated in one of the worst times economically,” Parrish recalls of his USC days. “It was ugly in terms of finding a job.

“But I had been working at a Holiday Inn and I really loved it. My general manager took me under his wing and taught me the hotel business,” he says.

Parrish has been an instructor in the College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management and serves on the college’s industry advisory board. His agency hosts HRSM interns every year and several of those interns have started their careers with the state department.

He says part of what the advisory board works on is helping students with that “kitchen table” conversation with their parents — convincing them that hospitality careers are more than waiting tables.

“If your child comes home and says, ‘I want to work in hospitality or in a hotel,’ that's a tougher sell for the child,” he says.

Parrish says hospitality wages are up more than 20 percent since the pandemic.

“I don't believe many at all in our industry are making minimum wage anymore,” he says. “We've come a long way in terms of pay, but we still have that reputation nationally as a ‘burger flipper,’ I'll call it. But we've come a long way from that.”

Different roads lead to hospitality

For 2002 biology graduate Laurie Savidge, it was her parents who suggested a return to school to earn an advanced degree in hospitality.

“My introduction to working in the hospitality industry was at Charleston Place Hotel. And how could you not fall in love with hospitality there?” Savidge says. “My parents gave me the great advice of, ‘You might want to consider continuing your education and learn more about the business of hospitality.’”

So Savidge returned to USC to earn her master’s in 2005 in international hospitality and tourism management.

“That's where I really learned the fundamentals of the business of hospitality,” says Savidge, who is director of operations for Marriott’s Grande Ocean resort in Hilton Head Island.

But it was two visiting professors from Australia that Savidge says laid the groundwork for her interest in corporations’ environmental and social responsibility to the communities they operate in.

To that end, Savidge partners with local purveyors — farmers and fishermen — who provide produce, seafood and other products from areas like the Port Royal Sound for the resort’s guests.

“Marriott International and Marriott Vacation Club have a firm foundation in corporate citizenship and giving back to the community our resorts exist in,” she says. “I've been fortunate to support our organizational sustainability initiatives since the early stages of my career.”

Savidge has also taught hospitality classes at USC Beaufort and some of her students have gone on to be employees with Marriott Vacation Club.

“We provide tours to hospitality students who want to learn more about the business and see a resort, see the front of the house, see the back of the house, and we do a Q&A,” she says.

“When I was teaching introduction to hotel management, I had a student who went on a tour, then he became an hourly associate and now he's one of my managers.

“I love being able to see their careers grow and see how their degrees have helped them be successful leaders.”

Education and experience

Darron Kirkley began his hospitality career at the age of 18, working as an event planner for his hometown Pageland, S.C., Chamber of Commerce. He worked there while he was earning his first degree from USC in math education (2007).

“I just fell in love with the industry,” he says. “I think that's one thing a lot of people don't think about, the necessity of the education and the training behind festivals and events. So that’s sort of where my life changed.”

But getting deeper into the industry without a hospitality degree was not so easy.

“I literally applied for a job straight out of college and my undergrad wasn't in hospitality and tourism, and I was told point blank that I didn't get the job because I didn't have the degree,” Kirkley says. “The industry experience mattered, but there are definitely those employers out there that value education.”

Kirkley returned to USC to get his master’s in international hospitality and tourism management and later a second master’s in sport and entertainment management.

Now Kirkley serves as Chesterfield County’s tourism coordinator, where he is responsible for sales, marketing, advertising, social media and all other aspects of getting people to come to a destination.

He says working while he was in class helped him make the connection between what he was learning and how it applied in the real world.

“I then could instantly go and apply those strategies, theories, those future trends, future topics that we were taught in class and see that actually happening in real life, which was definitely unique,” he says. “But it goes back the other way, too. In class as we had those discussions, I could bring in those real-life experiences of what the industry was facing.”

Kirkley also gets to put his undergraduate degree to use as a teacher — by day at Central High School, where he teaches a hospitality class, and by night, as an instructor in the College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management.

“I serve on multiple committees and boards that are tourism-related, so when our students come out, they are very well versed in what the current trends are, what's going on, what the state is experiencing,” he says. “I think that has made a huge difference for our students having those connections.”

Those industry connections don’t just help the students, but they help professors and researchers in the college learn even more about the industry.

One such USC research project is funded by the Economic Development Association to create an online training tool for the post-COVID hospitality industry.

“It's through our industry connections that we are able to collect surveys or collect data that helps enhance our research,” DiPietro says.

“We really need those industry connections for student success, which is No. 1, to get them jobs, then secondarily, getting relevant research data and being able to provide it back to industry partners.”

PAGELAND, S.C. — More than 20 dogs were rescued from a dog fighting ring and breeding operation that deputies discovered in the Pageland area.

The Chesterfield County Sheriff’s Office announced on Monday that one person was arrested in connection with the investigation into the dog fighting.

According to CCSO, animal control officers received a complaint about animal cruelty happening on Smith Lane, just outside of Pageland to the southeast. The sheriff’s office began investigating with the help of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, and federal agents.

According to an incident report obtained by Channel 9 reporter Tina Terry, one of the dogs was found roaming the streets.

Deputies said the dog was “acting skittish and acting in an aggressive manner by growling.” The deputy said, “the stray dog was acting like it was going to lunge and try to bite me.”

The investigators went to the property on Feb. 6, and they seized 13 adult dogs and nine puppies. They were taken to the Chesterfield Animal Shelter.

The conditions of the dogs weren’t immediately given. It’s not clear if they’ll be made available for adoption.

“It makes me feel angry because that is not right. It’s not right,” neighbor Demetric Blakeney said.

Blakeney told Channel 9 that she was grateful that law enforcement shut down the dog-fighting ring that wasn’t too far from her daughter’s schools.

“Very grateful that they’re taken away because they’re just like humans,” Blakeney said.

The sheriff’s office says a suspect identified as Derwayne Terry Miller, Sr., was arrested. He’s facing weapons and drug charges, along with animal abuse and neglect charges. Federal charges are also anticipated against Miller.

SLED said it has been cracking down on this kind of activity. In September, the organization said it had seized around 50 pit bulls from York County as part of a massive statewide takedown.

If you have information about any dog fighting in Chesterfield County, the sheriff’s office asks that you call 843-623-2101 or the tip line at 843-287-0235.

(WATCH BELOW: Charlotte Area Investigators Get Tips On Breaking Up Dog Fighting Rings)

PAGELAND — If Tim Griffin could build his own personal paradise, it might look something like the 72nd annual Pageland Watermelon Festival.

The Pageland Chamber of Commerce president has waited all year for this, and he’s dressed in full watermelon regalia: cowboy boots hand-painted to look like watermelons, watermelon-emblazoned khakis, a watermelon backpack with watermelon tchotchkes attached, a watermelon shirt, even a watermelon top hat complete with a red feather sprouting from the brim.

It’s not blood running through his veins, he joked. It’s watermelon juice.

Griffin hopes that the spirit on display during the four-day celebration — that of a close-knit community working together toward a common goal — lasts forever. But he worries that it won’t.

Pageland, a town of 2,500 people on the South Carolina-North Carolina state line, is changing. As the Charlotte metro area spills over the border, the community has become inundated with people looking for more affordable, convenient housing. Pageland’s population will double by the end of the decade if development continues at the current pace.

That growth brings opportunities, but for a rural community long accustomed to its isolation, it also comes with immense challenges, residents said. They worry about overcrowded schools, inadequate infrastructure, emergency services stretched thin and the rising cost of living. They worry that the town’s identity will be lost.

During the watermelon festival, Griffin watched as tourists filled the streets of the small community, as town council members cut into fresh watermelons, handing heavy chunks to passersby. He watched as kids — and even some adults — competed beneath the park gazebo in the seed-spitting contest, and as residents, many wearing past festival T-shirts, conversed over cups of watermelon sweet tea.

“We’ve got to manage our growth,” Griffin said. “And we’ve got to be very proud of who we are, so people want to be a part of that.”

But Griffin is afraid the town is losing ground.

“It’s scary,” he said. “It’s scary because what’s coming is unknown to us.”

‘We don’t know everyone now’

In Pageland, people aren’t afraid to say hello to each other. That’s what many like about living in the small town.

Simple things, like trips to the grocery, become social occasions, said Linnett Burr, who moved to Pageland when she was a child. She decided to stay, raising her family there and spending 47 years as a realtor.

Now, she works in an office downtown that she shares with her son, a lawyer. On the weekends, she watches her grandkids play baseball, and she still runs into people at the store who she helped buy their first home.

Robin Usher, a third-generation resident of Pageland, taught for years in Chesterfield County schools. Her husband spent 20 years as the high school football coach.

The students Usher taught and the kids she watched on the football field were the children of the people she grew up with. Her own children grew up surrounded by neighbors who didn’t hesitate to offer help, an experience she believes shaped them.

“This is a great little town to raise your children, to live in, to go to church with and different things, because 99.9 percent of us are looking out for each other,” Usher said.

But Pageland has begun to change, the two women said. It’s not necessarily a bad change, but it’s a noticeable one.

Burr won’t go to the grocery after 8 a.m. It just gets too crowded. Usher retired in May after more of her students and their parents became strangers to her.

“In the community, just going to the grocery store and not knowing people is new because for so long we knew everybody at the grocery store, when we shopped,” Usher said. “ … We don’t know everyone now.”

The area around Pageland has long been known as a bastion for certain forms of agriculture, such as watermelon farming, which requires the sandy soil that exists in the region. Settlers reportedly began arriving in the late 1700s.

It wasn’t until 1908 that Pageland was formally organized, after the railroad arrived. It was named for Adolphus High Page, the railroad president.

Since then, the town has had its ups and downs, but in the last several decades the population has hovered around the mid-2000s with little growth or decline. That’s about to change.

A study commissioned by Pageland projects the town will grow by 2,608 people in the next 10 years and add an additional 1,050 housing units. That will bring the town’s housing stock to more than twice the number it has currently. Many of those additional units are already in development.

Officials said Pageland’s growth is largely driven by the housing market in Charlotte — an hour away — bursting at the seams.

From 2020 to 2022, median home prices in the Charlotte metro area increased 54 percent from $273,500 to $420,000, according to a report from the Childress Klein Center for Real Estate, a branch of the University of North Carolina Charlotte.

The report found that skyrocketing costs are due to a combination of a dramatic increase in population and persistent construction delays, spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic and Charlotte’s natural growth.

Yongqiang Chu, the director of the Childress Klein Center and the report’s principal author, said the Charlotte market is one of the fastest growing in the nation.

On average, more than 100 people move to the area each day, and there’s not enough affordable housing to accommodate them. In 2021, more than 80 percent of households could not afford a median-priced home, Chu said.

That means some are looking to the suburbs and beyond, where housing is cheaper.

An expressway built in 2018 to connect Charlotte with Union County — the North Carolina county between Charlotte and Pageland — has made Pageland an even more accessible option. It’s about that time that the town started to see growth, residents said.

For a community that long ago grew accustomed to going it alone, the influence now wielded by outside forces has been difficult to get used to, said Adam Foard, a Pageland attorney who has spent his life in the town. Foard is Burr’s son.