PHOTO GALLERY: S.C. State 1890 Extension Summer Camp At Local Church

By Betsy Finklea
Local children learned about Hispanic culture and much more at a S.C. State 1890 Extension (Pee Dee Office) Camp held at Great Expectations Church recently.
The S.C. State 1890 Pee Dee office serves five counties—Dillon, Florence, Marion, Marlboro, and Chesterfield. This is their first Arts and Citizenship Enrichment Camp at the church, according to Kinda McInnis, 4-H & Youth Development Agent.
The camp lasted two weeks with 25 children participating and focused on six pillars including citizenship, character, responsibility, fairness, respect, and caring.
The children took part in various activities over the past two weeks. Older children designed rocks with a message relating to the six pillars and placed them throughout the town with the help of their parents. They also learned about being good citizens in the community, McInnis said.
Another activity they did was planting a garden. Some of the items they planted included squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, and bell peppers. Then they sampled these same vegetables both cooked and raw.
A very special event took place to end the camp. The children learned about Hispanic culture, and South of the Border’s Food and Beverage Director, Lutherine Williams, was present to share some information about South of the Border.
Williams said South of the Border is like a “Little Mexico,” right here in Dillon County. She spoke of South of the Border’s extreme generosity in donating to charities such as the Shriner’s Children’s Hospital. She said this came about when some Shrine Bowlers came to South of the Border for a party and wrote their names on hats and stapled them to the ceiling. Since that time for a donation of $20 to the Shriner’s Children’s Hospital, one may get their name on a orange cardboard sombrero to be placed on the ceiling of the Sombrero Restaurant. She said South of the Border continues to match each contribution as they did from the beginning. She said over 5,000 people have done this and over $300,000 has been donated to the Shriner’s Hospital and that number goes up every year.
Williams said South of the Border was founded by Alan Schafer in 1949. In 1954, they built a motel, She said that Schafer went to Mexico and brought the two men back, got them citizenship, and gave them a place to live. They worked as bellhops at the motel for quite a few years and people called them Pedro and Pancho and then finally just Pedro.
After sharing some history of South of the Border, Williams quizzed the campers about what she had told them, and they won prizes from South of the Border shops if they were correct. Each child was also given a South of the Border gift bag.
When her presentation was complete, the children enjoyed eating hard and soft tacos and drinking “Mexican” drinks. It was a great experience for the children and an opportunity for them to learn about the history of this business in our county. The children enjoyed the presentation and the tacos.

PHOTO GALLERY
Photos by Betsy Finklea/The Dillon Herald
Click once on a photo to bring it into a single screen, and then again to enlarge.