Refrigerated Trailer for Rent in Sumter, SC

SUMTER, S.C. — The military population is large in the South Carolina Midlands, but one county stands out. The recently released 2022 US Census Bureau data shows Sumter County has the most veterans per capita out of all the counties in the state.

"The people in the area just have a true love for you," veteran Lefford Fate said, smiling. "It just makes it better."

Fate served as command chief at Hulburt Field in Florida before moving to Sumter for Shaw Air Force Base in 2008. When it came time to retire, Fate decided to stay. Now, he works as Sumter support services director.

"People in Sumter get it," Fate said. "I've been to a lot of places. I was in the Air Force for 31 years. I've traveled around the world, and this is the single greatest place that welcomes military people."

It's part of why Fate says recent data from the American Collection Survey makes sense. The data shows that out of all the counties in South Carolina, Sumter has the most veterans per capita at 13.2%, with 76,401 veterans.

"Businesses look at census data to see if a community is growing," Sumter Project Manager Jason Stoddard said. "If we can show that we're growing community and that our average and median income levels are healthy and improving, then I think we see more businesses look at the community to come here, and so we improve quality of life. I read a report that said the military community out at Shaw Air Force base but also including retirees and veterans, are spending over $33 million a year at basically restaurants. Well, you know, that's a huge investment in the community. But also you think about hospitality tax and how that can generate funds for improving quality of life for things tourism-related."

According to a 2022 Economic Impact of South Carolina's Military Community report by the South Carolina Department of Veteran's Affairs, the Sumter region has an annual economic impact of $2.5 billion. The report shows that 16,916 jobs were supported by the military community, which generated $1.1 billion in labor income.

Stoddard is a veteran himself and said he helped with the 2020 census outreach awareness and education efforts.

"Businesses look at that census data to see if they want to open new stores, factories, restaurants, you know, in that community so we wanted to show we were a growing community so we could attract new businesses," Stoddard said.

"Sumter's motto is 'uncommon patriotism,' and I truly feel that they show it," said Sumter American Legion District 11 Commander Peter St. Onge. "Because the way they cater to the military around here, programs, VA clinics…the city itself, the civilians, they serve the military and the veterans. And it is uncommon to find that. There is a lot of towns where the veteran community just falls into the background, but here at Sumter, Shaw having a big impact in the Sumter economic plan; they kind of cater to each other."

It's a feeling that Pennsylvania native Jack Lonergan credits for his decision to stay in Sumter after a 22-year career in the Air Force. Lonergan now serves as the American Legion Department of South Carolina's Third Vice Commander and the American Legion Dalzell-Shaw Post 175 Commander.

"Cost of living, employment. I mean, I actually thought about moving to the beach when I retired from my next career, but I mean, my cost of living….my mortgage is lower than what a homeowner's association fee would be in a lot of places. So cost of living is number one, employment opportunities number two, the way Sumter treats the military personnel is fantastic. You don't get… I've never seen that type of relationship," Lonergan said. "To be able to belong someplace, that made me want to retire here, is I could go into certain businesses in Sumter, and the respect that I get because I'm a veteran is just phenomenal. It really makes you feel like you're part of the family."

"I mean, just that the leaders of this town, you know Murrell Smith is the Speaker of the House, he's from Sumter. So many of these guys truly believe in helping veterans and being part of their community," St. Onge said. "Sometimes when you go to Washington and stuff like that, you see some of it. It's just more of a photo op. But here, they truly believe it, and it's genuine. It's nice to see."

The census data was released in December and gives a one-year look at 2022 and a five-year overview from 2017 to 2022.

Fate said he believes Sumter's continued support of the veteran population comes down to communication.

"The city needs things. We need workers, we need leaders, we need all of that," Fate said. "So we need to be able to tell the people from the base what we need and want, right? And then they need to tell what they need and want and we just come together and have a conversation."

Public history student Stevie Malenowski spent his summer job surrounded by boxes of documents that had not seen the light of day in decades.

Years of furniture pamphlets, corporate memos and yellowing photos tell the story of Williams Furniture Company, a major employer in Sumter, South Carolina, from the 1920s through 2004. Malenowski’s task was to sort through the collection and scan some 1,200 items for digital preservation.

He was excited to learn from the specialists at University Libraries, who taught him standards for digitization and how to create a finding guide. He was less excited, though, to learn more about lumber.

“Honestly, the last thing I wanted to do was read more about wood products,” says Malenowski. “But the great thing about history is that the more you look into things, you see these characters start to emerge.”

Malenowski came to the project after taking a graduate class with history professor Jessica Elfenbein, who has been working to create a more complete historic record of forestry in South Carolina. In researching the industry in Sumter, known as part of the “wood basket of the world,” Elfenbein learned about the Williams Furniture Company archives at Sumter County Museum.

The museum loaned the archives to USC for digitization, and the collection is now available online through the South Carolina Digital Library.

“It’s amazing to think that all this history has been largely unknown until now,” Elfenbein says. “You’d never know that the ‘Williams’ in Williams-Brice Stadium is named for this furniture company in Sumter, or how the community there rallied to bring the factory to town. It was truly a community effort, and these are stories that are very important but little-known.”

Malenowski has also gone all-in on researching Williams and stayed on into the fall semester to complete the digitization project. He’s using the archives for his graduate thesis, which examines the impact of unionization on the culture of the Williams Furniture Company and the surrounding community.

“There’s so much to unpack in just this one area,” he says. “Having a union shop with an integrated workplace at this time was practically unheard of in the South, and it’s incredible how the union played a role in changing the social fabric of the town.”

Elfenbein hopes making the archives available will bring greater awareness of the far-reaching impact of this industry for the history of Sumter, South Carolina and beyond.

Last fall, Elfenbein taught an undergraduate honors course to feature the Williams collection. Lynn Robertson, longtime director of USC’s McKissick Museum, co-taught the course and led the class in creating a traveling exhibit that will debut later this year.

“All the students are from different academic backgrounds — business, science, the arts and, of course, a few history majors,” Robertson says. “What’s so great is that they all bring their own backgrounds, so they all look at it from different points of view.”

The course showed students just how relevant history can be as the students worked together to bring this untold history to the public for the first time.

In addition to creating exhibition displays, they worked in teams to conduct the first seven oral histories, which provide context for the archive materials and a different angle on the company’s story.

“Initially, I thought this class was completely unrelated to me, but I was wrong,” says Lauren Reasoner, an honors student in the College of Information and Communication. “Not only am I getting to professionally design the exhibit, but I also learned how to conduct oral histories, which turned out to be a crucial part of my senior thesis.”

Reasoner interviewed a Sumter resident whose grandfather sustained a devastating injury while working in Williams’ lumber yard, which shed new light on the company’s worker safety records. Other students talked with descendants of past owners and managers of Williams.

These interviews are now transcribed and housed in the Department of Oral History in University Libraries. Malenowski, along with another student, will continue the interviews this spring, thanks to grants from the College of Arts and Sciences Humanities Collaborative and USC’s Center for Integrative and Experiential Learning.

While the Williams collection is extensive, he says it offers an incomplete view of the company’s story without the perspectives of those who worked on the factory floor.

“The Williams collection is insightful, but it’s got such obvious blind spots. The workers are practically invisible, and you’d think the managers were the ones out there chopping down trees and building cabinets,” Malenowski says. “But we’ve finally gotten a list of people who want to share their stories.”

View the Williams collection online, or learn more about the Sumter County Museum. The exhibit will travel to locations throughout the state later this year. A comprehensive website, including content from the traveling exhibit, will launch in April.

Eriyonna Walcott is a senior at Sumter High School. According to the Coast Guard Academy, only one South Carolinian has been accepted so far this year.

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SUMTER, S.C. — It's college acceptance season for students nationwide, and in Midlands, one high school senior has found out she's going to the Coast Guard Academy. The Sumter High School student is the first and only South Carolinian to be accepted this year so far.

"Since I was probably like five or six years old, I just wanted to go to military," 17-year-old Eriyonna Walcott said. "My uncle, he's an officer in the Coast Guard. He retired as a commander in the Coast Guard, and I've always looked up to him my whole life. So, that just really inspired me to join the Coast Guard and be an officer."

Walcott said this inspiration and her school's ROTC program helped her confirm she wanted to join the military. Initially, Walcott said she planned to enlist right after high school graduation.

"I've never been the type of person to want to go to college or anything. That didn't happen 'til last year, late summer," Walcott said. "Ms. Gadson from seventh grade up until my 11th grade year summer, she's been juggling with me trying to convince me to go to college, so you know, Gear Up has really helped me. She made sure my grades were on point, my head's on the right track and all that type of stuff."

Because of Gear Up Counselor Audrika Gadson, Walcott is now the first person from South Carolina to be admitted into the Coast Guard Academy for 2024.

"You got kids who never thought they were gonna go to college accepted and ready to go," Gadson said, smiling. "Like, that's amazing."

Gadson has been working with Walcott and the Sumter High Class of 2024 for the past six years, making a difference, said principal Anamaria Sandor.

"The support they have received from the Gear Up specialist, it made a difference because they were exposed to more college options, to FAFSA, to meetings that they have with all the students to make sure that they know how to apply to the college, what letters they need, what recommendation, who to ask for recommendation," Sandor said.

"Makes me want to cry," Gadson said. "You know, you get a relationship with kids and, you know, you see so many kids never thought they were going to go even they just did, 'My path was strictly military,' you know, being able to talk to a child, be like, 'You know, well, you know, there's other options, you can still go to college and still be in the military at the same time.' You know, just introducing them to things that they never thought was possible and didn't know that exists, it's amazing."

The Academy said that only one person in the state has been accepted so far. In 2023, the Academy said only five students from South Carolina were accepted.

"It was either the Academy or the military. So, I feel like if you're determined to do something, you can make it happen. You have to believe in yourself and do everything you can," Walcott said. "ROTC - it helped develop my leadership skills and my responsibility. There's a lot of stuff in ROTC to help you with time management, all that type of stuff."

In addition to her school's JROTC program, Walcott said she's involved in many other extracurriculars, from the color guard and drill team to wrestling, swimming, track and National Honor Society.

"Another thing that got me here is all my support system. So, you know, my parents got number one, my principal, you know, everybody; they just kept encouraging me. So I really appreciate that," Walcott said. "If you go to college, you get more benefits, higher pay, that type of stuff. It's just a lot more benefits. I will get commissioning rather than enlisting. So yeah, I was like, you know what, maybe they're right. Let's do it."

SUMTER, S.C. (WIS) - An $80,000 chicken heist was foiled in Sumter County and a truck driver was taken into custody.

According to the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO), Christopher Thomas, 55, was supposed to deliver 41,000 pounds of chicken to two locations in Milton, Georgia, but had other plans to make cash.

”I don’t know how you get $80,000 worth of chicken out of the plant in the first place,” said an anonymous worker at Pilgrims Pride Plant.

Sumter County deputies along with the assistance from Lee County Sheriff’s Office arrested Thomas on Saturday evening.

According to the SCSO, Thomas — who is from Florence — was hired by Pilgrim’s Pride to deliver chicken and is suspected of having intentions of selling it.

WIS spoke to a worker at the plant who said this news comes as no surprise as these types of thefts keep happening.

”I’m not entirely sure how this is happening to be honest,” the worker said. “That’s a lot of chicken to be stolen out of there twice so I really have no idea how they’re even doing it and what they’re doing to stop it.”

Investigators believe Thomas sold part of the load of chicken he was transporting in various locations and was in the process of selling more when deputies pulled him over for a traffic stop.

When Thomas gave consent to deputies to search the truck, the investigator saw pallets loaded with cases of frozen chicken which was confirmed to be stolen from Pilgrim’s Pride.

Thomas was arrested with approximately seven pallets loaded with 215 cases of chicken that weighed 8,000 lbs.

It is believed Thomas sold about 33,000 lbs. of chicken.

Thomas is charged with breach of trust with fraudulent intent and is valued at $10,000 or more.

The worker gave insight into what the company could do to better manage the security of the plant.

“I guess the checkpoint to make sure on who’s coming in and out, what’s on the trucks and all of that,” the worker said. “I have no idea on how they get the trucks out there cause usually there’s these big trucks with freezers in them so I’m guessing they have one of those.”

If found guilty, Thomas can spend up to 10 years in prison.

Thomas appeared in court on Monday morning and was granted a $50,000 bond, but has yet to pay it.

In May, WIS News 10 reported on a similar incident in the same county where two men were arrested after being accused of stealing $40,000 worth of boneless chicken breast from Pilgrim’s Pride. However, investigators said the two crimes are not connected.

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Charlie Dubose has been collecting Christmas figurines and lights for almost five decades and sets up a big display every year for residents to drive by.

SUMTER, S.C. — Sumter residents are lining up in their cars to drive by a Christmas display that’s been growing for nearly five decades.

“There's just something about Christmas lights. It come from when I was a little boy, the first time I ever plugged up a set of Christmas lights. When I plugged them lights up, it made me click as the fella says. It just lit me up,” lifetime Sumterite Charlie Dubose smiles. “It just thrills me to look at them.”

It’s why Dubose and his wife Susan have been collecting figurines and lights for 47 years, placing them outside his home.

“No matter what I do here, it’s coming from my heart,” Dubose shares. “That’s where it's coming from.”

Dubose says he starts setting up in September.

His display has been growing every year, covering his 10 acres and spreading Christmas cheer to residents who drive by and to Dubose’s neighbors like Ginny Miller.

“I mean, it's funny to watch the traffic coming in and out, in and out all the time.,” Miller details. “But it's alright.”

Miller says dealing with traffic near her home during the month of December is worth it to see the joy that Dubose spreads.

“Just everybody come by and enjoy,” Miller explains. “I mean it's a beautiful setup he has.”

“Some kids that come by here, when they see this,” Dubose says. “That is gonna be the only Christmas is what they see.”

Kids and adults can see the lights every night starting Thanksgiving.

On the weekends, there’s a special visitor.

Santa Claus comes to say hello to visitors and takes letters from them.

For Dubose, two things motivate him to bring back the display every holiday season.

“Giving them joy and telling them about Christ,” Dubose says. “That's the main thing: that Jesus loves them. That's what I tell them.”

You can see those lights from 5:30 to 9 p.m. every weekday at 115 Gaddy Ct. On weekends, they stay on until 10 p.m.