FAIRFIELD COUNTY – Salkehatchie volunteers worked on four Fairfield County homes during the week of July 13-20. Thirty-five teens and adults volunteered to endure the heat and humidity to repair these homes of needy citizens, two near Ridgeway, one near Blackstock, and one in the Blair area.
Led by Fort Mill residents Frank Gravely and his wife Dee, who have been serving at Fairfield Salkehatchie camps for several decades, volunteers from around the state, Florida and New Jersey stayed at the Family Life Center of First Baptist Church of Winnsboro.
The Men’s and Women’s Clubs of the First United Methodist Church and the Winnsboro Lions Club sponsored the breakfasts at the church each day, and volunteers from those organizations served as cooks. Various churches provide the noon meals, and evening meals were provided by various organizations and the Salkehatchie fees collected from the volunteers or their sponsors.
“We were able to work on four homes, replacing roofs first, as a leaking roof makes any other improvement efforts futile,” camp director Frank Gravely said. He noted that there were at least one hundred homes on his list of needing improvements.
On Tuesday, the Reverend John Culp addressed the volunteers during lunch and emphasized how important word of mouth was in recruiting new volunteers each summer for the forty-plus Salkehatchie camps throughout the state. He also spoke on participants’ service as love in action and a meaningful expression of our Christian faith. Rev. Culp founded the first camp in 1978 while serving a church in Hampton County.
