Category: Local Community

Happy New Year!  We hope this finds you and yours doing well after the holiday season.  We all have been looking forward to 2021 and in many ways, putting 2020 behind us.  As you all know, our offices have been closed to the public for the final nine and half months of 2020.  They continue to be closed to the public but that does not mean your Extension staff is not doing their job.  The creative and unique ways that many agents and staff have found to help the people and communities in South Carolina never end.  Just to give you a little insight into what we’ve been doing, let’s go and visit with each one …

As the Administrative Assistant in the McCormick Extension office, a majority of my job responsibilities are done via my computer and/or phone.  That being said, when our office responded to the Covid issues and closed to the public, there was not the impact on me that other agents and staff faced.  I simply started working remote … the ability to access all the files and information provided me with what was needed to process required reporting.  The ability to program the office phone to immediately transfer calls to my cell phone was a seamless transition.   All calls, so far over 175, were answered and clients were assisted as needed with the information and/or help requested.  Our agents and staff were available to help return any calls with additional information.

At beginning of this Covid situation, we also partnered with Joann Fabric stores to help with the mask shortage in the local hospitals.  Joann provided the supplies necessary and we put the word out in Savannah Lakes Village where several sewers stepped up to help us make over 150 masks for the effort.  Our office also made an additional 50+ masks for McCormick County Council members, extension agents and staff and district 4H agents.

As stated earlier, with technology as it is today, my responsibilities barely noticed the hiccup that going remote may have caused.  As always, we are here to help the community of McCormick County. #Staywell

The McCormick County Extension Office has been hard at work during the COVID- 19 pandemic. In addition to working with landowners, we have worked closely with our community partners to ensure that McCormick County’s needs were met. We have worked with the school district to assist them with drone footage for their graduation ceremony. We also provided the school district with lesson assistance and ensured that all students and staff were safe by donating reusable cloth masks and hand sanitizer.

The McCormick Extension Office also created an augmented reality sandbox to serve as the partner exhibit for the Smithsonian Water/Ways traveling exhibit hosted at Hickory Knob State Park. This interactive sandbox allowed visitors to get a hands-on learning experience of how landforms and topography impact water. There were over 2,700 visitors to the exhibit that ran from June – August.

  Clemson’s exhibit at the Smithsonian Water/Ways traveling exhibit

The Extension Office partnered with Cornerstone to assist with their drive-through health fair. We created 100 bags that were full of health-related information and school supplies to hand out. We also obtained over 100 boxes of fresh produce to give to the participants. We partnered with Cornerstone again for their drive-through trick or treat, where we assisted them with their virtual costume contest and pumpkin carving contest and provided candy and Clemson footballs to the kids.

Another group that the McCormick County Office has worked collaboratively with is the Chamber of Commerce. We assisted the chamber with the live streaming of their candidate forums for the school board, sheriff’s office, and county council races. We provided live streaming via Facebook live and created a broadcast of the forums for the WCTEL local channel. We also assisted the chamber with the live streaming of the Holiday on Main Parade on the chamber Facebook site. Both the candidate forums and the Holiday on Main parade had over 1400 views

The McCormick County Extension Office has been working hard to do whatever we can do to help ensure McCormick County residents are safe and their needs are met.