Photos by Jason Evans/Courier

The former Dacusville Elementary School is now the Dacusville Community Center. Donations from local families paid for the center’s new sign, pictured at right.

By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter

jevans@thepccourier.com

DACUSVILLE — The former Dacusville Elementary School building continues to serve the community.

Dacusville Community Club member Amanda Bauknight recently gave a presentation about the center to Pickens County Council members.

“I’m just here to share with you the accomplishments of the Community Club in developing the Community Center from the old elementary school,” Bauknight said. “I’m sure that all of you are wondering what the community center has been doing for the past three years.There’s a lot happening right now we’d like to share.”

County council purchased the building for $150,000 several years ago and turned it over to the community.

“We just want to say how much we do appreciate all the help the county has provided to Dacusville,” Bauknight said. “We’re proud of our community and we invite all of you to come visit us.”

The Dacusville Garden Club established and maintains three beautiful welcome signs in three locations in Dacusville, Bauknight said.

“When we took over the planning for the community center, it was an old elementary school, full of dirt as you can imagine, and school things,” Bauknight said. “We did a lot of cleaning, a lot of painting, a lot of floor cleaning, spent untold hours — and all of this is done by volunteers.”

The Pickens County Detention Center provided help with the repainting and floor cleaning and helped the group clean up the site of the Dacusville Community Library.

The club organized several concerts to raise funds for the center, bringing in more than $5,000, Bauknight said.

“And we enjoyed some really good music,” she said.

Generous donations from the Hall and Williams families allowed for a new lighted sign to be installed at the center.

Accommodations Tax grant money is funding the center’s outdoor pavilion.

The effort received an accommodations tax grant toward the construction of an outdoor pavilion.

“We’ve continued to make improvements on that outdoor pavilion and plan to add restrooms in the future.”

When anticipated funding for a branch library fell through, “a group of volunteers determined there was a great need in our community for local access to library services,’ Bauknight said.

Thus, the Dacusville Community Library was born. It is housed in the community center.

A call went out for books to be donated.

“When the library opened, there were more than 8,000 donated volumes on the shelves,” Bauknight said. “We’re really proud of that.”

The library — another all-volunteer program — offers wifi, a weekly story time for children and a summer reading program.

“Computers are coming very soon,” Bauknight said.

“We are in need of a computer system to track the books, but we’re working on that,” Bauknight said.

The center also houses a fitness center, which can be joined for a membership fee.

“Through generous donations from the McKissick family, we were able to furnish that center,” Bauknight said.

The fitness center is open to members from 6 a.m.-9 p.m. daily.

“We also sponsor fitness classes,” Bauknight said.

A Dacusville Beekeepers group has formed. It’s headed up by Dwight Porter, president of the SC Beekeeper Association. Porter was named South Carolina’s 2016 Beekeeper of the Year.

“We’ve got a lot of people interested in keeping bees,” she said.

The Dacusville Garden Club meets monthly at the center and holds an annual bazaar.

The Dacusville Heritage Association meets in the center. They produce the Dacusville Farm Days festival, held each Labor Day weekend.

“This show brings thousands of people to the beautiful farm of Tom Turner on Highway 186,” Bauknight said. “We have good food, music and many exhibits. It’s a good show.”

The Dacusville Community Center is also the home of the Dacusville Community Library. For those who need a book outside the library’s normal hours, this Tiny Library outside the center’s entrance, below, does the trick.

The center was transformed into “Haunted Halls” every Friday and Saturday in October.

Proceeds from Haunted Halls were shared between the community club and Miracle Hill Children’s Home.

The community club is sponsoring music classes.

“These classes will resume in the near future,” she said.

Boy Scout and Cub Scout troops also meet at the center.

“They also assist us with some of the grounds maintenance and community work that’s needed,” Bauknight said.

The Dacusville Sewcial group has provided “40 handmade quilts to veterans in Pickens County,” Bauknight said.

“It’s a wonderful way to thank them and recognize their service and let them know we care about them,” she said. “They have presentations on a regular basis.”

The center just started offering classes for people interested in scrapbooking.

“Turning their memories into very attractive scrapbooks,” Bauknight said.

“All of these activities are scheduled on a regular basis,” she said.

The club sponsors the Business of the Year and Citizen of the Years awards, as well as a Christmas program, the lighting of the community Christmas tree and the Christmas parade.

“The parade ends with Santa distributing treats and candy to those along the parade route,” Bauknight said.

Bauknight thanked everyone for their support of the center.

“We really appreciate it,” Bauknight said. “A lot of people work very hard to make all these exciting events happen.”

The Dacusville Community Club meets at 7 p.m. the first Tuesday of each month at the Dacusville Community Center.

The Dacusville Community Center is located at 2671 Earls Bridge Road. To learn about about the club and the center, visit dacusvillecommunityclub.org or find it on Facebook.