Although they represent 20 different businesses, a group of Dorchester County professionals logged some of their overtime this summer under the same roof.
The participants in Leadership Dorchester — an intensive, countywide leadership development program — pooled their free time, connections and resources for a class service project at the Dorchester Children’s Center (DCC) in Summerville.
Synonymous with Children in Crisis, the nonprofit organization that supports it, the DCC serves abused and neglected children and their families. Leadership Dorchester set out to make the building more inviting with an overhaul of the conference room and landscaping on the front lawn.
Improvements to the conference room include new cabinets, countertops, carpet, tile, kitchen appliances, floor-to-ceiling windows and freshly-painted walls. The front lawn now boasts live oaks, crape myrtles, perennial plants and patches of pine straw.
Many of the Leadership Dorchester class members donated their time to paint, lay tile, rip up carpet, pressure wash the building and move furniture. Others called on their friends and colleagues to do some of trickier electrical and plumbing work. Still others made monetary donations, or called on their employers to do so.
In the end, about $30,000 worth of work was done at no cost to the DCC, said Ellen Priest, a Leadership Dorchester class member and project coordinator.
“There are so many good causes, I’m glad they chose us,” said Kay Phillips, executive director of the DCC.
The conference room had received some touch-ups once before, as part of an “adopt-a-room” campaign by the DCC to make the building more welcoming to children, but a majority of the money went to other rooms where there’s more staff member-child interaction, Phillips said.
Still, the conference room gets a lot of use, she said. Parenting classes and community awareness presentations are held there, as are meetings of the various agencies that work on the children’s cases.
“The conference room was in desperate need of a facelift and we were happy to provide the upgrade,” said Tony Pope, a Leadership Dorchester class member who along with Ben Coakley helped Priest spearhead the effort.
The outcome, both inside the conference room and out front, is “spectacular,” Phillips said.
“We tried to use community resources to improve our community and that’s what Leadership Dorchester is all about — teaching you about your community and what’s available there,” Priest said.
Leadership Dorchester, which is now under the umbrella of the Greater Summerville-Dorchester County Chamber of Commerce, began in January and will conclude in November with a graduation for its participants. They meet once a month and hear from guest speakers who represent local industry, public safety, economic development, and arts and culture.
When the service project component was announced, “a lot of eyes lit up,” said facilitator Jim Friar. “People got started with it aggressively because it was their project.”
Chamber President and CEO Rita Berry said the service project has helped class members bond and even revealed some hidden talents among them.
“I think it’s something the whole class can look back at with pride,” Priest said.

Contact David Berman at 873-9424 ext. 214 or dberman@journalscene.com