PINEWOOD, S.C. — As we approach summer vacation, a local group has donated new bicycles to a handful of kids in Pinewood.
The Silver Lodge Number 35 represents the Pinewood area in Sumter County as part of the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of the State of South Carolina. They perform good deeds in the area, and on Tuesday, they brought them to Manchester Elementary School.
“When Ms. Cseh came to get me, I thought I was in trouble,” 9-year-old Alec Hardy explained.
But when the fourth-grader spoke with his guidance counselor, Hardy found out he was getting a brand new bike instead. Hardy says he rides his current bike, which has bad brakes and a loose chain, every day.
“I go to the limits my grandma and my mom gave us,” Hardy described. “Around the block and then I go to my friend's house or just go down the dirt road beside my house and then there’s a house on a dirt road. That's our limit.”
Shelton Hughes is the Worshipful Master for the Silver Lodge Number 35. The local chapter is part of a philanthropic group known as the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of the State of South Carolina. It’s a fraternal brotherhood that works to do good, especially to meet the needs of African American communities throughout the state. Hughes joined the Pinewood chapter in 1998.
“Charity is one of the keystones of what we do in masonry,” Hughes shared about the group. “The brotherly love, the camaraderie, the moral fiber that exists within masonry as, you know, we try to build stronger communities, help uplift our communities, help provide mentorship to our youth, and just be overall good citizens, you know, is some of the key components of what we do that attracted me to the organization. And I've just never felt a desire not to be a part of it since I became a member.”
To do that, the group got in touch with the school’s principal, Brandon Wells.
“It's just great support and I really appreciate that we have community support,” Wells shared. “This is a small town, but they have big hearts and they’re always looking for different ways to support the school and it really just makes me feel warm on the inside as principal.”
It was coordinated through the school’s guidance counselor, Alina Cseh, who identified six students who needed a bike and demonstrated good attitudes, behavior, attendance and academic performance.
“It is wonderful. The kids will feel supported and they can see in real life that it's not just words. That they are supported. Someone is here to help them out and to appreciate their effort in school,” Cseh said. “For an eight year old or a preschooler or, you know, an elementary aged kid, a bike is everything. It gives them more independence, more flexibility. And it's a fun activity to do after school.”
It’s an impact that Wells agrees is significant for kids.
”We are a small town and this gives students something to do,” Wells detailed. “It gives them some mobility, gives them freedom to go play and not just stay in their house. They can go visit their friends. They can be mobile, so it gives them an outlet more than just staying at home and playing video games on the inside.”
While it’s helping students in the community, Hughes says it’s a “beautiful feeling” for members.
“It's just a beautiful feeling to be able to come together, join hands and work to uplift and build up our community to let the citizens know what we do, that we're here, and that we're not going anywhere,” Hughes expanded. “We're going to continue to try to uplift this community, the citizens that fall within the jurisdiction of our lodge and our brethren, and we're going to continue to try to strive and excel and do bigger and better things going forward.”
The organization says it hosted fundraisers and accepted monetary donations, which it used to purchase the bikes.
Hughes says the local chapter is accepting new members. To be eligible, he says you must be 18 years old or older, have “good moral character,” and “be desiring of wanting to be a good person” who is motivated to uplift the community and set a good example.