By Scott Miller
Clemson University Extension received a grant to launch a rural entrepreneurship program in Abbeville, McCormick and southern Anderson counties.
The pilot program could be replicated across the state, providing businesses and prospective entrepreneurs with education, mentorship and consultation to ensure their ventures are successful.
In addition to one-on-one business consultation, program coordinator Wilder Ferreira is working with community leaders and conducting feasibility studies to explore potential community-wide projects that would establish markets for area businesses. Some ideas include:
- Establish robust community farmers markets for buying and selling locally grown produce.
- Develop a community kitchen where growers can package food affordably.
- Create an online database of local growers where restaurants and grocers can search the availability of locally grown produce each week.
- Establish regular meetings where businesses can network and brainstorm.
Ferreira also is conducting feasibility studies to explore the possible creation of a fish hatchery along the banks of the Savannah River or a business to provide guided hunting tours or greenhouses to allow farmers to grow produce year-round.
Ferreira’s assistance is not limited to agribusinesses. Through the project, Ferreira is working with schools, community organizations and leaders to launch a competition in which a winning entrepreneur will receive capital to open a business in downtown Abbeville. He’s also enlisted area high schools to participate in an entrepreneurship contest in which students will create business plans and earn money to put back into the entrepreneurship course.
These programs will improve quality of life and provide new markets for businesses in the area, said Ferreira, who is affectionately referred to as “The Wild Man” in Abbeville, McCormick and southern Anderson counties for his infectious energy and propensity for big ideas.
“A lot of people have dreams. They just need help getting there,” Ferreira said. “We want to build the infrastructure and provide the education to help them realize their dreams.”
The pilot project is funded with an initial grant of $50,000 from the Freshwater Coast Community Foundation, a newly formed nonprofit that derives its name from the area lakes stemming from the Savannah River.
The foundation was created to help foster economic development, education and arts in Abbeville and McCormick counties, as well as the Starr-Iva areas of southern Anderson counties. It was formed with a $300,000 donation from the West Carolina Rural Telephone Cooperative, but the foundation is operated by an independent board of directors. The grant awarded to Clemson Extension was the foundation’s first project.
“We have to continue to make the rural communities as viable as they can be,” said Lee Logan, chairman of the telephone cooperative board and of an advisory committee of community leaders assisting Ferreira on this project.
Logan said the foundation intends to fund the Extension program for two additional years at $50,000 annually for a total contribution of $150,000.
“We want to enable the people of our community to make a better future for themselves,” he said.