Junk Removal in Summerville, SC

Too many animals, not enough space — that’s been the mantra of humane societies and shelters throughout South Carolina for months.

The Charleston Animal Society on Sept. 1 called the situation a state of emergency, saying that almost every shelter in the state is “at the breaking point.”

Dorchester Paws took in 21 cats and kittens on Aug. 27 after a home burned down in Summerville, maxing out the already at-capacity shelter. In nearby Moncks Corner, Berkeley Animal Center has been in their new, larger building for a little over a year, but has so many animals it has resorted to using pop-up cages.

The Horry County Animal Care Center in Conway has had to temporarily close to treat animals after taking in over 170 animals in August.

In the upstate, Greenville County Animal Care has so many animals it is euthanizing some for space — something they hate doing, said Paula Church, the shelter’s community relations coordinator.

She said they look at animals with behavioral issues — for example, if a dog had bitten a child — and severe medical issues that would require lots of time and expense.

“If we had the time, we could find placement for them,” Church said. “But we don’t have months and months to find space for animals that have behavior and medical issues.”

Part of the problem was caused by the winding down of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, which at first took the burden off shelters as more people adopted pets to keep families busy or to be company for employees working from home.

Joe Elmore, president and CEO of Charleston Animal Society, said shelters had been anticipating intake numbers to increase after that initial adoption surge. When lockdowns first began in 2020, the American Veterinary Medical Association recommended all veterinarians in the country pull back from elective procedures, such as spaying and neutering, so it would not tax the healthcare system.

“We usually do about 10,000 surgeries a year,” Elmore said. “But in the spring of 2020, when hospitals were overwhelmed, we stopped doing those elective type of procedures. We only did what was necessary and pulled back the number of public spay-neutering.”

Elmore said shelters are now seeing the results of putting off those surgeries, with more animals being born than there are people who can keep them.

Other factors also are at play. Of the 75 animal shelters in South Carolina, 75 percent of them do not have a veterinarian on staff, according to Elmore. This makes adoption harder because state law mandates the animals cannot be adopted unless they are fixed.

State law also says an animal that is brought to a shelter must be held for five days before being treated.

As people move in, animals move out

In areas like Charleston County, growth and development are also a factor in overcrowding. As more people and buildings push strays and feral animals out of their natural habitat, more of those animals are surrendered to shelters.

“We get calls from time to time here with people saying, ‘I’ve gotten deer in my yard, and I’ve never had deer in my yard.’ It’s because they’re being flushed out from the development,” Elmore said. “The same thing will happen with feral cats and dogs. Folks will then start calling animal control, animal control will go out and start bringing more and more of these animals in.”

Dorchester Paws, which has been operating over maximum capacity and been “in crisis mode” all summer, understands that growth and development in the Summerville area is having a huge impact on animals. Danielle Zuck, marketing and development director, said there are plans for Dorchester Paws to get a new, bigger building.

“Our building was designed to be a holding facility 50 years ago,” Zuck said. “It was not designed to have taken 4,000 animals a year, and that’s the number that we’re anticipating taking this year, if not more.”

Usually, Dorchester Paws takes in about 10 to 15 animals per day on average, Zuck said. Recently, it has been taking in 15 to 35 animals per day. That, combined with slower adoptions, is playing a big part in the overcrowding of the shelter.

“We’re constantly playing this jigsaw game of animals,” Zuck said.

Not only is the building old and too small to accommodate all of those pets, it also is in a flood zone. Every time it rains, Dorchester Paws is flooded and the animals in kennels are stuck standing in water, Zuck said. The staff has to take buckets to try and empty the shelter of floodwater.

In December, Dorchester Paws purchased land along Highway 17A — not in a flood zone. Now they’re in the midst of a financial campaign to help fund a new building on the property, one that will include a spay and neuter clinic. They are still in the process of figuring out the cost of building, but it’s estimated to cost somewhere between $3 and $8 million.

Zuck said Dorchester Paws is excited the new location will be in a growing neighborhood, right by the Palms and Summer’s Corner.

“Summerville is one of the fastest growing cities,” Zuck said. “We need the shelter badly in order to provide for the new population that’s coming in.”

A new building will also help Dorchester Paws elevate its status as a shelter, she added.

“A lot of people still don’t know that Dorchester Paws exists. They either call us the pound, or they don’t know where we’re located,” Zuck said. “A new shelter will just bring this brand up and elevate our mission for the animals.”

Right now, Dorchester Paws has over 400 animals in their care, with almost half of them living in a kennel or pop-up in the shelter.

Zuck said the shelter has made Dorchester Paws’ adoption process simple over the past year to try and incentivize people to adopt: just a one-page application, reduced fees and a conversation with an adoption counselor.

“We have removed all barriers from the adoption process,” Zuck said. “We want animals to be placed in loving homes.”

Zuck said it is hard to say why adoptions have been slow, but there could be several reasons: summer vacation, back-to-school, current world affairs.

One thing that isn’t a factor is a significant uptick in pets adopted in 2020 going back to shelters. Elmore said it is a myth that people surrendered their animals as soon as they returned to work.

“We saw some people who were returning to work actually coming back to adopt a companion animal for the animal,” Elmore said.

Finding homes

As a result of most shelters in the state being overcrowded, some are partnering up to ship animals to others that don’t have as many animals.

Elmore, of Charleston Animals Society, said they’ve started a statewide transport program where his staff takes animals to other local shelters, and even ones out of state. Some shelters Charleston Animals Society partners with include Hallie Hill Animal Sanctuary in Hollywood and the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty for Animals.

Church, of Greenville County Animal Care, said the shelter partners with rescue organizations almost daily to transport animals to other shelters. Some organizations they partner with include the Animal Sanctuary Society (New Jersey), Hearts of the North Rescue (Minnesota), Jackson’s Legacy (New York) and Lovable Mutts Adoption Center (Pennsylvania).

Tiffany Hoffman, event coordinator for Berkeley Animal Center, said the shelter is lined up with pop-ups.

“As much as I don’t want a dog in a pop-up, it’s still saving a life,” Hoffman said.

The center has recently relocated to a bigger building with more amenities, including a surgical suite, a meet-and-greet room and play yards. After being in the new building for 14 months, Hoffman said the staff are grateful they now have more space and are able to not just take better care of the animals they have, but also take in more.

“We are able to care for more animals, but with that, we need more fosters. We need more volunteers, more adopters,” Hoffman said. “With (the new building) comes the need for the community.”

Hoffman said there are many community members that already help. Those who foster pets are essential.

“We have a very hardworking staff, but we could not save the thousands of animals without the fosters,” Hoffman said.

Hoffman said fostering from Berkeley Animal Center is completely free, and they have a 24/7 phone service for fosters in case they have questions about the animal they’re taking care of. She said the center also provides food crates and medical care.

“We literally give everything needed,” Hoffman said. “They just have to give the love.”

Hoffman said the staff — a group of just over 10 — often fosters animals as well.

“Our staff work here because they love animals,” Hoffman said. “If you work in animal rescue, if you work in an animal shelter, you do it because of your love of an animal.”

The fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic caught up with the parent of South Carolina’s largest movie theater chain on Sept. 7, when the global holding company filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection in Texas.

Cineworld Group LLC is struggling under nearly $5 billion in debt at a time when box-office sales and attendance figures are rebounding from the health crisis at a slower-than-expected pace.

Day-to-day operations at the company’s U.S.-based Regal Cinemas and other businesses are not expected to be disrupted by the filing. Cineworld said it plans to pay vendors and honor customer loyalty and membership programs.

“The pandemic was an incredibly difficult time for our business, with the enforced closure of cinemas and huge disruption to film schedules that has led us to this point,” CEO Mooky Greidinger said in a written statement. “This latest process is part of our ongoing efforts to strengthen our financial position and is in pursuit of a de-leveraging that will create a more resilient capital structure and effective business.”

U.K.-based Cineworld and its subsidiaries have lined up $1.94 billion in financing from existing lenders, which will enable them to operate as usual during the court-supervised financial restructuring

Cineworld expects to exit from bankruptcy by April next year.

Last month, the British company, which operates in 10 countries, said its theaters remained “open for business as usual” as rumors swirled about a possible reorganization.

Cineworld’s debt load totals $4.8 billion in debt, not including real estate lease liabilities.

The company and its lawyers will be negotiating with lenders and other creditors in the months ahead to reduce its financial obligations. It also will be looking to renegotiate rents with landlords “to improve U.S. cinema lease terms in an effort to further position the group for long-term growth,” the company said.

Cineworld, which employs about 28,000 workers, previously said that admissions have recently come in below expectations. A “limited” slate of new releases suggests its financial stress likely won’t ease until at least the holiday film season kicks off in November, putting more short-term pressure on its balance sheet.

According to the data firm Comscore, U.S. summer box office sales of $3.3 billion as of Aug. 21 are lagging the comparable pre-pandemic period of 2019 by about 20 percent.

In South Carolina, Regal reopened most of its 15 theaters after a lengthy shutdown in the spring of 2021, making it one of the industry’s last holdouts. The chain has since sold and shuttered its Regal Cinebarre multiscreen location on Houston Northcutt Boulevard in Mount Pleasant and the Regal Columbia Cinema in Richland Mall.

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A local preacher’s bouts with anxiety in recent years set him on the search for an outlet that would allow the tortured soul to communicate his thoughts, life lessons and apprehensions without boundaries — all through poetry.

The year was 2018 when Will Davis, a Brooklyn, New York transplant, was grappling with personal trials in terms of holding down multiple jobs. Thanks to his his wife, Amanda, the Summerville resident was jolted by a reawakening of sorts, as he soon began recording all his inner feelings and angst on paper.

“From there, I just started singing the psalms. And the poetry just illuminated the Scriptures for me that much more. I then realized ‘Wow, this is what I am. I’m not just writing sermons and manuscripts — I’m a poet.’ So, that’s where that turned and it was just like poetry is the form I want to embrace. Poetry can encapsulate the weight of emotion in such a small format,” noted Davis, who in addition to serving as a cleric, has also worked at various schools in the Charleston area.

Currently, the 35-year-old father of one has narrowed his volume of duties to performing his spiritual work in partnership with multiple area churches and he’s also refocused his energies on writing poetry. But presently, Davis is venturing beyond utilizing poetry as a means of self-therapy; he’s now recruiting and counseling a growing faction of master poets-in-training through a series of upcoming workshops and open mics.

The idea behind hosting instructive poetry sessions was the result of an encounter Davis had with Public Works Art Center Executive Director Jana Riley, who connected Summerville’s poet laureate of Puerto Rican heritage with Ivan Segura of Palmetto Luna.

Segura, a Columbia-based advocate of Latino arts and culture, ended up sponsoring Davis’ first workshop at Public Works in early August.

While the intent is to reach the Lowcountry’s Latino community and highlight the rich and unique history it has to offer, Davis’ workshops are open to people of all ages, genders and ethnic backgrounds who are seeking to find their individual voices through poetry.

“For me, my mission is to inspire dignity through poetry. So, in every single workshop, I want people to be encouraged and empowered to just go out there. I start with helping people realize that we all have a story,” said the engaging instructor who will often try to understand his students on a deeper level to draw out their unfiltered, unedited life stories.

Newcomers will typically be advised to write short free verses as they progressively gain confidence in sharing their bottled-up reflections and/or emotions.

The next step for folks who are serious about cultivating their poetry chops is to recite their work in public. To that end, Davis recently hosted a open-mic event at Public Works as an invitation for people to partake in judgment-free, free-form expression.

As for any one-on-one coaching he’ll offer a nervous performer before they step to the mic, Davis may remind them of whether they have an early family-friendly crowd or a strictly adult audience. In the case of the latter, he says, all participants have free license to convey their written material. No subject matter is taboo.

On that account, the multi-faceted artist added: “If you’re at my open-mic, tell me who you are, tell me your story, and then I’ll tell you mine.”

The hard-charging Davis has several long-term plans beyond preaching and poetry as well, in the form of releasing his own book. But instead of featuring personal verses of his own life in the upcoming publication, the prolific writer aspires to spotlight poetry on what he recently saw and learned as a missionary along the southern border. His recent sojourn in that area, he related, allowed him to gain new insight into the lives of Mexican migrants.

“I want to bring a better light and a dignified understanding to what’s happening at the southern border. That’s for sure where I’ll be directing my poetry in the next year or so,” promised Davis.

SUMMERVILLE, S.C. (WCSC) - For many people, when they first hear they have Parkinson’s Disease, it can be scary and worrisome. But, a group of people attending a boxing class called Rock Steady Boxing in Summerville, say it’s helping slow the progression of the disease.

Dennis Tianello has been coming to Rock Steady Boxing at Title Boxing in Nexton for two months now.

“My doctor, when I was first diagnosed and everything, I couldn’t walk to his exam room without touching the wall four or five times in the hallways,” Tianello said. “I went back to see him after doing this for a month and he says ‘Dennis, I watched you walk down the hall way. You didn’t even touch the wall.”

Parkinson’s is a progressive disorder that affects motor movement. Through this boxing class, folks say they’ve seen their balance, coordination, and strength improve.

Annie Barra, the lead trainer at Title Boxing, says they recognize the disease is still there, but the program helps slows it down.

“They box and they move around and we challenge them to different things,” Barra said. “It’s a great group of people and it brings them together where they may have felt uncomfortable, we make it comfortable.”

Paul Werksman was diagnosed with Parkinson’s about two months ago, even though he says he had many symptoms long before that. When he got his diagnosis, he started attending Rock Steady Boxing.

“Just being able to work it out and get better myself,” Werksman said. “I know I’ve lost my voice quit a bit. That’s why Don has us speaking very loudly.”

While it’s completely non-contact boxing, Bob Rodenkirk says one of his favorite things in the class is when he gets to go one-on-one with an instructor.

“They’ll get one of those belts on and they’ll say okay, give me everything you’ve got, don’t hold back,” Rodenkirk said. “And boom, boom, boom, boom.”

Rodenkirk says he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s five years ago. He says this boxing class has helped him stabilize things and has helped him feel normal.

The instructor of the class, Donald Wright, says they do more than just boxing. The goal is to get these folks moving and exercising, which is something doctors tell many people with Parkinson’s to do.

“We have a bend, lift, stretch, voice, you toss balls, stack cones, lift, weights, get on the floor, planks, push ups, sit ups if you can,” Wright said.

Rodenkirk says he’s been surprised by the impacts he’s had from Rock Steady Boxing.

“My doctors told me, you’re not going to lose if you try boxing,” Rodenkirk said. “You may think it sounds stupid or I’m just gonna get pounded, but it’s not that at all.”

Many of the fighters added that Rock Steady Boxing has been a great way for them to build new friendships and realize they aren’t alone in their Parkinson’s journey.

The class is held three days a week. Title Boxing owner Chris Bowen says they are always accepting new members. He added that anyone with Parkinson’s Disease interested in joining can come watch a class before attending. More information on the gym can be found on their website.

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Summerville defeated visiting Carolina Forest 38-7 in the Green Wave season opener.

Carolina Forest (1-1) did have some success moving the ball through the air but Summerville used a more balanced attack to drive up field and get better results. With running back Marquez Spells and receiver Yannick Smith leading the charge, Summerville pulled out to a 17-0 lead in the first half.

“We have a lot of talented players but those two guys make our offense go,” Summerville coach Ian Rafferty said. “I couldn’t be happier for our kids and the coaching staff did an unbelievable job preparing them. Carolina Forest is a quality football team and a well-coached football team so really I can’t complain about anything.”

Senior quarterback Campbell McCurry completed 12 of 18 pass attempts for 130 yards and rushed for a touchdown.

Spells, also a senior, led the Green Wave rushers with 12 carries for 159 yards and a TD. Sophomore Ashton Allen-Hawkins rushed for 52 yards and a TD and junior Trae Green rushed for 41 yards and a score.

McCurry connected with Smith for eight completions for 108 yards and completed a pass to four other receivers.

The Summerville defense yielded 101 passing yards, but only gave up 28 rushing yards and made 11 tackles for a loss. Jaidyn Penix led the Green Wave tacklers with 10 tackles including 2.5 tackles for a loss. Josh Matusik had eight tackles including three for a loss. Michael Jenkins, Evan Howell-Smith Keith Elmore and Jacob Cotterill all had seven tackles. Three of Cotterill’s were for a loss.

Spells carried up the middle for a 54-yard touchdown run to open the scoring two minutes into the second quarter. Mason Ayers followed with his first of five successful extra-point kicks on the evening.

Summerville forced a Carolina Forest punt and then drove 60 yards to score. McCurry capped the drive with a two-yard plunge into the end zone.

The Wave’s next possession began on Summerville’s 9-yard line. However, the Wave used a combination of runs and passes to move into the red zone. The Panthers’ defense fended off Summerville’s attempts to get in the end zone, but as time expired for the first half Ayers sent a 28-yard field goal attempt through the uprights to make it a three-score game entering the third quarter.

Following the break, Summerville made a defensive stop and took over on the Panthers’ side of the field. A few plays later junior Trae Green broke free for a 16-yard TD run.

Carolina Forest’s ensuing possession ended with an interception by senior defensive back Keith Elmore Jr., which he returned 34 yards for a TD.

Summerville drove 41 yards on its next possession to go up 38-0 on a 5-yard TD run by Ashton Allen-Hawkins.

The Panthers’ next drive ended with a pick by junior linebacker Evan Howell-Smith. From that point, late in the third quarter, both teams began playing their backups.

Carolina Forest scored its only touchdown with 2:22 remaining on a 47-yard run by backup QB Ethan Hamilton. JJ Chadick added the extra-point kick for the Panthers.

Summerville 38, Carolina Forest 7

S- Marquez Spells 54 yard run (Mason Ayers kick)

S – Campbell McCurry 2 yard (Ayers kick)

S - Ayers 28 yard field goal

S - Trae Green 16 yard run (Ayers kick)

S - Keith Elmore Jr. 34 yard interception return (Ayers kick)

S - Ashton Allen-Hawkins 5 yard run (Ayers kick)

C – Ethan Hamilton 47 yard run (JJ Chadick kick)