CAMDEN -- For all intents and purposes, Cadet Capt. Lane Boone has the entire city of Orangeburg to thank for sending him to Camden Military Academy.

Lane graduated from CMA on May 18, just weeks after turning 18. He will attend The Citadel this fall and has earned two scholarships, including one from the South Carolina State Fair for $2,000. While the distance from Orangeburg to Charleston is about the same as from Orangeburg to Camden, both trips are a long way from where he could have ended up.

The product of a broken home, Lane was raised by his grandmother, Emma Simon. He started living with her at age 8. While he and his sister went to school, she kept house for Rob Miller, son of Orangeburg Mayor Paul Miller.

That connection, and Lane's frie-ip with the son of Orangeburg's state Sen. Brad Hutto, ultimately put him on the path to CMA. It all started in Boy Scouts.

"I did a little bit of Cub Scouts before that. When I moved up, Mr. Miller asked me if I wanted to switch troops," said Lane during a joint interview with his grandmother at CMA's administration building.

By then, he was already friends with Skyler Hutto, Sen. Hutto's son, attending middle school together.

"He's a junior now, one year behind me," Lane said.

In those early days, the elder Hutto was already a pretty busy man. Lane spent time with Skyler and his mother, who would help Lane with his merit badges. By eighth grade, however, a decision had to be made. Simon was getting older and less able to take care of a healthy, active teenage boy.

In phone interviews, Miller and Hutto both said they were concerned Lane wouldn't be able to fully experience high school life.

"Lane was obviously a kid who was destined to do well," Hutto said. "It came to our attention that when he was ready to go into ninth grade at Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School, it would be difficult for him to participate in school the way we thought he should and get ready for college."

Hutto and Miller said Lane wouldn't have had easy transportation to and from extracurricular activities, nor the money that is usually necessary to pay for them.

Miller, Hutto and Simon were also worried he could end up in foster care, something none of them wanted to see happen.

"We even thought of having him live with us," Hutto said. "When we asked him what he wanted to do, he said he thought he might want to go into the military."

Despite doing well at CMA and being accepted to The Citadel, Lane said he's still a little conflicted about whether or not he'll pursue a career in the military.

"I'm still thinking about it -- I go back and forth," Lane said.

Not long after expressing the possibility of a military track, Miller brought Lane to Camden to take a look at CMA.

"When he came back, he was pretty excited," Hutto said. "He thought it was what he wanted to do."

"That's when we decided to see what we could do for him," Miller said.

Miller and Hutto hosted a small dinner for nearly 30 Orangeburg business leaders to hear Lane's story.

"We told them Lane needed two things," Miller said, "a high school education and a place to stay."

"The community stepped up and said, 'He has the potential and has a goal, so we're going to help him do it," Hutto said.

The senator said the money for Lane's tuition, materials, uniform and more was handled in a special way.

"We have an entity in Orangeburg called Healing Species. They're a 501 (c)(3) focused primarily on abused and neglected animals," he said. "They try to foster respect for people and animals, and they've been the host of the scholarship fund. We didn't have a place to write checks to, so they kept up with the accounting part of it."

In return, Hutto said, Healing Species got to get the message out into the community.

Hutto and Miller said they are proud of the fact that Lane not only got into CMA but has done well.

"He did so well -- making great grades, playing sports -- that we had him come back the next year to another dinner, in uniform, with the same group, plus a few more," Hutto said. "We let them see that there had been a positive result from their investment in our future. He's a future leader. He's taken the trust we'd given him and used it to his advantage."

Simon said Lane has been just as good at home as he has been at school.

"He's been a very good grandson. He would do anything for me," Simon said. "He's helped me a great deal around the house. I've never had a problem with him."

She said she is very grateful to the entire city of Orangeburg for helping her grandson.

"I was very concerned about peer pressure and how he would fit in. I didn't want him to get in fights and all that," Simon said. "It's phenomenal. ... I really thank God for sending these people into my life because I couldn't have done it. I don't know what would have happened (to Lane), especially without a man in the house."

Lane said he's thankful, too.

"I'm thankful there are people out there who believe in me enough to spend some of their hard-earned money to send me here. It feels pretty good," Lane said.

Lane moved up the cadet ranks at CMA. In his first year, he was a private first class, then a sergeant squad leader in his second year. As a junior, he was promoted to lieutenant and made a platoon leader, and as a senior, he made captain of CMA's Alpha Barracks.

That put him in charge of 63 other cadets.

"There (were) good days and bad days," he said of the experience. "You have to look after them on a regular basis, really giving up your free time."

Lane also played basketball, football and soccer while at CMA. He sported a bandage on his left wrist and hand the day he was interviewed.

"I got injured playing basketball," Lane explained. "It was in the semi-final championship game. I went up and got bumped in the air, fell on my arm and fractured my wrist."

Despite the injury, he's glad for the time he got to play at CMA and plans to keep going.

Lane has also been secretary of CMA's Key Club and a member of 2008's Junior Leadership class. He said while he continues to think on a military career, he plans to study business administration or international business at The Citadel.

Hutto said there's a good chance Orangeburg's business leaders will turn their attention to other youth like Lane.

"We hope to continue to help other young people after Lane goes off to college," Hutto said. "We're so proud of him. We just said in Orangeburg that if there's a young person who has a goal, we should help them achieve it. We didn't want to fail to meet that need. We knew we wouldn't be able to send hundreds of kids, but Lane was an ideal candidate."

He said Lane didn't even need the incentive to do well in order to justify the money the city was investing in him.

"He just did it," Hutto said, "and CMA has been a wonderful school to work with, especially since we don't live in the community. They've understood that it's not like Lane has had a rich uncle. They gave us extra grace periods, but we've always been able to keep up on an annual basis."

Hutto credits Simon's strong grandmotherly leadership for Lane's quiet demeanor and hard work ethic.

"She made sure she did the best for him, and he made it a point to get good grades and gain leadership skills rather than wander around the mall and get involved in other things," Hutto said. "Other kids might have squandered this opportunity, but not Lane. He's earned everything he's gotten; he deserves everything he's gotten."

Lane finished sixth out of CMA's 63 graduates for 2008, earning a 4.18 grade point average by doing extra work.

CMA Headmaster Col. Eric Boland said Lane excelled at the school.

"He took on several leadership and athletic positions at the school and excelled at all of them," Boland said. "I think he'll represent us very well at The Citadel. He's an overachiever. And he's represented Orangeburg very well; he didn't diminish their faith in him."

Simon will continue to have a place in her home for Lane, bringing him home from Charleston during the holidays.

"I'm so proud of you," she told him, "and I thank these people for supporting him and the city of Orangeburg -- he wouldn't have gotten this far without them. I'm proud of his accomplishments."

Lane said he's grateful for his time at CMA.

"This school isn't for everybody, but if you make it, it's a sure shot for a better future," he said. "I'll miss the sports and some of the people here, the faculty and the school in general.

"And I thank all the people who supported me."

Martin L. Cahn is senior editor at the Chronicle-Independent in Camden.

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