A group of 13 youths are working to inspire and promote leadership among their peers to make Orangeburg County a better place to live.

The Orangeburg County Youth Council was the brainchild of Orangeburg Preparatory School senior Alex Watford, who said he was inspired to create economic and social change in the county through getting youths to realize their full leadership potential.

The OCYC held its first Orangeburg County Youth Leadership Conference at Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College on Nov. 6. Former South Carolina State University football coach Willie Jeffries and Republican candidate for lieutenant governor Bill Connor were among the featured speakers.

"For a long time, I have felt that there needed to be a change for the youth in Orangeburg," Watford said. "There's just not enough for youth in the county. There's not enough youth getting involved in the community. A lot of that has to do with the attitude of the community as a whole."

The OCYC includes Watford and student leaders Candace Maynard, Orangeburg-Wilkinson High; Jordan Huffstetler, OPS; Alexus Tullock, Bethune-Bowman High; Jonathan Harley, North High; Brandi Vaughn, Lake Marion High; Kaitlyn Holbrook, OPS; Tabitha Jackson, B-B; Mia Ulmer, O-W; Dallas Gleaton, North; Shante Sumpter, Lake Marion; and Jessica Zeigler and Rashanda Berry, Branchville High.

Watford said his attendance at the Emerging Public Leaders Program at Furman University gave him the motivation to pull together youths from the county's public and private schools for the development of a youth council to help change negative perceptions about the county.

"The program at Furman helped me to realize my vision for that change," he said. "It helped me to pull together student leaders to work for making Orangeburg a better place for families, for improving the attitude and work ethic of students so that they strive to succeed when they go into the workforce and to college.

"When they come back to the community, they'll be good workers and well-educated. They'll have a trade that will benefit the county. When those types of things come to the county, more businesses will want to locate here because of the attitude of the community. That naturally brings more wealth, entertainment options, dining and a lot of the luxuries that other communities have, but Orangeburg does not yet."

A holiday soup kitchen in December and the development of a Web site where citizens will be able to access everything from the dates and times of community events to contact information for human resource services is also in the works, he said.

"It will be sort of the hub for youth and families in Orangeburg," Watford said. "All of the high schools, churches, parks and recreation facilities and the various agencies that deal with youth and families will be on this Web site. If a youth or their family has a problem, they can search for who they need to talk to on this Web site. They can learn about upcoming events and what organizations are hosting what."

Maynard said a youth leader is someone who gives unselfishly of themselves to their community. She said the OCYC will hopefully make reaching the youths of the county a little easier.

"Many adult leaders can't get to the youth in the community. When you have somebody of your own (age) telling you and trying to help you improve your community, you can relate to it," said Maynard, who volunteers at the hospital and is involved in several community organizations.

"I not only try to involve myself in these things, but also ask someone else, 'Hey, do you want to do this? It would be a good idea, and you could really get something out of it.'"

Tullock said she also wants to help her peers do the best that they can to improve their communities.

"We need more things around us, and I think most of the younger children need somebody to look up to and put them on the right road. We could have a better future," she said.

"Most kids that are younger get into more trouble," Jackson said. "To have them in certain programs would make it easier for them to go through high school and college without getting into trouble. Having a leader or a mentor that's a teenager would help them a lot."

T&D Staff Writer Dionne Gleaton can be reached by e-mail at dgleaton@timesanddemocrat.com or by telephone at 803-533-5534. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

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