Mobile Home Sales in Hemingway, SC

MARION, S.C. – Rev. Marvin Hemingway continued more than a decade of community service spreading awareness and promoting prevention against sexual assault and abuse Wednesday by organizing the annual Denim Day Marion County outside Marion City Hall.

The event featured support from city officials, local law enforcement and Pee Dee Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Assault.

“I’m just so happy so many came out and we had the chance to spread the word about Denim Day to the community,” Hemingway said. “We gave out $450 and $250 in gift cards along with other door prizes. It’s a blessing to give to people because you don’t know who is in need and it lets us say thank you for coming out.”

Marion County Sheriff’s Office Victim’s Advocate Tammy Erwin said she’s witnessed several victims battle everyday with trauma.

“We have the best community,” Erwin said. “We are so blessed to live where we live.”

SLED Special Agent and author Tempest Hough serve as the keynote speaker. The Winthrop University graduate has been with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division since 2016, transitioning to special agent of community relations.

“It’s great just to be here on this afternoon,” Hough said. “Anytime Rev. Hemingway reaches out to me, I make it a point to be there when I can.”

Hough said Demin Day recognizes the fight, strength and courage of victims across the world.

“As one speaking from being a survivor, as victims our lives change in many different ways,” Hough said. “We seek to be understood and we even seek to be loved. But even in the mist of what we have encountered, today we can say that we stand strong and come together as one.”

Hemingway said Denim Day is an observance dedicated to raising awareness about sexual assault and sexual violence. Supporters wore jeans at the program as a form of activism.

“No matter what they have on, we should respect everyone,” Hemingway said.

The event also features free food and door prizes and several vendors.

Marion Mayor Ashley Brady said he thanked Rev. Hemingway for organizing for several years carrying on the tradition.

“Sexual assault and violence on women is something we will not stand for,” Brady said. “Anything the City of Marion can do to help, we will do that as well. There is help for our victims.”

HEMINGWAY – If at first you don’t succeed in the restaurant business, what do you do?

If you’re the Hayward-Davis family, you try, try again.

The family held a Williamsburg HomeTown Chamber ribbon-cutting ceremony on Sept. 21, in Hemingway for All Things Wings, their new restaurant at 109 N. Main St.

They almost exclusively serve chicken wings. The varieties are barbecue, honey barbecue, teriyaki, honey teriyaki, honey mustard, ranch, lemon pepper, garlic Parmesan, Hennessey, “bang bang,” plain, mild and hot.

All Things Wings is in the same space as the family’s first restaurant, the Mason Bar and Grill. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it was open for less than a year.

Terrance and Shaniqua Hayward-Davis of Georgetown originally came to Hemingway looking for office space so they could expand a tax service that has offices throughout the region.

They found a two-story building in the heart of town. Upstairs were 14 rooms.

Long story short: They bought the building and opened Bella’s Boutique Hotel in 2019. Instead of an office for a tax service, some of the space downstairs became their first restaurant. Shaniqua called it a package deal.

“We kind of tried our hand, knowing that it was in the middle of COVID, but people still like to eat,” Shaniqua said. “We did our research.”

The timing was bad, but Shaniqua and Terrance persevered. All Things Wings has been open for nearly two months, and the owners say business has been good.

The manager concurs.

The manager is Saniya Hayward-Davis, Terrance and Shaniqua’s 20-year-old daughter.

“She was working at Sonic, and she was working a tremendous amount of hours and basically running the restaurant,” Shaniqua said. “I kind of did this for her.”

Saniya appreciates what her mother has done.

“She was just giving me something basically so I could learn to build my own business on my own,” Saniya said. “I just took the opportunity.”

Saniya went to Carvers Bay High School but didn’t go to college because of COVID.

“I was afraid I’d get sick,” she said.

Saniya watches what she eats.

“I’m not really a meat eater,” she said when asked which flavor of wings is her favorite.

“I mean, I’ve tasted the flavors. Besides, I would eat chicken, but just not on a daily basis. I love my vegetables.”

If that isn’t ironic enough. …

Shaniqua was talking about the restaurant competition in Hemingway and the cuisines that are offered.

“But there is not a place where you can just go get wings,” she said. “Not here, not Georgetown, not Johnsonville. This is the only place that just specializes in wings.

“And everybody likes chicken.”

Everybody?

“Oh, funny enough, I don’t eat chicken,” Shaniqua said. “I’m more of a seafood girl.”

PEE DEE, S.C. (WPDE) — Several Pee Dee communities are seeing more black bears in recent weeks.

Several people in the Oakdale community of Dillon County said they saw a black bear last week roaming through their neighborhood.

A man in the area of Carter's Crossroads near Hemingway in Williamsburg County capture a picture with his cell phone of a black bear in a neighbor's yard.

Captain Benjamin Byers with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (DNR) said bears are a growing population in South Carolina.

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"The bears habitat is slowly being destroyed by construction, so they are being pushed to areas that are inhabited by humans so it increases peoples chances of encountering a bear," said Byers.

DNR's website says, "Black bears are the largest land mammals in South Carolina. They are covered in a long thick fur that can vary in color. The most common color phase is black or dark brown with light brown snout. They have a broad head with rounded ears set well back on the head. The rump of a black bear is higher than the front shoulders, and they do not have the prominent shoulder hump of the Grizzly and Brown bears. They have good eyesight and an incredible sense of smell. Black bears are excellent climbers and good swimmers and can be found in a variety of habitats."

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The website also says black bears are "opportunistic and will feed on whatever is readily available," including "garbage, bird feeders, outdoor pet food, agricultural crops, etc., which can result in them becoming nuisance bears."

Byers said if you encounter a bear don't panic.

"The bears are actually more scared of people. The best thing to do is turn around slowly and walk away. Especially if it is a female with cubs. That is usually the only time a bear is aggressive is when she has her little ones with her. "

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You can click here to learn more about black bears in South Carolina.

Located halfway between Charleston and Myrtle Beach outside of rural Georgetown, S.C., both residents and tourists alike enjoy all of the attractions available at the Back Woods Quail Club. Starting out as a commercial hunting operation, the club has evolved to become one of the most popular clay shooting destinations in the southeastern U.S., offering skeet, trap, sporting clays and five-stand.

At the helm of the club is the energetic Rick Hemingway, a sporting clays fanatic who has been in the business for 30 years.

“Six months after my introduction to sporting clays, I built my own sporting clays course.” said Hemingway. “The rest is history.”

Known now as a state-of-the-art shooting venue, Back Woods Quail Club began life as a farm owned by Rick’s father, Edsel, a prominent Georgetown County businessman and farmer. The elder Hemingway allowed some wingshooters to form a club to hunt wild quail on his land, but as time went by and the farm expanded, the number of wild birds was diminished. The club added preserve birds and released coveys to keep up with demand.

As a teenager in the 1980s, Rick Hemingway helped out with hunts on the property. After graduating high school in 1990, he convinced his dad to lend him the money to transform the family farm into a full-fledged hunting destination. While prospering as a quail hunter’s paradise, the younger Hemingway’s introduction to sporting clays a few years later at a different club led to the Back Woods Quail Club expanding to include clay target shooting. After that, the coastal South Carolina club skyrocketed in popularity.

“Back Woods Quail Club is located in a pretty rural area. We’ve been fortunate enough to create an establishment that’s worth it enough for some members to drive upwards of 1½ hours one-way to visit.”

Sporting clays became an obsession for Hemingway. After his first match in 1992, he attended as many tournaments as his schedule would allow. Starting out with 10 manual Lincoln traps, in 1993 Hemingway designed his first sporting clays course at the club. Later on, he upgraded Back Woods’ sporting clays courses with automatic traps, simultaneously working to enlarge the club’s hunting operation.

Following Hemingway’s clay-target shooting vision, by 2013 the club was playing host to the National Sporting Clay Association (NSCA) U.S. Open Championship. Since that time the club has hosted several big tournaments. Today, Back Woods boasts three sporting clays courses with 325 remote-controlled traps.

“Here at Back Woods, we’ve kept growing and creating more courses to become big enough to host an event the size of the U.S. Open, which is about the largest you can get in [sporting clays].”

2022 U.S. Open

The U.S. Open Sporting Clays Championship rotates each year to venues east and west of the Mississippi. Normally, it takes around 15 months for a host club to coordinate such a large-scale event. Although Back Woods was scheduled for this year, with the COVID-19 pandemic affecting the preparation efforts, Hemingway made the tough decision to wait until 2022 to repeat as host of the U.S. Open. While some were disappointed, the additional prep time will allow for Back Woods to maintain its standards of excellence for the tournament.

Hemingway expects more than 1,500 shooters from around the country to attend the main event at the 2022 NSCA U.S. Open, which will require more than 400 traps to keep things running smoothly. The extra time to get ready will certainly help.

“No other club that I’m aware of has that many traps in daily use, so we’ll have to rent some extra … It takes a lot of time to get everything coordinated to host this match. Back Woods is one of about 10 clubs in the country with the capacity to hold an event such as this.”

Course Designer

Not only is Hemingway a top sporting clays match director, he’s also a sought-after professional target setter for other shoots.

“During the year, I’m hired to set targets for other major sporting clays events across the country. It’s related to the work I’ve done here at Back Woods, and I enjoy this part of the business.”

Much of the appeal of sporting clays comes from the different presentations that shooters can face at each course. Fully capable of setting all the targets for the matches he runs, Hemingway generally reaches out to other professional target setters to help him manage events the size of the U.S. Open at Back Woods. Fifteen-hour days are not unheard of during a tournament. He delegates some of the work, but like President Truman, the buck stops with Hemingway.

“Everything starts with me at the top as far as laying out all of the courses, traps and targets. Once the shooting starts, I focus on the big picture and managing the event.” Additional target setters can provide a variety of presentations, which many sporting clays competitors appreciate. For an event the size of the U.S. Open, as many as 10 different target setters will assist with course design and general event management. This way, shooters won’t suffer from a steady diet of repetitive target presentations.

“Each target setter is unique regarding their preferred presentations. For example, I’m a fan of compound-lead targets. I have an above-average tendency to throw those. But shooters like variety. Others like to use more quail-type targets. Having multiple target setters for an event of this size gives us a better variety, which makes the shoot more enjoyable.”

Bottom Line

While known as a first-class shooting facility, the southern hospitality is also appealing to out-of-town customers, who will often return to Back Woods Quail Club to experience it again. Hemingway credits the local Georgetown, S.C., community for bringing people back to Back Woods Quail Club.

“Georgetown County has great hotels and restaurants, but more importantly, we have great people here that visitors want to come back to see time and time again.” As for Hemingway, it’s a safe bet that he will continue helping visitors to his club tackle challenging clay target presentations or enjoy a great hunt.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better career to enjoy what I do. All I’ve ever done is take people shooting and hunting. My customers are happy to get here and are even happier when they leave. It never feels like work to me. It’s always enjoyable to get out of bed in the morning and head to the club.”

For non-members, a 100-round sporting clays session is $50. Find out more at backwoodsquailclub.com or call (843) 546-1466.

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Three postal workers, including two sisters from South Carolina, have been charged by federal prosecutors for their alleged roles in a scam that netted as much as $8 million from the federal Paycheck Protection Program.

In a recently unsealed indictment, federal prosecutors in South Carolina allege that Tiffany McFadden of New York and Keisha Lewis and Cherry Lewis of South Carolina filed false applications for themselves and others. The women face six charges of wire fraud and conspiracy.

The “national scheme” netted the three defendants $1 million directly, but that number may be as high as $8 million, according to a statement released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for South Carolina.

“PPP loans were intended to help businesses survive unprecedented challenges. Every dollar stolen from this program was stolen from taxpayers and legitimate businesses in need of support,” said U.S. Attorney Adair F. Boroughs of South Carolina.

McFadden, 40, a former U.S. Postal Service employee who regularly traveled to South Carolina, is accused of being the mastermind behind the scheme. She allegedly filed fraudulent PPP loans on behalf of other individuals, using “routinely fictitious” businesses, according to the indictment. McFadden allegedly took a cut of the fraudulently obtained loans.

“Most PPP applicants were also aware that the information submitted to the SBA was false,” according to the indictment.

The indictment describes PPP loans submitted in the names of Cherry and Keisha Lewis.

On March 4, 2021, the indictment states that a bank account belonging to Keisha Lewis, 33, from Hemingway, S.C., received $20,500 from PPP lender Itria Ventures. The next day she allegedly transferred $4,000 to Tiffany McFadden’s CashApp account.

The indictment also said that a PPP loan was submitted in the name of Cherry Lewis, 43, from Johnsonville, SC. On Feb. 10, 2021 she submitted an application for a fraudulent PPP loan, according to the indictment. Cherry Lewis is accused of “overstating her income and claiming ownership of non-existent businesses.”

The indictment also accused Cherry Lewis and Keisha Lewis of requesting blank, fillable tax forms from McFadden that they then provided to other individuals “to use in assisting others to complete PPP applications.”

If convicted, the defendants face up to 20 years in prison. They may also be required to pay fines and restitution.

PPP was designed to provide relief to business owners who were unable to pay workers due to COVID-19 shutdowns. The forgivable loans were administered by the U.S. Small Business Administration and were intended to encourage business owners to keep employees.

The defendants were arrested by the U.S. Secret Service on Jan. 6, 2023, according to the statement. They were arraigned the same day before U.S. Magistrate Judge Kaymani D. West at the federal courthouse in Florence, S.C. They have been released on bond pending trial.

“Any member of the public who has information related to this scheme is encouraged to contact the U.S. Secret Service,” said Burroughs.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Secret Service, with assistance from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Small Business Administration, the Florence County Sheriff’s Office, and the Williamsburg County Sheriff’s Office, according to the statement.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elliott B. Daniels and Winston Marosek, who also serves as the Office’s Coronavirus Fraud Coordinator, are prosecuting the case.