‘Vision to revitalize’: Due West Robotics plans to build facility on site of old Caver School | News

With its recent purchase of the old Carver School facilities and the 14 acres they sit on, Due West Robotics plans to build something a little different: a permanent place to house its award-winning program.

“We have a vision here that is a game-changer for the children in our area,” said Charles Angel, chairman of the Due West Robotics board of trustees. “It really is going to have an impact on Abbeville County — and even across the region. To me, it’s a blessing to be able to have this opportunity, which is really becoming a responsibility to do something good with this property here locally. I think it wouldn’t be possible without robotics or without those kids who have already shown they can do the impossible.”

The community came together in the late 1930s to build the Carver School, which opened in 1940 as a segregated school for Black children. Later, it became an integrated middle school for Abbeville County. When the school closed, the property fell into private hands and the site was left abandoned. The two buildings along 27 Carver St. are virtually in a state of disrepair.

“History matters,” board secretary Lee Logan said. “We have gone to a considerable amount of trouble to involve the restoration of this (main) building in our robotic planning. Why are we doing all that? It was our concern for the history of this place and what it meant to this community – and getting a new building for robotics. So, that was sort of a dual interest that we had. We want to see it preserved. And, frankly, I think robotics has made it possible.”

Due West Robotics used about $62,000 of cash on hand to buy the property and buildings. The nonprofit robotics organization plans to sell the buildings and 4 1/2 acres to an Atlanta-based firm. Logan said the firm plans to develop senior housing apartments at the site. Due West Robotics will keep about 10 acres, on which it plans to construct a multipurpose facility.

“Due West Robotics, as successful as it is — one of the best robotics groups in the entire state, and regionally and nationally — never had a space of its own,” Logan said. “One of the reasons we’re serious about this issue is that every facility we currently conduct our robotics in is borrowed from either Erskine College, the Town of Due West or the Due West ARP Church. So, we have no facilities of our own.”

Angel and Logan said they are very appreciative of those who have provided space for the program, but, with the program’s growth, it’s time to consider something permanent.

Due West Robotics, which will celebrate the 10th anniversary of its founding in March, has about 150 youths participating in various STEM-related programs. Some engage in age-specific competitions.

“We were told from the get-go, ‘You’re not going to be able to sustain a robotics program in a small, rural town in South Carolina,’” Angel said. “And they said, ‘Even if you can keep something going, your kids are not going to be able to compete with the bigger cities that have more kids and populations to draw from.’ Our kids just keep on growing and developing. I’m getting goosebumps and chills whenever I just talk about it.”

Due West Robotics has won three of the past five state championships while competing against about 300 teams. The program had two teams advance to the world championship and another that advanced to an international competition in California, taking second place out of the top 64 teams in the world.

“Don’t count out these kids,” Angel said. “They’ve already shown they can do the impossible, and here we are. We’re taking on another project that some people have said was not a project that we should take on that was maybe impossible.”

Logan said the planned robotics facility will provide room for exhibit space, office space and rooms for each of the groups involved to have a space of their own to develop, build and practice.

“With this purchase, we have a vision to revitalize the property, maintain the history and have a major, positive impact on the local, county and Lakelands region as a whole,” Logan said.

Logan and Angel are both former Due West mayors. They said their interest in the property extends beyond creating a robotics facility.

“The purchase of the property is a bold step toward our vision for the next 10 years,” Angel said.

Due West Robotics participates in three competition-level programs, for ages 6-9, 9-14 and 13-18.

“You know, when we started robotics 10 years ago, wow. … There are some kids involved in robotics who weren’t even born when we started this, which is really pretty interesting,” Angel said.

Robotics program participants build robots that perform missions, amid a plethora of scenes, during competitions. Younger kids build motors to power Lego robots. Older kids construct robots with metal materials.

The pinnacle of youth robotics is the FIRST Robotics Competition, which is for students in ninth through 12th grade. The robots compete in an arena that is two-thirds the size of a basketball court.

“There are six robots in there at the same time, and they’ve got all of these different ways they can score points — and they’re vying for points against each other,” Angel said. “It’s really exciting.”

The two board members said the Lakelands community and area and regional businesses and industries have supported the program through funding and the donation of materials. Angel said the planned 12,000-square-foot facility, which tentatively will be constructed sometime in the next two years, will provide the organization an opportunity to reach more kids.

“Our vision is that we want every single student in Abbeville County — and beyond that in the Lakelands region — to have an opportunity to be involved in robotics for at least one year, because FIRST Robotics and Brandeis University have done longitudinal studies that show that one year of robotics changes how those kids think about what their future could look like,” Angel said. “They’re going to be looking for those technical jobs.”

Angel envisions the Due West facility being the Lakelands’ version of Greenville’s Roper Mountain Science Center.

“We’ll be housing our robotics, but we’re going to have auditorium and classroom spaces where we can hold events where people from around the region could come in and say, ‘Hey, I’m going to take my family out there because the kids want to learn about robotics or something that’s STEM-related,’” Angel said.