Darla Moore, pictured in her Lake City home, has made a tremendous impact on her hometown and South Carolina thanks to her widespread investments in art and education, which, in part, have propelled the rebirth of Lake City.
Photo by Josh Crotzer
When we invest in the places we call home, we not only preserve the special qualities and memories that give life to those places, but we also create hope for the future of those places, that they might mean as much to our children and grandchildren as they do to us.
It’s one reason electric co-ops are so committed to their communities and why they invest in the people they serve with economic development initiatives, youth programs and contributions to local charities.
Investment doesn’t just happen—it takes intention and real work.
My friend Don Coker remembers the life that buzzed through the Lake City of his youth. His hometown, like many small towns at the time, boasted a bustling downtown surrounded by thriving, family-owned tobacco, cotton and produce farms that fueled the local economy and culture.
“You had numerous locally owned grocery stores, hardware stores, restaurants and a movie theater,” the Santee Electric Cooperative trustee recounts. “You’d get up in the morning, get the newspaper then meet downtown to discuss the day’s events.”
It was the kind of place that even people in Florence would hop on a train to visit.
Then all that life seemed to fade from Lake City, and Coker’s hometown—again, like so many other small, rural towns—withered.
Coker also remembers a young girl he grew up with. Darla Moore lived across the street and was athletic and smart. Her mom worked at the Methodist church, and her dad, a celebrated baseball and football player, was a coach and principal at the high school.
Moore’s now well-known story—a self-made billionaire whose philanthropy has had a tremendous impact on her hometown and state—is part of this month’s cover feature, “Tiny Lake City blooms with ArtFields.”
Moore’s successes and contributions have achieved almost mythical status in South Carolina. But to Coker, she’s still a neighbor and a friend. And to the people of their shared hometown, Moore is the force behind the new life that’s washed over Lake City.
ArtFields, a nine-day visual arts festival held each spring, was one of Moore’s earliest and best-known initiatives that propelled the rebirth of the town. But Coker contends that Moore’s investments in education have had an equally consequential impact. One of those investments is The Continuum, a collaboration between The Darla Moore Foundation, Florence-Darlington Technical College and Francis Marion University. Located in downtown Lake City, it provides college courses, training and certifications, and programs for students in the area.
“It creates a place where kids can get a head start,” says Coker. “You give them an opportunity for a job, and she loves that. That is her goal, to always put others first.”
Coker, who has owned and operated Coker Oil Company in downtown Lake City for 54 years, is seeing Moore’s myriad investments in her hometown improve the lives of all its residents. (The vast majority of her investments, Coker notes, are made in Santee Electric territory.)
“Every month it’s like opening a new present,” says Coker. “She does it all from her heart, and when you’ve got the knowledge to go along with it, you’re going to be successful.”