First annual Cainhoy Maypole Festival to celebrate community

Although Cainhoy area resident Vernelle Dickerson didn’t attend Keith School as a child, she remembers what life was like in this once sleepy and rural part of Berkeley County. As a young girl growing up in Huger in the 1950s, she and others would walk to nearby Charity Church early in the morning to prepare the building for Sunday School.

“The church was cold,” she recalled. “…They had to make a fire in the stove to heat and to cook.”
The same daily activity took place at the Keith School, a one-room schoolhouse located on present day Clements Ferry Road. Built in the 1920s, the original structure is gone, but standing directly behind its brick remains is a museum that continues to serve as a focal point of the community.

On May 5, Dickerson and a team of volunteers have planned a special gathering to celebrate the little school house and all that it represents – past and present. They will host the first annual Cainhoy Maypole Festival at the museum and grounds, located at 1509 Clements Ferry Rd., from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. A variety of local groups and artisans will take part, including the Philip Simmons Foundation and the Philip Simmons Elementary School PTA. Additionally, there will be storytelling, crafts, games, art displays and exhibits. A variety of jewelry, books, sweetgrass baskets, art and other items will be available for sale, such as poster prints by renowned Lowcountry artist Jonathan Green. A portion of the proceeds generated at the event will be donated back to the Keith School Museum.

Sitting inside the museum last week, Dickerson reminisced about what the site means to her.

“It’s a good feeling,” she said. “It just lets me know how easy it is for me – and my daughter and grand, compared to what the older people had to go through…In my home we had to make fire early in the mornings in the stove, and cook…so it just takes me back. And there was love in that. Because my dad or one of my brothers got up early in the morning and made the fire so that when everybody else got up the house was warm. There are feelings of caring, love, togetherness.”

And Dickerson hopes to generate those same feelings at the upcoming festival. She decided on the maypole theme because of its historical significance.

“When we did it back then it was like a community event,” she said, reflecting on her own memories of dancing around the maypole at Cainhoy School, which opened to all grade levels in 1956 (today it is known as Cainhoy Elementary School). “…And kids, we would wrap this maypole with all different colored ribbons…and we would be so dressed up! It was just a huge celebration that everyone looked forward to every year.”

Dickerson hopes bringing back the tradition will revive the community and create a renewed spirit of unity.

“Most importantly, with the diverse community and different cultures, with the Philip Simmons schools opening, you have a lot of people from different backgrounds,” added Dickerson, who serves on the Keith School Museum Board of Directors. “So we want to bring everyone together and celebrate. Even though it may be a different community on paper, as a whole we can become one, and support each other, celebrate together.”

The event will also serve as the launch of a new “Living Oaks Program,” an initiative in which Philip Simmons Elementary students will play an active role in the collection of oral histories from Cainhoy area residents that will ultimately be preserved and showcased at the Smithsonian Institute as well as locally.

For more information on the Cainhoy Maypole Festival, visit the Keith School Museum’s Facebook page.