ENTREPRENEURIAL SPOTLIGHT: So Cool, So Committed So Cool, So Committed

Planning and prepping for the future is what Patina Calhoun has done her whole life. Late nights and early mornings devoting her time, effort, heart and soul to what she believed was her true calling.

That was until she realized she had to expect the unexpected.

Hailing from Brooklyn, New York, Calhoun may be a city girl through and through, but she always had a desire to live the country life. Her familial ties begin in Manning, the stomping ground of her parents. As a child, Calhoun would venture down South for holidays, weddings, reunions and funerals, surrounded by family and basking in the serene slow pace of the South — a great contrast to the allnighter lifestyle of the Big Apple.

“I love New York because you can find all kinds of unique pieces; the food varies — you can try all types of new things. Entertainment is 24 hours, seven days a week. But for my daily peace of mind, I just don’t like a lot of chaos,” she said. “You almost get paranoid because it’s like everybody walking down the street, you don’t know if they’re going to rob you — that type of stuff.”

For its hospitality, its people’s friendly dispo- sition and welcoming environment to raise her three children, South Carolina won this city girl over.

Her move down south provided Calhoun with ample opportunities — and peace of mind —to follow her childhood dreams of owning her own engineering company. Enrolling in Morris College’s Clemson Extension Cooperative program at the time, the plan was for Calhoun to study two years at Morris before transferring to Clemson for her final two years. When the time came to move four hours away from family, Calhoun turned down the chance.

“Being a parent at the time — I lived off campus, had a house and job of my own — I didn’t think it was very smart for me to have to uproot my children again,” she said.

The unexpected happened after Calhoun decided to stay.

The “fastest hired” employee at the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office, Calhoun switched her major from math to criminal justice. After graduating from Morris, she enrolled at the University of South Carolina in Sumter to pursue her master’s degree in math — still striving for her engineering career. One thing led to another, which led to Calhoun earning her master’s degree in criminal justice at Troy University. With two degrees, in a field she never expected she would pursue, and as adjunct instructor of criminal justice at Central Carolina Technical College, Calhoun circled back to her aspiring engineering career only to end up pursuing her doctoral degree in criminal justice.

“I was like ‘OK Lord, I guess this is not the path you want me to go,’”she said through warm laughter. “It was never my intention to become a police officer, but it just seemed to be the fit that He put me in. My life was prospering — it had value, it had purpose, it had meaning; what more could one ask for?

“Would I probably have wanted that engineering degree and would my younger self want to have accomplished that dream of owning my own engineering company? Sure. Would I be happy? I would never know that, but I know that I’m happy on this side.”

This side of her life is where her family oriented, family inspired businesses lie. While a student at Morris, Calhoun realized another talent gifted to her by God is her gift of design. Her creative touch spans all the horizons, be it food, clothing or furniture — for example, her college days were spent turning plain, old fabric into handcrafted, highly sought after outfits worn on girls’ nights. Her cre- ative niche and great feedback from her peers led her to open Elephants and More, located at 1190 Old W. Liberty St. Ste 2, honoring her Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. affiliation and the first time she was able to let her creativity run wild and get paid to do so.

Calhoun enjoyed this luxury and wanted to be able to bestow that among her family. Her second business venture was SO Cool Italian Icee. In need of a summer job, Calhoun purchased a cooler cart — lovingly named Mr. Percy — for her oldest daughter, who was 15 at the time, to sell Italian ice at all the summer hangout spots in the county.

“Mr. Percy went to the aquatic center, to the parks, to different events, vendor events, softball games, soccer games, birthday parties…” she continued to list on.

In present day, SO Cool Italian Icee, located at 1180 Old W. Liberty St., has expanded its menu to include churros, wings and burgers. The Italian ice, still preserved in a beloved cooler cart — Mr. Percy has since retired — is a great treat for those who need something sweet afterward.

At the time, while business was booming for Elephants and More and So Cool Italian Icee and Mr. Percy catered to heat—soaked Sumterites, Calhoun was blessed with the birth of her first granddaughter, Audri Journey. Like any fashionista grandmother, Calhoun showered Audri in the finest fabrics. But the drives to New York, Georgia and North Carolina looking for cute, classy and comfortable clothes grew tiresome, so Calhoun did what she knew best.

“I’m an empty nester. I’m retired, double retired at this point from the sheriff’s office and Central Carolina, and me and Audri were hanging out because her parents had to work and so, I was like, you know what? We’re going to open a store.”

“You ain’t gotta do everything that come to your head, you know,” is what Calhoun heard from her children, but the unconditional love and support to follow her heart was what she felt. They knew her heart was in the right place as she saw the opening of Audri J’s Children’s Clothing Boutique, located at 1190 Old W. Liberty St, as “a good opportunity to bring something different to Sumter.”

Patina Calhoun, a mom of three; married to her childhood sweetheart; a gammy of four girls; academic program manager of criminal justice technology; founder and president of CoolHands, a nonprofit that combats child hunger and ensures that children receive a quality education; and owner of three flourishing brick— and—mortar businesses all acquired during the peak of the COVID—19 pandemic, also holds leadership positions in several organizations in the community. What more can one person do? There is no method or fear to managing the not—so—mad madness that is Calhoun’s life as everything just flows into place — quality time with family, vacations — an experience she rarely took years prior, meetings, business ventures, appearances; it all just works out.

“The things that I have accomplished, the avenues that I have traveled, and every last one of them have been a blessing and have enabled me to be where I am today. Do my body get weary? Probably. But my heart is there and because my heart is there, everything just flows perfectly,” she said.

The unexpected was just that for Calhoun. Her life became something she could have never imagined but what she knows now was destined for her. It can be taxing letting go of a dream so deeply desired, but walking the path of a higher value and deeper meaning is much better. No matter how unfamiliar it would look to younger Calhoun, the Calhoun of today doesn’t back down from the challenge.

“When I’m committed, I’m committed,” determination lacing her every word. “They have this saying that people always say, ‘God don’t give you anything that you can’t bear.’ So, I tell people all the time that I’m one of his toughest soldiers and if He presents me with something, then obviously He meant for it to be.”