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Lego Pope visits Philadelphia Priest builds Vatican replica now displayed at science museum A6
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Free shoes make ‘Happy Feet’ Rotary clubs partner for annual program BY RICK CARPENTER rick@theitem.com More than 275 children are expected to receive a free pair of shoes this week thanks to two local Rotary International clubs. This is the fourth year Rotary Club of Sumter Palmetto has participated in the program called “Happy Feet.” The club asks guidance counselors at each of the 16 elementary schools in Sumter School District to submit the names of 10 students who deserve a free pair of shoes. Once selected, parents are sent a voucher form to take to a designated shoe store to redeem for a pair of shoes with a $30 limit. Participants can pay the difference if the shoes they select are more than $30. Cornelius Leach, assistant superintendent of instruction for the district and a member of Rotary Club of Sumter Palmetto, said Rotary District 7770 provided a grant of $2,550, matched by the local club for a total of $5,100, to pay for the shoes. More than 150 students were given shoes Thursday at The Shoe Department, 1025 Broad St., which was chosen because of its variety of shoes available, Leach said. Shelly Galloway, president of Rotary Club of Sumter Palmetto and the public information coordinator for the school district, said the program offers something special. “The Happy Feet project is a wonderful way for the Rotary Club to give back to the community,” she said. “We do a variety of service projects, but it always means a lot when we can make a difference in the life of a child.” Shawna Newkirk, whose two boys were selected for the project, said she appreciated the project because it “takes a burden off your chest.” In the last three years, the Pal-
Academic test scores fluctuate Some local districts see improvements on standardized exams BY KONSTANTIN VENGEROWSKY konstantin@theitem.com Sumter School District showed gains in Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate scores from last year, while showing a drop in SAT scores and little movement even in ACT scores from last year. The test scores were released by S.C. Department of Education today. The scores were based on graduating public school seniors who took the exams in 2015.
AP
RICK CARPENTER / THE SUMTER ITEM
Zykwana Oliver, 4, gives a thumb’s up as Letha Oliver fits him with a pair of shoes Thursday as part of the Rotary Club of Sumter Palmetto’s “Happy Feet” program. metto club has donated more than 700 pairs of shoes through the matching grant program. On Saturday, the Rotary Club of Sumter, a separate local club from the Palmetto club, will provide about 125 pairs of shoes to children from the six elementary schools in the City of Sumter. Jeanie Crotts, a past president and the special projects coordinator for the club, said this is the
first year her club has received a matching grant of $2,500. She said her Rotary club selected Jack’s Shoes, 337 W. Liberty St., because Abe Stern, owner of the store, is a member of her club. Saturday’s Happy Feet event will be from 9 a.m. to noon. Students for both programs have already been selected by guidance counselors, and their parents have been notified.
The AP Exam is a test that students in Advancement Placement courses take in each subject area at the end of the semester. Sumter High School surpassed the national and state averages on the AP exam. The percentage of examinations with scores of three or higher, considered passing, for Sumter High School students was 65 percent compared to 56 percent for the nation and 57 percent for the state. “We are very happy to receive this great news,” said Sumter High School Principal Nicholas Pearson. “It comes as no surprise due to the hard work our teachers and students put into implementing various instructional strategies. I truly believe that these results are a reflection of dedicated students applying themselves as students. “Here at Sumter High, we’re going to continue to challenge our students so they are prepared for our global society.” Scores for Manning High School, in Clarendon 1, and Scott’s Branch High School, in Clarendon 2, which also have AP programs, were not available, because there were fewer than five students who took the AP exams.
SEE TESTS, PAGE A8
Hull of 1st sub in history to sink enemy warship revealed BY BRUCE SMITH The Associated Press NORTH CHARLESTON — The hull of the first submarine in history to sink an enemy warship has been cleaned and revealed for the first time in 150 years. After a year of painstaking work, scientists using small chisels and hand tools have removed encrusted sand, sediment and rust from the outside of the hand-cranked Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley. Now, the outside appears much as it did when the Hunley and its eightman crew rammed a spar with a powder charge into the USS Housatonic and sank the Union blockade ship off South Carolina in 1864. But scientists said Thursday that cleaning the hull didn’t solve the mystery of why the Hunley itself sank with its crew before returning from its mission.
NO SMOKING GUN ... Cleaning the hull showed some dents on both sides of the submarine. But scientists say it’s not clear when the dents occurred. The Hunley sank twice before it went on its 1864 mission, though it also could have been dented at the
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time of the Housatonic attack or later when the sub sat for decades on the ocean floor off Charleston. “If there was a smoking gun, we would have seen it a long time ago,” said Johanna Rivera-Diaz, a conservator with the Hunley project.
... BUT MORE CLUES The most significant find from cleaning the hull is an indication that a wooden boom at the front of the Hunley that supported the spar with the powder charge was damaged in the attack. It appeared as if the boom had been pushed back into the sub. That would be consistent with the boom striking a vessel, said Michael Scafuri, an archaeologist with the project.
A LOT OF WORK The conservation team has laboriously removed about 1,200 pounds of sediment and other gunk from the outside hull of the Hunley, which was built in an attempt to break the Union blockade that was strangling Charleston. That’s roughly the same weight as a grand piano.
THE NEXT STEP The next step in conserving the sub-
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A conservationist sprays water on the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley, the first submarine in history to sink an enemy warship, in a lab in North Charleston on Thursday. marine, which was discovered in 1995 and brought to a conservation lab in North Charleston 15 years ago, is to remove encrusted sediment from the inside.
DEATHS, B4 and B5 Donald E. Johnston Doris B. June Raymond H. Glover Hampton Dickey Moses Johnson Sylvia A. Avins
Elaine H. Gregory Ella B. Howard J.W. McDowell H. Ray Peebles Lester C. Thompson Michelle C. Blackmon
That process will take another year, said Kellen Correia, president and executive director of Friends of the
SEE HUNLEY, PAGE A8
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