Electrician in Jefferson, SC

CHARLESTON S.C. (WCIV) — Wonderful things can happen when a community comes together.

Lowcountry non-profit, Metanoia SC, is listening to the people who live in North Charleston's Chicora-Cherokee neighborhood.

Over the past 20 years, Metanoia has been implementing programs to meet residents' needs to generate positive changes.

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Shawn Saulsberry is the Board Chair of Metanoia.

"It's a huge responsibility because Metanoia is literally serving the area that I grew up in," Saulsberry said.

Saulsberry remembers growing up in what's known as "Charleston Heights," or the "Heights" in North Charleston.

The community played an important part in his childhood.

"I didn't have the organization that we have today, but somehow I ran across those metanoia-type people who saw me, and they invested in me."

His grandfather taught him the importance of entrepreneurship.

"My grandfather taught us to work hard at an early age. He would let us rent the lawnmower from him, and we would go and cut grass in the community, and we would get to keep the profits," Saulsberry said.

Now, as a Senior Manager at the accounting firm Ernst & Young, Saulsberry uses his background of a strong work ethic to encourage the youth in the neighborhood.

Metanoia serves as a youth leadership pipeline.

"I'm not the smartest or the brightest, but I do know how to work hard, and I also know how to have endurance and not stop and just encourage them. If you do those things eventually, you're gonna find what you love. You're gonna find what you want to do in life, and it's gonna work well for you," said Saulsberry.

Metanoia was launched in 2002 by a coalition of churches across South Carolina.

By definition, Metanoia certainly works well with the community it serves.

"It means to make a positive transformation, kind of take upon a positive change of direction," explained Metanoia CEO Reverend Bill Stanfield.

Rev. Stanfield and his wife Evelyn live in the Chicora-Cherokee neighborhood with their two teenage sons.

Before Metanoia's founding, the couple spent one year getting to know their neighbors and listening to their concerns.

"We really do believe people closest to communities know the solutions to their own problems," said Stanfield.

Stanfield saw this as an opportunity to build on the positive community members saw in their neighborhood.

And Metanoia did just that.

In addition to building leaders, it's the non-profit's mission to also establish quality housing within Chicora-Cherokee.

"We build new homes for some home buyers. We also build new homes for affordable rental, all within the community where prices are going up, and people are finding it hard to afford a place to live," said Stanfield.

The organization also invests in neighborhood assets. They support black businesses on Reynolds Avenue and have a partnership with a local manufacturing company to create jobs in the community.

"There's a systematic way of listening to the community and understanding what the community needs and then coming alongside the needs of the community and becoming an advocate for what the community wants to do," said Saulsberry.

If you'd like to nominate an individual or organization for a prestigious 'Jefferson Award, email your nomination to ABC News 4's Tessa Spencer.

Arkansas’ KJ Jefferson won the quarterback battle, outdueling South Carolina’s Spencer Rattler, but it was a dominating offensive line that lifted the Razorbacks to a 44-30 victory over the Gamecocks on Saturday afternoon at Razorback Stadium in the SEC opener for both teams.

The No. 16 Razorbacks (2-0, 1-0) won the line of scrimmage and also got outstanding defensive play led by linebackers Drew Sanders, the Alabama transfer, and veteran Bumper Pool, to turn back the upset-minded Gamecocks (1-1, 0-1).

Rattler rallied South Carolina from an early 21-3 deficit. His 62-yard touchdown pass to Antwane Wells, Jr. got the Gamecocks to within 21-16 midway through the 3rd quarter.

But Jefferson answered with a 2-yard touchdown run on the 1st play of the 4th quarter, completing another long and methodical drive. This one covered 59 yards in 14 plays. Moments later, a costly turnover put the ball back in Jefferson’s hands and the Razorbacks’ leader came through once again, firing a 23-yard touchdown pass to Warren Thompson to extend the lead to 35-16.

Rattler was picked off in the end zone by Dwight McGlothern and the Razorbacks bled the clock on the strength of its offensive line. It was the LSU transfer’s 2nd interception in 2 games for Arkansas.

The Razorbacks established their dominance early at the line of scrimmage, scoring touchdowns on their first 3 possessions with demoralizing drives of 13, 12 and 12 plays covering 63, 75, and 61 yards respectively, to take a commanding 21-3 lead.

Rocket Sanders completed the first 2 marches with touchdown runs of 1 and 11 yards. He led the Hogs with 156 yards rushing.

In 11 plays of Arkansas’ opening possession, Jefferson or Sanders ran behind a forceful offensive line, covering 43 yards. The Razorbacks were a little more balanced on the 2nd drive with Jefferson completing all 6 pass attempts, for 49 yards, setting up Sanders’ 2nd scoring run.

The Gamecocks were able to answer in between the first 2 Arkansas scores with a field goal, catching the pursuing Razorbacks defense with a couple of big-play screen passes. A 43-yarder from Rattler to MarShawn Lloyd put South Carolina in range for a 28-yard field goal from Mitch Jeter.

Loyd got South Carolina in the end zone late in the 2nd quarter, capping an 11-play, 70-yard drive on a 7-yard run, but the PAT kick attempt failed and Arkansas took a 21-9 lead into halftime.

Arkansas’ victory stopped a 3-game losing streak to South Carolina and the Razorbacks improved to 6-2 all-time against the Gamecocks in games played in Fayetteville.

Prescott Jefferson has risen to the title of the state’s top high school sprinter and will be staying close to home for his college career.

The Ben Lippen High School senior officially signed to run for the South Carolina Gamecocks Track and Field program Thursday. He picked USC over South Florida and Coastal Carolina.

“They have an amazing program at USF and one at Coastal Carolina. They are getting amazing talent there. But overall, South Carolina is the place I want to call home,” Jefferson said.

With Jefferson’s signing, the Gamecocks’ program has secured the top male and female sprinters from South Carolina. Airport junior Jayla Jamison recently signed with USC’s women’s program. The two-time SC Gatorade track and field athlete of the year is bypassing her senior season of high school and enrolling in September. She eight individual championships to her name.

Jefferson wrapped up his high school career over the weekend by winning the 100, 200, 400 and was a member of the winning 4x400 relay team at the South Carolina Independent School Association Class 3A state meet in Charleston.

The state championship capped off an impressive season for Jefferson, who can boast the title of SC’s fastest high school sprinter. He holds the top times in the state for the 100 (10.54) and 200 (21.23) that came in the Rams Invitational, and his 200 time still ranks in the top 10 nationally.

Jefferson also took first place in the 100 and 200 at the Bob Jenkins Coaches Classic, which pits the top public and private school runners in an invitation-only event.

“I am working six to seven days a week sometimes. I’m constantly going to my coaches and asking them what I need to do to get better,” Jefferson said. “... Been working since June. It (results) was kind of expected but I am grateful and blessed that it has happened.”

Jefferson started training with Charles Proctor, the Keenan boys coach who will take over at Ridge View next year, over the summer. Proctor said Jefferson’s progress has been “slow and steady” and began with transforming his body.

Jefferson, like most athletes during the pandemic, put on some weight and was up to about 161 pounds in June. Since then, he has dropped 13 pounds and his times started to fall beginning with the indoor season and then he has maintained that during his high school season.

Jefferson is focused on lowering his time even more in time for nationals in June and getting ready for his freshman year at USC.

“The progression has been well,” Proctor said. “His goal is to get under 21 (seconds) in the 200 and get in great shape so he can go off to Carolina and compete in the Southeastern Conference.

“South Carolina is getting a hard worker and they will get a great teammate who will do anything to see the success of his teammates.”

Jefferson was one of five athletes from Ben Lippen on Thursday to sign with college programs with others coming from the Falcons’ basketball team — Ross Hartzog (Pfeiffer) Clayton Hunt and Beltran Huertas (Columbia International) and Porter Stanley (Presbyterian).

CONWAY — Melissa Jefferson hates needles, so staring at them for a two-day procedure in September 2018 at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston caused reality to set in.

“My dad better know that I love him,” she remembers thinking.

Melvin Jefferson, her father, was nearby, a recipient of Melissa’s bone marrow due to a diagnosis of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) in early 2018.

It’s a disorder where the body no longer makes enough healthy blood cells in the bone marrow and can result in leukemia.

Melissa, the baby in a family of six children, was the preferred match.

The pain of a bone marrow transplant didn’t deter her, and neither did the needles.

“It’s my dad, and I want him around for a long time, so I didn’t have a problem doing it,” said Melissa, a former Carvers Bay High School and current Coastal Carolina track star.

‘It was going to be me’

Melvin initially had a stem cell match for the bone marrow transplant from someone outside the family, but that person was found to have sickle cell anemia, a red blood cell disorder.

He found more matches, only to suffer the same fate — issues with the cells that made a transplant too risky.

In situations such as these, family is always an option.

Melissa has five half-siblings from Melvin and his wife, Johanna’s, previous marriages: two sisters on her father’s side and a sister and two brothers on her mother’s side, all in their 30s or early 40s.

Both of Melissa’s sisters on her father’s side came back as partial matches when they started testing next-of-kin.

Melissa, just 17 and a senior in high school at the time, came back as a preferred match in August 2018.

“I remember telling my mom, I was like, ‘I had a feeling it was going to be me,’” Melissa said.

In September of that year before the actual transplant, Melissa had to go to the MUSC for further testing after they found out she was a preferred match, and was given a donor advocate and a donor coordinator.

The doctors there told Melissa she didn’t have to go through with it if she didn’t want to, but Melissa was determined she was going to help her father.

Pressing through

Melissa said that she wasn’t nervous until the day she actually had to go through with the transplant on Sept. 25, 2018.

During the transplant, she had to have an IV in both her wrists.

One IV took the blood out and sent it over to a machine that would separate the blood from the plasma in order to obtain Melissa’s stem cells; the other allowed the blood to go back into her arm through the other IV.

The transplant was ultimately successful, with Melvin staying at the hospital for the following 100 days. Six months to a year after the procedure, Melvin had 100 percent donor cells.

Although he is still unable to work — he was a landscaper at Brookgreen Gardens before his illness — Melvin is doing much better and is going to the doctor less and less often.

Melvin had to get all of his immunization shots over again and still needs the shingles vaccine, and is not allowed to do certain things, such as digging, because of the chance of bacterial infection.

Melvin said his blood cell count is 13.7 or 13.8 hemoglobin grams per deciliter, just a shade under the normal count for an adult male of 14 to 18, according to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

When Melvin got out of the hospital, he had to wear a mask for roughly a year because his immune system was compromised.

This primed him for the COVID-19 pandemic that hit the U.S. in early 2020, as he was already used to wearing a mask in public at that point.

A blended family

When Melvin and Johanna first got married in 2000 when they were both 37, they decided that it would be God’s will whether or not they had a child together, already having five children between the two of them.

And then along came Melissa, and the Jeffersons had no clue at the time just how much of a blessing she would turn out to be.

“Who would’ve thought 17 years later, the purpose for her being born was to be my bone marrow donor?,” Melvin said. “I think about that all the time. Trust me, I really do. We don’t know what God has in store for us, but we always should realize that there’s a purpose he has for us.”

Melissa, 20, is the youngest of her siblings by more than a decade, with the others ranging from 31-40.

Melvin says they lovingly tease her for being the baby of the family.

Melissa has always held a special place in Melvin’s heart because she is the youngest, and is definitely “daddy’s little girl.”

Their connection is special, and always has been, with Melvin recalling an interaction from when Melissa was a youngster.

“When I had gotten dressed, I’ll never forget it, and she was a little girl, she was a baby, and (there are) certain things you do when you compliment people (that) children pick up on, she said to me, ’Daddy, you look pretty,” Melvin said.

“And I thought it was so cute because her saying that, not realizing you don’t tell a guy that he looks pretty.”

A love of running

Melvin said that Melissa would want to go everywhere with him when she was a little kid, and she would run around the house a lot, which is where her love of running began.

Melvin said she began running when she was 5 years old.

“She would beat the little boys,” he said. “We didn’t have to push her toward track and field. It was a natural thing for her.”

So it was little surprise for Melvin to see Melissa excel on the track at Carvers Bay.

For the Bears, Melissa was a four-time All-State and All-Region selection; a four-time team MVP; won the 1A state title in the 100-meters her senior season; and finished second in the 200 meters and third in the 4x100 relay at the state championship meet that same year.

Her junior year, she was a state runner-up in the 100- and 200-meter events was also a state runner-up in the 200 meters her sophomore season.

She also excelled early on in her Carvers Bay career, as she won the state championship in the 100 meters, 200 meters, and the 4x100-meter relay her freshman year.

Carvers Bay track and field coach Issiah Tucker, who coached Melissa from 8th to 10th grade, saw how the relationship Melissa had with her father helped fuel her to push herself to the limit on the track.

“Even though he was ill, he would be at the track meets supporting on his daughter, and (she) would look up in the stands and see her father; I think that motivated her more, too,” Tucker said.

Staying close to home

Part of the reason Melissa decided to run track for Coastal Carolina was to be able to stay close to come while her father recovered from the bone marrow transplant.

Melissa found immediate success on the track as a Chanticleer, winning Sun Belt Freshman and Newcomer of the Year for women’s indoor track and field her freshman year in 2020.

The outdoor season was canceled due to COVID-19, but Melissa made up for it by doing well in the 2021 indoor season.

Melissa was named second-team All-Sun Belt for the second straight year and had a second-place finish in the 60-meter dash finals with a new personal-best time of 7.41 at the Sun Belt Conference Women’s Indoor Track and Field Championships.

She also ran well in the 200 meters, logging a time of 24.03, also a personal best.as well as in the 200 meters with a time of 24.03, also a new personal-best mark.

Both times were the second-best marks in the Sun Belt in each event this season and the second-fastest in school history, behind only Erica Peake’s time of 7.39 in the 60 meters and 23.40 in the 200 meters.

Coastal Carolina sprints coach Karl Goodman enjoys coaching Melissa because of her work ethic and positive attitude.

“She’s always ready to work,” Goodman said. “She’s very happy and she’s always got a smile on her face. I’ve never had to shout at Melissa for not doing something right. She’s very easy to coach and she wants to understand how to get better.”

Melvin was glad to finally be able to watch Melissa compete at a meet at the Alan Connie Shamrock Invitational at Myrtle Beach High School’s Doug Shaw Stadium on March 19 -20.

Melvin had not been able to see her compete in an outdoor event in college because of the pandemic, and he was also unable to see any of her indoor events this season because the venues either weren’t allowing spectators or were too far away.

While Melissa’s success in track and field has brought the Jefferson family a lot of joy, Melvin takes the most pride in the person that Melissa has become and that she has “never met a stranger.”

“Everyone should have a child like Melissa,” Melvin said. “Every brother should have a sister like Melissa. Every sister should have a sister like Melissa, or niece or granddaughter.

“If there were a lot more Melissas, this world would be a much better place.”

CONWAY – Third time’s the charm.

The Bowerman Award presented by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association announced its third watch list of the track & field season on March 24, and this time Coastal Carolina’s Melissa Jefferson is on the list.

The 2022 NCAA Division I indoor 60-meter champion earned her first mention on The Bowerman’s shortlist in the receiving votes category. Jefferson becomes the first Chanticleer to garner votes for the prestigious award. Of the 10 athletes on the list, only three have received votes. Jefferson is one of five sprinters on the list.

The Bowerman, which debuted in 2009 and is named after former University of Oregon coach Bill Bowerman, is presented annually to the most outstanding male and female NCAA track & field athletes in the nation. The award will be presented in December following a voting period over the summer.

Jefferson, a graduate of Carvers Bay High School, won gold in the women’s 60-meter dash with a Sun Belt record time of 7.09 at the NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships in Birmingham, Ala., on March 12.

Jefferson is the first-ever individual national champion in CCU history, and her time of 7.09 was the second-fastest time in all of NCAA Division I women’s indoor track & field this season and is tied for the sixth-fastest time all-time in the NCAA Division I women’s indoor track & field record books for the 60-meter dash.

With her first-place finish at the NCAA Championships, the Georgetown native became a 2022 first-team All-American.

Jefferson broke the 60-meter dash record for both CCU and the Sun Belt several times this year, including in the prelims of the Sun Belt Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships with a time of 7.26 on Feb. 21, then a CCU and Sun Belt meet record, followed up by a first-place performance in the Sun Belt indoor meet finals with a time of 7.22 on Feb. 22, which was a school and conference record at the time.

Jefferson also broke the Sun Belt indoor meet record in the 200-meter dash with a first-place finish in the finals on Feb. 22 with a time of 23.39. She broke the school record in that event with a time of 23.34 at the Carolina Challenge in Columbia on Jan. 22.

In the prelims of the 60-meter dash at the NCAAs on March 11, Jefferson posted a time of 7.10, the fastest in her section, the fourth-fastest overall in the prelims and yet another CCU and Sun Belt record, before besting that record yet again in her first-place finish in the 60-meter dash finals the next day.

For her efforts this season, Jefferson was named the Sun Belt women’s indoor track performer of the year, All-Sun Belt first team and a three-time recipient of the Sun Belt women’s track athlete of the week honor.