Posted 10/12/2007

Growing Bluffton community gets valuable advice from worldwide group of recreation experts

Seventeenth Century settlers once had a dark name for the Bluffton area, calling it Devil’s Elbow, so perhaps it’s no surprise that the USC’s Arnold School of Public Health has an interest in the town’s health and holds classes in the Beaufort County community.

The classes, however, have nothing to do with Satan or the history of the May River community, which, in the past seven years, has burgeoned from a village, population 750, into a 56-square-mile incorporated town, the fifth largest in South Carolina in land area.

The Arnold School’s interest in Bluffton has to do with helping the Lowcountry town encourage more active lives for its growing number of citizens and sharing that process with researchers and public policymakers from around the world.

Dr. Russ Pate, exercise guru and USC associate vice president for health sciences, has spearheaded the Physical Activity and Public Health Courses for the past 13 years.

Pate directs one course for post-doctoral personnel designed to develop the research skills of academicians.

A practitioner’s course that runs concurrently is directed by Dennis Shepard, a retiree from the Arnold School of Public Health. His public health physical activity “fellows” are a hand-on group involved or interested in community-based efforts to promote physical activity.

Shepard says his latest class of 21 students was drawn from 17 states, Iceland and Sweden, a diverse group with a wealth of “back home” experience to share with their classmates.

The group, housed at the Sea Pines Resort on nearby Hilton Head Island, spent five days meeting at the Bluffton town hall, studying maps, local data and comparing notes.

The sixth day, which Shepard calls the “capstone experience,” the students huddled with town officials and visited the areas they had been studying.

Phyllis Atkins, a public health nurse who is community health, safety and trails coordinator for the Beaufort County Conservation District, is a member of Shepard’s faculty.

Her agency also has a role in encouraging outdoor activities and providing technical support for building recreational facilities.

Speaking of the practitioners’ recommendations, Atkins says “For the most part we get really down-to-earth solutions. They bring ideas that work for them where they come from. And when they come here and find out how we work with local planners and government, they can take those ideas back to their community. It’s a win-win situation.”

In 2001, a practitioners’ class recommended that the town build a park at the site of the historic Bluffton Oyster Co., the oldest continuously operating oyster shucking factory in South Carolina.

Three years ago, the dream became reality when the Beaufort County Open Land Trust purchased the 4.5-acre site for $2.5 million. Additionally, the town arranged for the factory to remain in operation as an historical institution.

At the 2007 session students came up with a list of recommendations including a light rail system along U.S. 278 (a dangerous, heavily traveled main thoroughfare), canals through downtown Bluffton and social campaigns touting "Walk a hound, lose a pound" and building a pavilion or amphitheater at a proposed park.

Other suggestions included establishing health-centered programs for young families and retirees, building additional “pocket parks” and public toilets throughout town, building paved pathways along all major streets, hiring a town or community physical activity coordinator and promoting “bike only” days at certain times on certain streets,

Realizing that paid consultants would charge thousands of dollars for similar services, Bluffton officials have come to trust the students as a valuable resource.

"Basically we just want to provide the students with case studies for real world examples," said David Jirousek, long-range planner for the town.

"They see the reality of the situation and what challenges and obstacles they're going to find.

Bluffton and a majority of other Beaufort County residents have come to appreciate the opportunities that the Lowcountry offer for physical activity. Since 2000, county residents have approved two bond issues totaling $90 million to support the Rural and Critical Lands Program, the first local measure specifically designed to buy green space in South Carolina.

Bluffton is an alternate site for the Public Health and Physical Activity Courses, Shepard said. Every other year the courses are offered at the Shadow Ridge Hotel and Conference Center in Park City, Utah, another popular resort community.

The South Carolina class is based at the Sea Pines Resort and Conference Center on Hilton Head Island.