Just keep cleaning: Sumter's 1st litter sculpture encourages residents to keep their city beautiful

In "Finding Nemo," Marlin and Dory's journey across the ocean was filled with unexpected encounters - some friendly, some not so friendly.

But if they had ventured into Sumter, they might have come across a different kind of aquatic oddity: a giant fish with a never-ending appetite for trash.

Sumter's latest environmental effort is a larger-than-life litter sculpture, the first of its kind in our city, made of metal, sculpted in the shape of a dazzling aquamarine fish and created by the hands of local welding students and instructors at Central Carolina Technical College.

Litter is a social problem that affects everyone in Sumter, from being an eyesore while sightseeing on the highways to making an area more vulnerable to crime. Efforts to combat this issue in both the city and county are widespread. But Cassie Castleberry, water resources agent with Sumter's Clemson Extension, thought why not add a little color to it?

"I just thought, well, why not see if we can build [a sculpture] for ourselves, for our community and see if we can do some education with it and some awareness," Castleberry said.

The idea of a fishy friend to fight off litter was funded by a Keep South Carolina Beautiful - Palmetto Pride grant, which assist eligible counties in creating and maintaining successful litter reduction and beautification programs. Sumter received the grant in January 2024, totaling $7,145, $1,800 of which went to the sculpture, and began working on the creative installation in fall.

Axel Reis, head of the welding department at CCTC, and his students Josh Cannon and Kenyatta Silcott and welding instructor Jim James and assistant instructor Josh Padgett were hands on - literally - in bringing the fishy fellow to life. From countless sketches to rough skeletons to sculpting out a seemingly endless number of scales, this sculpture was built piece by piece before becoming the wonder CCTC and USC Sumter students, staff and community members marveled at the afternoon of Feb. 4. The welders were all smiles at seeing their hard work be admired; it made the sweltering days and tedious tasks all worth it.

"What we do here at CCTC in the welding program is very diverse. We're not just focused on one thing. The student can come here and basically learn all structural welding processes, and at the same time, we can add some icing on the cake and have some art projects for people who have the nature of being an artist or want to be creative by working with metal, making sculptures, making creative metalworks," Reis explained.

This diversity among their talents and teachings is what Castleberry said lent a hand to making the installation better than what she could have imagined. But you know what they say about good things, right? You can never have enough.

Lisa Callihan, a professor at CCTC, shared in on the love of artistic expression and community beautification by giving the community's new fishy friend its delightful paint job. But the opportunity meant so much more when she learned what it was for.

"To hear about all the good it's going to do for spreading the proper attitude and the awareness about the environment and what we can do to protect our waterways, I think this sort of sculpture can remind people when they're out in these natural environments exactly how we're supposed to respect nature and treat it, so it will be there for us to really enjoy for many years," she expressed.

The glossy clear coat on Callihan's creative work is courtesy of Wiliam Sumter, who said it was an honor to partner on such a project that will have a meaningful impact on both Sumter's people and environment.

For the time being, the sculpture will float around the CCTC campus, doubling as a useful tool and a nice sight to see on a leisurely stroll before swimming over to USC Sumter's campus to share in on the fun. Its permanent home, however? That's a work in progress.

"One of the things that we talked about when Cassie came up with the idea is where does it go? Where is the fish's home as an installation that can be seen? We'll get to do it," said Kyle Kelly with City of Sumter's Planning Department.

Kelly was instrumental in getting the sculpture approved and finding its permanent home along Prisma Health Shot Pouch Greenway. A space has been incorporated in the 3.1-mile multi-use path, near Broad Street, Kelly said. While there are no definitive dates or concrete timelines on when the fish will be out on the greenway, the group knows it'll only further Sumter's collaborative effort to keep our community clean.

Speaking of collaborative effort, that's precisely what it took to get this fish from an idea on paper to a real-life wonder to behold. Kelly and Castleberry agreed that "many hands make light work" and being able to not only showcase local talent, but also slip in a bit of education and awareness benefits every organization and agency who took part in its creation. As our fishy friend floats its way through Sumter, the group hopes it will serve its purpose in more ways than one, including being a reminder of how teamwork really makes the dream work.

"I think it mirrors the whole project purpose because it's going to take a team to clean up the environment and keep everything in pristine condition, for future generations," Callihan expressed. "When you work together as a team and you see how much you can accomplish, then that's a good example for everybody that's going to see this sculpture."