Carol Worrell

By NICOLE CARTRETTE
Staff Writer

The Columbus County Recreation Department has come a long way since its inception Jan. 1, 1977.

Hired as a secretary in October that same year and having worked her way up to director in 2002, Carol Marshall-Worrell has not only witnessed the changes but also been a part of making them happen.

In March, Worrell will bid farewell to the department she has been a part of for more than 30 years. She said she would be leaving behind co-workers who are like family but taking with her lasting friendships and memories that she holds dear.

“I had been working at Georgia Pacific in the panel board division before a layoff,” Worrell said. “I saw an ad in the paper.”

That ad would lead her to apply for a position with the newly formed county recreation department. “I thought it sounded interesting,” she said.

To her surprise, a former high school classmate and 1964 graduate of Whiteville High School, the late Dempsey Herring, was looking for a staff member.

“I was even more thrilled,” Worrell said, pointing out she got a call a week or so later. “I got the job.”

It was a job that would test her limits and bring out a real dedication to her work when a year or so later the mobile trailer the department used was needed for classrooms after a school burned.

Worrell set up shop in her own house at the corner of Burkhead and Madison streets and turned her dining room into the official recreation office for about a year.

A later move to the basement and morgue of the old Columbus County Hospital would do everything but scare Worrell into resigning.

“That was a scary time for me because I was the only one in the building at the time,” Worrell said. “I know it was haunted, it had to be,” she said with a laugh. “I’d lock the door.”

Despite heading a department that appeared to be without a permanent home, Herring would grow the department to become a leading force behind Special Olympics, softball, baseball and other programs in the county.

“Dempsey met with school principals about building ball fields,” Worrell said. “There is something at each county school that the recreation department made happen.”

By 1984, the department that began with a $13,000 budget had a budget of about $150,000 and had renovated or built more than 40 ball fields throughout the county, lighted 14 of them, and established more than a dozen community parks and playgrounds.

“The ball fields helped the schools but also allowed us to host games there,” Worrell said.

That was when the department began using school gyms for 3-on-3 basketball, headed up men’s softball and facilitated many of the Dixie Youth programs.

Other events at Worrell’s request came along and they continue today.

Easter egg hunts throughout the county, a candlelight walk, Christmas on the Plaza, Walk America for the March of Dimes, Safe Night for Kids and many others, Worrell would tackle.

“Special Olympics was probably the biggest and most memorable,” she said of the program the department took on in 1979.

“We had the best volunteers,” Worrell said of countless parents and others who cheered on not only the athletes but also the dedication of the department to scores of special-needs individuals in the county. Teams that Worrell and Herring coached were recognized nationally.

It was work that did not go unnoticed. In 1983 she served as the N.C. Polling Coach in Baton Rouge, La. for the World Special Olympics and because of her work with special needs, she was recognized by the Civitans.

“They gave me Citizen of the Year in 1990,” Worrell said. “That’s one of my most appreciated and memorable treasures,” the Whiteville native said of a plaque that hangs on a shelf in her office.

Recalling the thrill of watching one of their athletes win first place in a national competition still tugs at Worrell’s heart strings.

“I think it was more inspiring to us to watch her get that medal than it was for her to win it,” Worrell said.

“The things we did and had to do …” Worrell said, recalling the proud, happy, sad, hilarious, and in some cases unmentionable moments that colored her 18 years of coordinating Special Olympic activities.

Worrell said her family has been one of her biggest supporters.

“At the first Easter egg hunt in 1979 my two girls were there,” Worrell said. Her daughters were just 6 and 8 years old when she started working for the county recreation department.

They were there for many events to come in the future and into adulthood.

“My children were my support,” Worrell said. “They grew with the recreation department.”

As the department grew, so did Worrell’s ideas. Soon she was coordinating community events she had brainstormed.

A candlelight and caroling walk from the courthouse to the railroad organized in 1990 is one that still touches Worrell today.

More than 500 people turned out to honor troops involved in the Gulf War and in a holiday celebration that year.

“We couldn’t even sing,” Worrell said. “We cried. It was just very impressive.”

The group stopped at houses along the way, raising their candles as they sang Christmas carols, and the community came together, Worrell said. “That’s really one of my favorite things I was involved with.”

It, like so many other ideas Worrell has had over the years, evolved into something bigger than anyone imagined.

Worrell helped start Safe Night for Kids on Halloween – an alternative to trick or treating at strangers’ doors. It offers children the opportunity to enjoy a fun night in cooperation with local merchants who give out treats.

Worrell is known for having a knack for getting things started, so to speak, not just at work but in the community.

“When I first joined the Red Hat Society I suggested we have a tea party and invite all the groups in the area,” Worrell said. “We ended up with 250 women in purple and red.”

It was a bigger event than Worrell and her friends had anticipated.

“Don’t you think of anything else for us to do,” her friends jokingly told her.

Having a sense of humor has come in handy over the years.

A grown man in a bunny suit running from a dog at the Riegelwood park, is one comical memory that stands out in her mind.

The grown man was her boss, Dempsey Herring, and she was supposed to be leading the rabbit around when a vicious-looking German Sheppard went after him.

“That was hilarious to me,” Worrell said.

Special Olympics events and memories of working with Columbus County’s youth bring up their fair share of comical memories, too.

There was the case of the runner who packed only one tennis shoe.

“In the middle of the night we had to find a pair of shoes,” Worrell said of having to find a store that was open late at an out-of-town competition.

In working with the special-needs children through the years, Worrell became something in a number of sports from softball to bowling that she never thought she would be – a coach.

“That’s endearing to me that they considered me and still call me coach,” Worrell said.

The smiles on the faces of youth and adults touched by the recreation programs are rewarding in Worrell’s eyes.

“It always makes you feel good when someone thanks the department for what it has done,” Worrell said.

There is so much more Worrell would like to see the department have the opportunity and funding to accomplish.

“I would like to see a multipurpose recreational facility with an indoor pool, basketball courts, a meeting room and adequate space for tournaments to create a form of revenue for the county,” Worrell said.

A good recreational program that offers lots of activities for the youth in the county is an essential place to start with children. They need the opportunity to take part in something positive that builds character and important skills early on, Worrell said.

Youth need an alternative to activities that could lead them to jail and prison, she said.

“I just feel like they need a place to go,” Worrell said. “A lot of times structured activities will keep kids from getting into trouble.”

Perhaps Worrell’s greatest appreciation is for the staff she considers family.

“This staff – I could not say enough about them,” Worrell said. “They are family.

They’ve all just been so supportive of me. Anything I’ve asked them to do they have done.

“I guess with a happy heart and a sad heart I am leaving,” Worrell said. “When you have spent 30 years of your life and started on the ground level – it’s hard to leave.”