About 60 vendors from area businesses set up booths in the conference center and main lobby of Florence-Darlington Technical College’s SIMT building, 1951 Pisgah Road in Florence. Many of the stalls featured hands-on exhibits and demonstrations of on-the-job activities.

Debbie Jones, SC Department of Workforce and Development regional workforce adviser and Pee Dee Pathway's de facto organizer, said in an interview that the event is “a collaboration between education, industry and community partners to help students connect what they're learning in school to real-world careers,” adding that it’s the first regional event of its kind.

Vendors represented such fields as manufacturing, healthcare, STEM, education, agriculture, finance, first responders, government and hospitality. These included some of the largest employers in the Pee Dee: American Honda Motor Co. Inc., Nucor Corp., Schaeffler Group USA Inc., Sonoco Products Co., McLeod Health, MUSC Health, and Duke Energy Corp., as well as Florence County and city, Florence-Darlington Technical College, GE Healthcare, Pee Dee Regional Transportation Authority, Thermo Fisher Scientific and Smurfit Westrock. Even representatives from local sports teams the Florence Flamingos and Pee Dee Icecats turned out.

Jones said she had tasked each vendor to “bring interactive activity to engage the students.”

One of McLeod’s exhibits featured high-fidelity mannequins that simulated respiratory airway training and personal protective equipment for clinicians in the work area, according to Ingrid Cherry, workforce development manager at McLeod Health.

Duke Energy Construction and Maintenance Specialist Brice James explained that his booth demonstrates how a linemen would use a pole to replace the fuse link on an overhead circuit.

Retired NASA instructor Fred Wilson, of Florence, had set up a booth with weather-related data acquisition equipment. He said he teaches after-school STEM at area schools and that he had been teaching science, technology, engineering and mathematics since before it was called STEM. “Everyone just calls me Mr. Fred,” he said.

GE Healthcare, which manufactures MRI machines at its Florence plant, demonstrated MRI equipment at its booth, while representatives from the FBI simulated a crime-scene investigation at theirs.

According to Jones, the original plan had called for some demonstrations, such as a firetruck and an ambulance, to be held outdoors. McLeod would have exhibited its helicopter, and Mr. Fred would have brought a weather balloon. However, freezing temperatures overnight during the week leading up to Jan. 29 precipitated cancellation of the outdoor segment. Jones said she was disappointed. “We decided to move everything inside,” she said. “We don't have the capacity to put a fire truck inside ... but I can bring firemen in, and they can still let [students] know what they do.”

Some 22 groups sponsored Pee Dee Pathways 2026, including McLeod, Sonoco, Pee Dee Area Health Education Center, Wyman-Gordon, Smurfit Westrock and Duke Energy Foundation, among others. Jones said the Florence County Economic Development Partnership was a “huge supporter and sponsor helping with the [organizing] committee.”

Another key partner has been the Eastern Carolina Community Foundation, Pee Dee Pathway's 501(c)(3) arm, Jones said in an email. “The foundation holds a Pee Dee Pathways fund so that we can accept sponsorships,” she said. “They then grant out the funds to the Pee Dee Regional Council of Governments to pay any expenses.”

Pee Dee Pathways also enlisted a volunteer staff of about 50 people, gleaned from SCDEW and local schools, businesses, governments and economic development agencies.

Jones said she was pleased with the number of vendors, businesses and industries participating. “You always want more, but I think this is a great number and great start.”

“We’ve also had a great turnout from local schools in the region,” Jones added. She said eighth graders came not only from schools in the six Pee Dee counties, but also one school in Lee County, as well as the SC Virtual Charter School, which offers standards-based public-school curriculum in an online environment, according to the school's website.

Jones went on to say that invitations to the event were not limited to public school students. “Every student needs exposure to our local businesses and industry ... I sent information out to homeschool students and organizations.”

Turnout was strong enough that Pee Dee Pathways had to turn schools away because of capacity, Jones said.

According to an information sheet put out by Pee Dee Pathways, the project “is more than a one-day event. It’s part of a larger effort to strengthen the education-to-workforce pipeline across our region. The goal is to help students see their future right here at home, in local industries that are growing and hiring.”

The info sheet went on to say that, through their participation, businesses around the region can showcase their workforce needs; allow students to handle tools, technology and skills used in their workplace; and send “a strong message: Our community values its future workforce.”

Jones says the more exposure students get to area industries, the more it shows them opportunities in the region. She said some companies “are having to bring in people from outside the Pee Dee, because people don't know that there are these types of jobs in the Pee Dee.”

She said companies such as Thermo Fisher are going to STEM fairs and competitions getting their names out there, but “Thermo has been out there, and no one knows what they do,” Jones said.

Jones pointed out how Pee Dee Pathways may have some corollary benefits. For example, when a student comes home from an event like this, they may tell their parents about the companies they encountered. That may be some parents’ first time hearing about a company, and that might prompt them to apply there.

Jones said early exposure to careers opens up pathways of opportunities to diverse groups of students who may not have otherwise seen those opportunities. She said that “more businesses are starting to realize the importance of earlier exposure to students,” in some cases as early as fifth grade. She said the eighth grade is especially important because it’s when “you're deciding your pathway for your high-school years.”

It’s not about making students pick a job, according to the information sheet. It’s about helping them to see what is possible.

Jones said she had attended Pathways 2 Possibilities in Myrtle Beach last year. Pathways 2 Possibilities started out in Mississippi in 2013 as a hands-on, interactive career expo for eighth graders, according to its website. The group holds other events in Biloxi and Greenville, Miss., and Jackson, Tenn. Jones said, “Pee Dee Pathways is a much smaller version of that.”

Jones had previously worked for Florence County Economic Development and, even then, she had seen the need for an event like Pee Dee Pathways. She said she has been with SCDEW for a little more than a year, adding, “I didn't know when I took this job that I was going to be the person leading the charge.”

Jones related how local planning organization Pee Dee Regional Council of Governments had researched sector strategy for the area. “One of the things that came up as a need was to do a business and industry showcase for eighth-grade students,” she said.

Pee Dee Pathways is separate from SCDEW, according to Jones. It is coordinated by a standalone planning committee comprising local businesspeople, educators, economic development groups and community members. “I’m the main contact person,” she said. “I've been the main organizer with the support of committee members.”

The committee has been working on Pee Dee Pathways since August. Jones said that “most people do this as a yearlong process.” She and the committee did it in five months.

“I think having the short time period in place made us break down into different planning groups and take it seriously,” she said. “We kind of had no choice but to dive right in ... it came down to partners and committee members to get the job done.”

She said Pee Dee Pathways had “great support” from sponsors. “McLeod really took the lead in that,” she said, adding that economic development groups from various counties in the Pee Dee “have been instrumental in relaying information.”

“The Pee dee is getting there,” Jones said. “We're excited about a lot of things going on.”