♪ (opening music) ♪ Hello, I'm Beryl Dakers.

Welcome to Palmetto Scene .

It is officially Spring and it's beginning to look as though brighter days are ahead as we now see a light at the end of that long COVID-19 tunnel.

One major event that fell victim to the pandemic was the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.

Closing the gates of this historic event crushed the Olympic dreams of many young athletes across the globe.

But one young athlete continues to push through the obstacles in an effort to ensure that a dream delayed is not a dream denied.

>> I think the feeling that I get inside when I'm out competing, I can't explain it.

It's as if you're like skydiving for the first time, it's just exciting on the inside but very scary.

You know, it's like hot and cold, feeling all those emotions at the same time but the instant that the gun goes off, all of those emotions just disappear and now you just -- you don't feel any of it.

You're just numb to it and now you're just running.

I was very young when I left Haiti, so I did not really experience the hardship there as much because when you're young your parents care of you and stuff like that, so but I mean, I know how hard it can be and I still know to this day, and with not having work and stuff like that.

Apart from that it's really a great country.

I think the people are like, they're very nice.

They do look out for each other as well, like when they can.

I think it's a community.

Originally I had committed to the University of Kentucky and the coach had transferred and I didn't wanna stay there anymore.

So, I went on the hunt again trying to find a school that I'd feel like it would be a home for me.

and then I find here.

Here I found, really, a home.

The instant that Coach Dee picked me up from the airport, I'm like, "Wow!

This really feels like home," "I can actually see myself living here."

>> We were really excited as a coaching staff that she was coming, not knowing how great she was going to be.

Wadeline is mature for her age because she's very responsible.

So she she's going to do things that you know, grown adults do and for her age.

But I also saw a side to her of how supportive and loving she is with her family and how important her family is to her and so I got to know that about her.

<Wadeline> I wanted to help support my family.

I know that my family wasn't going to be able to support themselves up North, well some of them, because it's also very expensive over there.

So, I'm like with what I can get from school, like the funds that I'm getting, my housing funds and my meal money I did put all of that toward my family for the whole first year.

And everything I was getting was on strict budget.

I was not spending outside of what I needed to spend except for rent and electricity.

Just the necessities.

So I really had it down for a whole year for them.

'Cause I don't think I would be able to perform if they were not in a situation where they could be taken care of.

<Coach Dee> She takes her responsibility seriously.

And she's selfless.

And she does for others a lot.

She'll do it before she does it for herself.

What makes her different, I think she has an incredible focus.

Obviously she has a gift to run.

But she doesn't take any of it for granted.

She works really hard and she does what champions do.

<Wadeline> Coach Karim is just I think like he loves when someone loves to work hard, you know.

He doesn't want to like yell at you to work hard and I think because I'm self motivated to get to where I think we make a great team.

It's a tough love situation, but he's really - he will definitely go the distance for me.

I'm very grateful to have him as a coach.

<Coach Karim> She's physically talented.

I think her biggest talent is her mental toughness, her competitive spirit and her willing to be coachable, and truly put up with the trouble and pain and the demands of practice.

It's one of the hardest races in track and field, Women's 400 and Wadeline works so hard.

She came to our program running 52.8.

That was her personal best, and in one year she dropped to 49.6, got fourth in the world championship and ran the ninth fastest time in the history in the United States.

So it was, it was special, but to take it, to continue to take it, to the next level, I keep reminding her that your biggest asset is your mental toughness.

So, that's one thing that's our super power.

We cannot compromise it.

<Wadeline> So, the biggest thing with COVID-19 was that I feel like I was really on track.

And I was just really ready to just, I felt like I was ready to just get it done.

And I mean get the gold.

<Coach Karim> This whole thing with the pandemic was really crazy because for Wadeline as a professional and for the USC track and field team as well as the track and field community, at the NCAA level, professional level of the U.S. Wadeline won the NCAA, sorry won the U.S. indoor championships.

And then BOOM COVID happened.

And even though I was still training, but because I was not competing, that really took a toll on me and it kind of slowed me down a bit.

And going to Europe and I really - I don't like to say that but I lost the first race because my body kind of forgot what it felt like to race with other people.

And even though I had trials on the track.

But it was different training wise because it didn't really affect my training but it did affect how my body got used to competing.

<Coach Karim> Arms wide in.

Push back, back, back.

Set, Hoo <Wadeline> So going into the new season with my hopes and dreams, I think dreams are just that.

That's all it is if you don't work towards it and I do come out here every day to accomplish what I want to accomplish and I know I said that a lot, so with the Olympics ahead, when I get there I want to get the gold.

And I don't just want to get the gold, I want to do more than that, because I want to leave a legacy behind and I want to do something that's never been done before.

And I know I'm like all smiley and whatever but when I'm on the track and it's that time to go, I will go.

And I'm going to do it like it's a piece of cake, well, cookies and milk.

♪ (upbeat music) ♪ <Beryl> And now for more girl power.

Let's visit a training center that prepares our young ladies for leadership roles in the community.

♪ <Lora> Girl Scouts is the largest girl leadership organization in the world.

It's an organization that started in 1912 by our founder Juliette Gordon Low.

She was 51 years old in 1912.

If you think about that, that's before women had the right to vote.

♪ <Terrae> I got in Girl Scouts because I was a Girl Scout.

I actually did Brownies when I was younger up 'til Cadets.

Girl Scouts, we got to do different experiences.

We had fun, and then when I became a mom, found out I was having a girl, we definitely wanted to have her in Girl Scouts.

She started in kindergarten.

She also had special needs, and I felt like there's a place for her in Girl Scouts, so I got involved.

I knew I had to be a leader, so that way she can have her needs met and go do camping, and different experiences, without feeling like she couldn't do anything.

>> Well, I wanted to join Girl Scouts because I felt that it -- it empowered me to do a lot more stuff, and it helps you set goals and socialize.

♪ >> Girl Scouts has a super cool Citizen Science Journey, and so the concept there is that they work with scientists and they're actually helping scientists collect data, and if they're posting that data and monitoring it, and so we have started -- I started doing all this stuff, personally because of Girl Scouts.

>> Our troop, we are very active.

We have our girls going camping.

Our girls go...

They did Sea World and they loved it.

They had a good time doing that.

Our girls have gone to amusement parks.

They've gone to different, just different things.

Also, in the community, our girls have done pet drives, food drives, they've worked with the senior citizens.

>> This is the Cathy Novinger Girl Scout Leadership Center, and it was named after a beloved woman in our community that has since passed from cancer.

It was kind of a rally around her, and that's what the building is named after - a phenomenally strong woman in our community.

>> I think it's important for there to be a central location where the girls can come and do all of these activities that they need to do.

I mean, it's hard to find space for us, you know, as leaders to run things, and so this gives the council, I think, a nice focus, and there's so much stuff here that is geared to the stuff that we do.

>> This is a phenomenal, this is a creation of love.

You know, it started as a seed of an idea that Girl Scouts of South Carolina Mountains to Midlands, we wanted a state of the art leadership center for girls and for our community, but it's also a community center for Columbia and for our -- really our entire council.

We have girls, volunteers, that come from all over the council, but also members of our community can come, and they can have access to the space too, because we wanted it to be used by other people as well when the girls aren't using it.

>> Sometimes kids...

I mean, when you're a little different, you have a hard time making friends and keeping friends, so just having that Girl Scout troop, she knows she has, you know, 20 other girls that wherever she is Hey, come sit next to me.

Hey, we're going to do this.

Come on and enjoy this, and so she just feels like she has a, you know, a friend.

She has no siblings at home, so Girl Scouts is everything to her.

Those are her sisters.

>> When I think about Girl Scouts, I think of a couple things.

One is that it is delivered by our volunteers.

They are just incredible women that deliver girl scouting, and we couldn't do it without them.

>> I've learned a lot of things.

It's impossible to count all the things I've learned.

<Beryl> Next a walk on the wild side.

Learning to live with wildlife can sometimes be challenging but it doesn't have to be.

Carolina Wildlife is helping animals in need get back to their natural habitats while educating the public as to why our balance with nature is so important.

♪ Carolina Wildlife is a non profit.

Our mission is to rescue, rehabilitate and release all native wildlife.

We will intake any animals that are injured, orphaned, or just misplaced and we will assess them, help you re-nest if they're healthy babies or intake them if they're injured or ill, and then our goal is to get them through the rehabilitation system, get them eating, get them surviving on their own and then we re-release them.

We accept any kind of wildlife found in South Carolina.

That includes owls, songbirds, small animals.

We take in reptiles.

We take in pretty much anything that you can find out in South Carolina.

The first thing you want to do if you have an injured animal is call us.

We can help guide you through how to contain the animal, how to transport it safely, or visit our website.

We have great tips there for how to assess if an animal is really in danger or not.

Once you do have the animal contained the best thing to do is put it in a safe, quiet and dark place away from animals and people until you can bring it to us.

Never feed or give water to any wild animal even if you think that it's very thirsty or hungry because often times that does more damage to wild animals.

Carolina wildlife uses a ton of volunteers.

We have a huge network of people that help from animal care to transportation to just education and fundraising so we have a huge support from the community involving everything here.

We do outreach programs where we'll go to different schools in the community and we can do short or long program from just meeting animals, learning about them and our native South Carolina ecosystem all the way to learning about really cool topics that these animals can teach us like adaptations for living in different environments and how these guys are really important to our ecosystem.

We had a record breaking year last year where we in took 600 opossums.

So this is Nyx, N-Y-X, named after the goddess of darkness because she's nocturnal just like all other opossums, she hangs out when it's dark.

She came to us last year.

She is still a juvenile.

She joined us as a very small orphaned baby with an eye infection and unfortunately we weren't able to treat that infection well enough to save the eye, and so even though she's healthy now she can't actually see out of this right eye here.

That means she can't be released since, again, the goddess of darkness needs both eyes to see in the dark even though she has these awesome long whiskers called vibrissae that help her see when there's not a lot of light, she also needs those eyes.

So instead of releasing she lives with us and she goes out to schools and events and lets people meet her and learn about opossums by coming up close with her.

♪ Opossums right here in North America are a group of animals that are marsupials.

So these guys have a marsupium, that's a low pouch on their belly, and that's the same as kangaroos and koalas and wallabies.

It is Didelphis virginianas or Virginia opossum.

That's the only type of opossum you'll find here and just like all the other marsupials, they carry their babies around in that pouch.

So after two weeks, Mommy gives birth to all these little tiny babies, they crawl into her pouch and they stay in there drinking milk for as long as they need to until they're big enough to come on out and start hanging on Mom.

Once they are big enough to get off of Mom, about the size of a dollar bill, tail to tip, these guys start roving on their own but until then they are literally hanging out inside mom's pouch or on her back, the entire time.

Opossums are omnivores.

Kinda like most humans, they eat meat and plants.

So that means as they're going out in the forest they're eating things like decaying animals, leaf litter and that keeps the entire ecosystem clean.

They're basically garbage men.

They're out there making sure that things don't pile up and create lots of gross bacteria.

On top of that they eat a lot of insects.

So humans are susceptible to diseases like lyme disease and chagas and that can be transmitted to us via ticks.

Ticks are plentiful in the summertime and our friends, the opossums, eat thousands of them every season.

So, they're actually keeping us safe and healthy by removing sources of bacteria and reducing the amount of lyme disease that we're exposed to.

We should be very, very thankful for these guys.

Oftentimes people are concerned when there's opossums in their yard but there are a few reasons you should be very happy they're in your yard.

First of all these guys don't transmit a lot of diseases.

They're actually immune to rabies for the most part.

Their body temperature's too low to host the virus.

So, you're not gonna have rabid opossum.

Second of all, they're immune to a lot of venoms from different venomous snakes around here.

So if you see a venomous snake in your yard, there is a chance that the opossum that you also saw is going to make that his dinner.

Opossums are often painted as very aggressive attack animals, but opossums' best defense is to look scary.

They will rarely, if ever charge at you.

The most that they'll do is maybe open their mouths very wide and hiss.

They do have big old mouths full of the most teeth of any land mammal in North America, 50 pretty sharp serrated teeth.

But these teeth are just for show and mostly for crunching through things like decaying bones and leaf litter.

They use these teeth to crack open roots, nuts, berries.

So, it may look scary, but it's mostly for getting through things that are tough to eat.

Now, opossums do have a second form of self defense.

This is kind of what most people know, playing opossum.

They will go into a temporary state of catatonia.

So, they're very stiff and they can't move.

And they start secreting a very stinky green juice out of their bottoms.

This smell combined with not moving, makes it look like they're dead.

And for most predators that would maybe eat opossum, they don't want to eat something that's rotting.

So, either they look really scary or they look really dead.

And both of these techniques help them stay safe out in the wild.

Opossums are oftentimes seen as a danger to our outdoor pets.

In reality, we get many opossums that are hurt by those pets.

Opossums rarely, if ever, will attack your animals.

They're at bigger risk than your pets are.

But of course, if you leave food out for your cats or what not, opossums are gonna smell it, find it ,and be pretty excited to have free food.

So, you have to understand that if there is food outside, there's a chance opossum's gonna find it.

So, humans are able to co-exist with any species of animal here in South Carolina, whether it's something that we're scared of, like a lot of people fear venomous snakes or opossums.

They all serve a purpose, if we leave them alone, they leave us alone.

And the easiest thing we can do is give animals space.

So, as long as we respect our wildlife friends, we will keep our ecosystem healthy and we will be healthy because of that.

<Beryl> For additional stories about our state and more details on the stories you've just seen please visit our website at palmetto scene dot org.

And...Don't forget to follow us on social media.

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at SCETV hashtag Palmetto Scene .

We leave you tonight with a segment from our ETV Digital series Go For It produced by Tabitha Safdi as it takes us on a fulfilled trip down the Congaree River.

For Palmetto Scene, I'm Beryl Dakers.

Good Night.

Stay strong and thanks for watching!

♪ Y'all, today we're in one of the coolest places in the entire state of South Carolina: Congaree National Park.

There is so much that's special about Congaree.

Not only is it South Carolina's only national park, but it is also home to the largest concentration of champion trees in North America.

The trees here are some of the largest of their species, some even reaching the heights of a seventeen story building, which is pretty big, and I've never been here before, so I'm super pumped to get to explore today.

Let's go for it!

♪ <Devyn> This is Jon Manchester.

He is a ranger here at Congaree National Park and is going to be helping us out today.

Jon, can you tell me what is so unique about Congaree National Park and why would people want to experience it in South Carolina?

<Jon> Well, not only is it the last remaining really large intact section of old growth bottomland hardwood, something you really don't find anywhere else anymore, but it's also a wilderness area twenty five minutes outside the city of Columbia and two hours away from Greenville, Spartanburg and Charleston, and you really don't find areas as remote seeming as this without actually having to drive two hours away from a major city.

>> Yeah, you definitely feel like you're in another world, for sure.

I've heard that one of the coolest ways to experience Congaree is actually on the water, is that right?

<Jon> That is true, yeah.

You get to actually get back into places that you don't really get to see on our foot trails so you can really experience true wilderness if you're out on the water in a kayak or canoe.

<Devyn> Awesome!

So do you think we could get out and paddle for a little bit?

<Jon> I think that should be something we can do today.

<Devyn> Awesome!

Let's go for it!

♪ [Hoot Hoot Hoot] <Jon> Those are barred owls.

Umm, they do make some funky sounds sometimes.

<Devyn> Yeah, they sound like monkeys.

You hear the cicadas?

<Jon> The cicadas can be deafening sometimes here in the summer, but it's one of those iconic summer sounds.

<Devyn> Yeah.

This is literally the most outdoorsy I have ever been in my life.

<Jon> And once get out here it's a little easier.

<Devyn> I'm a little close to you.

<Jon> Oh, you're fine, you're fine.

People ask about, you know, alligators and snakes.

Most of our snakes are non-venomous and they don't want to hurt anybody, and even the venomous snakes, they're not going to really be a danger to us unless we're messing with them.

Alligators, we are in their range, but we don't typically see many here in Congaree.

♪ <Devyn> That's a spider!

Woooo!

That's a really big spider.

<Jon> We do have some spiders in here too.

This is the season for our golden silk orb weavers.

They're very large spiders but they're gentle ladies.

♪ <Devyn> I mean, this is kind of wild.

Woah!!

<Jon> So Devyn, in my seven years I've been here, you are the first person to go in the water.

<Devyn> Well folks, I fell in.

My ranger said that is the first time in seven years that anybody has fallen in, so I've taken that title.

It will go down in infamy.

And you know, if you ask my friends, my family, anybody who knows me, they would say Devyn is not an outdoorsy person, and yet today I had a lot of fun.

Congaree is seriously spectacular, it's so peaceful, so even if you are an indoorsy person and maybe wouldn't consider this type of experience as a vacation, I would absolutely encourage you to go for it.

No regrets.

Maybe don't fall out of the boat, but give it a shot, it's absolutely worth it.

♪