An SC prison needed new basketball jerseys. Then a church stepped in to help

Here’s a story about the noisy buckets.

That’s what the Rev. Dr. Michael Smith of Simpsonville United Methodist Church calls a special offering on certain Sunday mornings. Kids go around the sanctuary with tin buckets, and people throw in nickels, dimes, quarters and sometimes bills to raise money for organizations outside the church.

Most often, the money goes to the Church of God Children’s Home in nearby Mauldin for flat screen TVs, Christmas gifts and other needs.

Recently, state Rep. Garry Smith, a church member, brought another idea. He heard from a friend that the basketball teams at Perry Correctional Institution needed jerseys.

To call the ones they had ragged was something of an overstatement.

Larry Epps, Perry’s chaplain, said sports are important at the Pelzer prison, and the most important of all is basketball. Each of the four dorms has a team. They play each other through the season and then play a championship game, which Epps described as a “big, big deal.”

The past 18 months have been tough at Perry, which, like all medium and maximum South Carolina prisons, has been closed to outsiders. No family visits, no volunteers.

“It has a devastating impact on the heart, mind and psyche of a man,” Epps said.

Sports took on an even greater role.

Then came the noisy buckets at Simpsonville United Methodist.

“We raised $4,000 in a few weeks,” Rep. Smith said.

On Sunday, Epps, along with Perry athletic director Cole Bullock, went to the church for the jersey presentation. Epps preached a sermon on Jesus calling people to be fishers of men, which he described as the “sheer definition of active evangelism.” He invited congregants to volunteer, and he thinks from the response he got, people will follow through once the prison opens back up.

Epps said the jerseys will have a big impact on the men. They will know people in the community cared.

“We asked for decent and we got awesome,” Epps said.

This story was originally published September 13, 2021 at 1:08 PM.