Trisha C. Caulder, who served as director of
Pynor Adult/Education Center for more than 20 years, has received the
Order of the Palmetto from state governor Mark Sanford.
(File) 
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Trisha C. Caulder, who served as director of
Pynor Adult/Education Center for more than 20 years, has received the
Order of the Palmetto from state governor Mark Sanford. (File) |
FLORENCE - Service to the community has brought recognition at the state level for Florence educator Trisha Caulder.
Caulder, the former director of Poynor Adult/Community Education Center, recently was awarded the state’s highest civilian honor: the Order of the Palmetto.
At the prompting of her husband James, Florence Mayor Frank Willis, along with several other business leaders, set the wheels in motion for Caulder to receive the honor.
“I’m still amazed and still can’t believe it was actually awarded to me,” Caulder said of the honor. A person works and does her job, and very rarely does she expect anything in return, she said.
But the order is awarded to people who go beyond the realm of their job description.
Gov. John West created the Order of the Palmetto in 1971 to recognize lifetime achievement and service. It was modeled on similar honors bestowed in other states, such as the Kentucky Colonel and North Carolina’s Order of the Longleaf Pine, and it comes in the form of a framed plaque.
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In the letter written to Caulder from Gov. Mark Sanford, he said, “You have established a standard of excellence that is second to none.
Since becoming its director, Poynor Adult Education Center has seen extraordinary growth in the number of students who desire to upgrade their skills, learn new skills or be taught life skills.”
Citing her keen insight into the training and related needs of businesses, schools and government agencies, Sanford wrote to Caulder, “Your expertise has been sought time after time to design courses tailored especially for the individual organization.”
By assessing the needs of businesses around the area and seeing how they could upgrade their work force, Caulder has created many plans of educating employees for work. Seeing the need for the connection between education and economic development 30 of the 38 years she has been an educator, Caulder made it her mission to tie the two together.
“Unless you’ve got the educated work force, the companies won’t come and stay,” she said. “Then what would happen with our people?”
Caulder retired from Poynor in August to become director of the S.C. Department of Education Regional Adult Education Training Center.
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