By Ernie Patterson, Exchange Club of Charleston
Every October, hundreds of thousands of people pour through the gates of the Coastal Carolina Fair at Exchange Park in Ladson. They come for the rides, the food, the music, and the atmosphere. Most of them have no idea they are also walking through one of the most effective agricultural education programs in the Southeast.
They should know.
This month, the Coastal Carolina Fair — presented by the all-volunteer Exchange Club of Charleston — was honored with the Southeast Regional Visionary Impact Award by the National Association of Agricultural Educators. It is one of six regional awards given across the entire country. South Carolina submitted one application. We won.
Since 2019, the fair has partnered with Future Farmers of America (FFA) chapters from Woodland High School, Ashley Ridge High School, Woodland Middle School, and the Dorchester County Career and Technology Center. Each year, roughly 75 students staff the livestock barn across the fair's 11-day run, caring for animals, answering questions from the public, and learning what it means to represent agriculture professionally. The fair also hosts an annual Tractor Driving Invitational, open to FFA chapters statewide.
More than $100,000 has been directed back into local FFA programs since the partnership began. Over 650 students benefit annually. Two Washington Leadership Conference scholarships — $1,500 each — have been awarded to students pursuing advanced FFA leadership. And the model has spread: fairs across South Carolina and Georgia are now pursuing their own FFA partnerships because of what was built here.
One student, Madilynn Riley, who served as the 2025 Woodland FFA President, put it plainly after three years working the barn: "This opportunity sparked an interest in me and helped me figure out that in my future I wanted to speak to people about agriculture."
That is what this fair does. It is not just an event. It is an investment in young people, in farming, in the future of food production and land stewardship in our region.
The Coastal Carolina Fair has operated for over a century. The Exchange Club of Charleston has served this community since 1923. What they have built together — with local FFA students, with agricultural educators, with volunteers who give thousands of hours every year — deserves to be seen clearly for what it is.
It is one of the most important things happening in this region. And it happens every fall, right here in our backyard.
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Ernie Patterson is a member of the Exchange Club of Charleston and serves on the Barn Committee of the Coastal Carolina Fair.