In 1971 J. Standard Baker Quoted " Drivers Towing Trailers  Are Four (4) Times As Unsafe As Those In Cars Alone! 

Susan Kelley Shaffer Endowed Scholarship Will Support Darlington and Lee County Students
August 15, 2017

Most students graduate college because it’s expected of them. Others exceed expectations, becoming the first in their immediate family to earn a bachelor’s degree. That was the case for the late Susan Kelley Shaffer, ‘99, who died in a tragic car accident on May 3, 2017, at just 40 years old. In memory of Susan, her husband, Mark Shaffer, started an endowed scholarship in her name to honor her passion for knowledge, truth and beauty as well as her deep ties to the Coker community.

In her younger days, Susan wasn’t sure she was college material. She wasn’t even certain what she wanted to do for a living. Her mother, Jo Frieda Kelley, encouraged her to give college a chance. “I knew if she was exposed to a lot of things, something would catch her attention,” Jo Frieda says. “And it did.”

After discovering an interest in psychology, Susan transferred to Coker. That’s where she really began to discover her best self. “Coker opened up a whole new world of possibility to her,” her husband, Mark, says. “The way this college works, the community that it is, it just simply allowed her to blossom as a student...All of a sudden, this world of psychology and religion and ideas just simply appealed to her on a massive level.”

Mark and Susan met through Mark’s dad, longtime Coker professor [emeritus] of religion, Dr. Deane L. Shaffer.  “My dad was...here for over 50 years,” Mark says. “I grew up on this campus.” Susan was Dr. Shaffer’s last major before he retired.

“She was one of the most amazing students I ever taught,” says Dr. Shaffer. “Very, very perceptive. Very creative...I was just amazed at what she could do, what she would think of. [At Coker,] she really developed her own sense of freedom and making choices and making her way.”

The summer of 2001 brought Susan and Dr. Shaffer out west, where they met up with Mark at the Grand Canyon. “We rolled around some of the most scenic parts of the west—Monument Valley, and all over the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone and Glacier—these magnificent backdrops. And I was done. That was it,” remembers Mark. They married in 2005 at Kalmia Gardens. Dr. Shaffer performed the ceremony. October 22, 2017 would have been their 12th wedding anniversary.

Once Susan discovered she had an aptitude for higher learning—that it was not only accessible, but readily available—she took full advantage. “She just excelled, quickly,” says Mark. “The support of the extended Coker community was really what helped foster the attitude in her, the resolve in her, that she could do whatever she wanted to do in the world of academia.”

After Coker, Susan went on to get a master’s degree in philosophy of religion at Boston University.  At the time of her death, she had recently completed the coursework required for a doctorate of religion and nature from the University of Florida in Gainesville.

Susan was part of the University of South Carolina at Beaufort faculty in 2009, where she taught comparative religion. “She found her niche,” says Jo Frieda. “I saw her conduct a classroom with confidence and orate beautifully.”

Susan thought of herself as an introvert, although Mark says that’s a bit of a misnomer. “If you go back and look through my large collection of photos, you’ll see her photobombing and mugging in every shot. She was definitely not an introvert. She was extremely outgoing. She loved to laugh. She loved to tell a story. She loved to listen to a story...She loved to sit and have a beer, a really good beer, and talk about things. The bigger issues.”

Susan and Mark’s friend, Richard Brooks, recalled her love of education in his eulogy: “In a society that increasingly scoffs at learning and knowledge, she sought both. And whether we know it or not, or know that we need to know, we needed Susan to connect dots, to consider the abstract, to ask the big questions.”

Despite being described as an old soul, Susan wasn’t to be taken too seriously. “She laughed all the time,” Mark remembers. “She found life pretty humorous.” She was also, endearingly, habitually late. “There was nothing fast-paced about Susan,” he says. “Everything was deliberate and on her own time.”

Susan and Mark’s friends, Gary Geboy and Teresa Bruce, refer to Susan as “a fiercely human woman.” Mark says, “She was a natural teacher and communicator and oddly enough, as most people who have that gift are, she never thought she was very good at it. People responded to her in massive ways. She was a natural. She was one of the most genuine people I’ve ever met...with her, what you see is what you got.”

Susan and Mark called Beaufort, South Carolina, home for the last decade. She worked with numerous nonprofits in the area, including the Collaborative Services for Youth (COSY) and the Friends of Hunting Island Turtle Project. “She was...in the early stages of trying to put together a paddle boarding experience for abused women and children as a way of connecting them with nature,” Mark says. “This was typical.”

Everything about Susan involved a love of the natural world. She was greatly influenced by John Muir, the legendary naturalist who was an early advocate for land preservation in the United States. Richard Brooks’s eulogy also mentions her love of “paddling anything that could be paddled: kayaks, canoes, boards, sections of dock, maybe.”   

“That was a big part of her routine,” Mark says. “A sunrise paddle and, more often than not, a sunset paddle, in that great environment we have in the Lowcountry...That was church for her.”

Had the terrible accident of May 3 not happened, Susan and Mark would have come to Coker together to start their scholarship. She felt strongly about offering opportunity to young adults from backgrounds similar to hers.

“I encouraged her...that she could do anything that she set her mind to do,” says Jo Frieda. “I said, ‘if you want it, you’ll find a way to get it.’ And she was like that. She funded her schooling with scholarships and student loans. I think she came into her own when she started Coker...She knows what it means to want something and to strive for it.”

“She was the first person in her family to graduate college, and achieving what she did has...everything to do with her experience at Coker...she had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and a passion for enlightenment,” says Mark. “Discovering that a rural kid who...always thought she was behind on her knowledge base, even though she wasn’t, she grew up with that sort of insecurity...She wanted to pass that ability to break that cycle along, particularly to kids from rural areas.”

“To hear her speak, explain, argue and illuminate—was to realize that Susan was a gift of mind and spirit,” said Geboy and Bruce in their eulogy for Susan. “She elevated us, and humbled us, and we are forever grateful students.”   

The Susan Kelley Shaffer Endowed Scholarship will be awarded to a full-time student from Lee or Darlington counties, who is in good academic standing in their junior year or above and pursuing a traditional liberal arts degree (preferably with an emphasis in psychology, religion and nature).

“[Susan] was striving to make a difference,” explains Jo Frieda.

“She was a rescuer,” says Mark—and for future Coker students, she still is.

If you would like to make a contribution to the Susan Kelley Shaffer Endowed Scholarship, please visit http://coker.edu/after-coker/give-coker.

Finalists Named for Beaufort International Film Festival 2019Friday, December 14th 2018, 3:28 PM CST
Filmmakers from Around the World Prepare to Attend the 13th Annual Beaufort International Film Festival in February

Dec. 14, 2018 / PRZen / BEAUFORT, S.C. -- The thirteenth annual Beaufort International Film Festival will host thousands of film lovers from around the world starting February 19 and continuing to February 24 in the historic coastal town of Beaufort, SC. Considered one of the fastest growing film festivals in the southeast and a top 100 best reviewed film festival in the world according to FilmFreeway, festival organizers are expecting their biggest crowds yet. BIFF 2018 established new attendance records with attendees coming from 31 states and 3 countries and more than 70 filmmakers from around the world in attendance. More than 14,000 people took part in some or all of the festival.

BIFF 2019 will be expanded by a day. It is now a six day festival with awards being presented in the areas of features, documentaries (feature and short), short films, student films, screenplays, animation, comedy and audience choice. Also, winners will be named for best actor, best actress, and best director.

In addition to the category and individual awards, the Pat Conroy Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to legendary actor, author, cook and opera singer Paul Sorvino. "If you look at his body of work in the film and television industries, his work on broadway, his philanthropic efforts over the past six decades, you can  see why we're so very honored to present the Pat Conroy Lifetime Achievement Award to the legendary entertainer Paul Sorvino," stated Beaufort Film Society President, Ron Tucker. The award is sponsored by Leslie and Landon Thorne.

South Carolina based Hairdresser and Make-up Artist Joyce Gilliard will be presented with the prestigious "Behind-The-Scenes Award for her notable accomplishments over the past 20 years in the film and television industries. Sponsored by Edie Smith and Eugene Rugala.

BIFF 2019 will also present the inaugural Susan A.K. Shaffer Humanitarian Award to the filmmaker whose work best exemplifies the need for positive social, cultural and/or environmental change in our time. This award transcends category and genre. Sponsored by Mark Shaffer and Nevermore Books.

The 2019 Beaufort International Film Festival Finalists are as follows:

Since 1975 Over 28,000 Men, Women And Children have been killed by a "Passenger Vehicle That Tows A Trailer"

Since 1988 Over 1,000,000 Injuries have occurred and every time we keep trying to find out "Why The Trailer Came Off The Hitch"  the industry and the Government keeps putting up road blocks.  

"The Interest Of Public Safety Outweighs The Non-Disclosure's And The Truth"

We Note:

action still progressing ... Fred Kuhn Jr - lawyer seems to work hard - has documented cause so may not be interested in talking to you unless a trial but how many other accidents from this manufacturer?

He forgot about the "Breakaway Cable" And The "Breaks That Must Activate For All Trailers Over 3,000 GVWR"

and, as you know, everything is too 'trade secret' to let the public know why the death scroll down the action list to this & gaze upon the stipulated secrecy 
Buyers Products Company Consent Motion for Entry of Stipulated Protective Order Motion
05/07/2018-09:42 05/07/2018-09:42

If they hold TAKATA Airbags Company accountable that worldwide only 22 have been killed and they recall millions and millions of vehicles.....why are they not holding

Byers Products Company accountable and the utility trailer industry and TruckPro, LLC

22. On or about May 3, 2017 the Defendant Stoltz, acting in his capacity as a driver and employee of the Defendant DEH, was driving a truck owned by and supplied to him by the
Defendant DEH (hereinafter “Truck”) which was towing a trailer also owned by and supplied to him by the Defendant DEH (hereinafter “Trailer”).

23. On May 3, 2017 the Trailer was attached to the Truck being operated by the Defendant Stoltz by a pintle hook and safety chains.

24. Upon information and belief, on or about January 23, 2017 DEH purchased the subject pintle hook, described as Part No. BTPBP200 on TruckPro Invoice 038-0741729, from
TruckPro, LLC at its store in Macon, Georgia.

25. Upon information and belief, prior to May 3, 2017 the subject pintle hook was installed on to the Truck by DEH, or at the request and pursuant to the direction of DEH

26. Upon information and belief, prior to and on May 3, 2017 the pintle hook was then used to attach the Trailer to the Truck.

27. Upon information and belief, prior to and on May 3, 2017 the Trailer was equipped with manufacturer installed safety chains which were connectedto the Truck.

28. At all times referenced herein the Defendant DEH was operating as a subcontractor to Defendant Olson, and Defendant Olson was acting as a subcontractor to Defendant Ceres, and Defendant Ceres was acting as the prime contractor for Defendant Beaufort County, in performing hurricane disaster recovery services in Beaufort County, South
Carolina.

29. Upon information and belief, the Trailer, including the attached safety chains, was designed, manufactured and distributed into the stream of commerce by the Defendant ST Sales.

30. Upon information and belief, the pintle hook was designed, manufactured and distributed into the stream of commerce by the Defendant Buyers Products.

31. On or about May 3, 2017, on or about 3:58 p.m. Susan Shaffer was driving her 2012 Honda automobile in a northerly direction along U.S. Highway 21, also known as Sea Island Parkway, in Beaufort County, South Carolina, when suddenly and without warning the Trailer separated from the Truck which was being driven by the Defendant Stoltz in a southerly direction on U.S. Highway 21, said Trailer then crossing the center line into oncoming traffic and colliding with the vehicle being driven by Susan Shaffer.

32. As a direct and proximate result of the aforesaid collision, Susan Shaffer died.

33. At the time of the collision, the Truck was being operated by the Defendant
Stoltz, who was acting in the course and scope of his employment with the Defendant DEH, pursuant to the Contract of the Defendant DEH with the Defendant Olson, which in turn was part of the Contract between the Defendant Olson and the Defendant Ceres, which in turn was part of the Contract between the Defendant Ceres and the Defendant Beaufort County.

34. Upon information and belief, the Trailer detached from the Truck as a result of
the failure of the pintle hook.

35. When the pintle hook failed, the safety chains also failed, thereby allowing the
Trailer to completely detach from the Truck.
....................
good stuff in amended summons starting page 7:
d. In failing to properly maintain the Truck and Trailer;
e. In failing to inspect the pintle hook;
f. In failing to maintain the pintle hook;
g. In failing to inspect the safety chains;
h. In failing to maintain the safety chains;
i. In utilizing a pintle hook which was undersized and inadequate for the Trailer;
j. In utilizing safety chains which were undersized and inadequate;
k. In failing to stop, slow or turn his vehicle when he knew or should have known

good stuff in amended summons starting page 7:
d. In failing to properly maintain the Truck and Trailer;
e. In failing to inspect the pintle hook;
f. In failing to maintain the pintle hook;
g. In failing to inspect the safety chains;
h. In failing to maintain the safety chains;
i. In utilizing a pintle hook which was undersized and inadequate for the Trailer;
j. In utilizing safety chains which were undersized and inadequate;
k. In failing to stop, slow or turn his vehicle when he knew or should have known

These are the elected leaders who has an opportunity to save lives.....let's see what they do....