Wedding & Event Venue near Edgefield, SC

EDGEFIELD, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - A group of Buddhist monks spent their third day in South Carolina on Thursday, walking from Edgefield to Saluda, where they had lunch and planned to spend the night.

A crowd followed them to Edgefield on Wednesday, where the monks served the followers food and handed out friendship bracelets.

It was the 74th day of the monks’ peace walk to Washington, D.C.

On Tuesday, hundreds gathered at the McCormick EMS headquarters to hear the Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara spread his message.

“Everywhere we go now, the crowd is getting larger and larger. That shows us that everyone is joining this walk together with the monks,” Pannakara said.

The walk for peace has drawn crowds from across America on the monks’ journey from Fort Worth to Washington, D.C.

Tuesday brought that crowd to McCormick.

“What they’re doing here is bringing peace, love, and compassion. Everything that this town and the surrounding towns need,” said Ardreika Pratt, from McCormick, who came to walk with the monks.

Glenda Green, who also came to walk, called the journey remarkable. “Amazing. Astonishing. It takes a lot of dedication,” Green said.

Pannakara acknowledged that the journey has not been easy.

“Sometimes we step on nails, sometimes we step on screws and glass and things like that,” he said.

Despite the challenges, the monks continue their calling.

“Hopefully, everyone will practice to have love and kindness and compassion so that peace will bloom,” Pannakara said.

Some supporters offered gifts to show solidarity with the monks’ message.

“I share in their message and want to show that they’re not alone, that their message is heard,” said Doc Kahn, who came to walk.

Others provided support for the journey itself.

“Everybody doesn’t have the strength, everybody doesn’t have the passion, everybody doesn’t have that kind of dedication and commitment,” Pratt said.

Numerous people lined the streets again on Wednesday to see the monks, with some describing the experience as witnessing history. Many waited for hours to participate in the event.

“This is not the most beautiful place, but that’s what it’s about. It don’t have to be in the most beautiful place to experience peace. You know, this is peace right here. You know, and everybody feels it,” said Chrisanthia Hawkins and Daryl Chandler.

Diverse crowds gather

Susan DeBruhl noted the variety of participants drawn to the events.

“The variety of people who show up to these events because they are from all walks of life and from everywhere. I think that having the walk through a rural area is really eye-opening and enlightening for people who would not get to experience this otherwise,” DeBruhl said.

The monks spread their message through actions as well as words, with community members providing food and water to participants.

“For them to open their arms up to feed everybody, come on, hands down. Yeah. And it’s not only them, but it’s like people out here, you know, if somebody don’t have water, they’re saying, you know, you want something to drink, you know, or you want a snack. It’s people just coming together,” Hawkins and Chandler said.

Personal connections

Participants came for different reasons but many left with similar feelings. One attendee shared a personal motivation for joining.

“I almost lost my life because of a cell phone and I’m here to be a part of their history and to understand, what peace is about because humanity has shifted so much,” Hawkins and Chandler said.

Bhikkhu Pannakara, one of the Buddhist monks, explained the mission’s purpose.

“Peace is what the people, all kind of beings, are really in need right now, that’s asking and looking for every day. And we are Buddhist monks, we walk just to raise that awareness that peace has already been with us for so long. All we need to do is just pause and stop and look back within, and peace will begin from right there,” Pannakara said.

The monk said the community response has been meaningful.

“And that message, I think, has been heard. So that is why so many people come out to show love and support on this mission and walk together with us like that,” he said.

Pannakara said the walk through the CSRA will stay with him permanently.

“I think that it’s a lot of love that people support in us. And I think with all those emotions, that will be with me for the rest of my life,” he said.

EDGEFIELD, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - A woman is speaking out after she was allegedly struck by the now-former Edgefield County tax assessor.

According to Tyler Bailey with Bailey Law Firm, Christie Culbreath visited the Edgefield County tax assessor’s office on Nov. 26 to inquire about tax information on a house she recently purchased.

The press release says Culbreath spoke with Edgefield County tax assessor Benjamin “Gerry” Coleman in his office.

Bailey says Culbreath began recording their conversation because she thought “it may go south.”

After a brief discussion, Coleman became agitated and told Culbreath to leave his office, according to the release.

The release states that as Culbreath was leaving, Coleman approached her and struck her. The incident report states Coleman hit her on the right side of her head.

She suffered a black eye and had to seek medical treatment, Bailey Law Firm says.

Bailey says Coleman went home for the day after the incident and turned himself in the following week.

The firm says Coleman was charged with third-degree battery and booked into the Edgefield County Detention Center on Dec. 2.

Edgefield County Administrator David Caddell says Coleman resigned the following week.

“When he was directed to come to my office to discuss the issue, he tendered his resignation,” Caddell said.

According to Caddell, office witnesses said he may have pushed her phone aside, but he did not hit her.

“There are no circumstances where anyone should act aggressively toward a member of the public,” he said.

“It’s really diabolical to think that a taxpaying, hard-working citizen of Edgefield County could go to the tax assessor’s office and be attacked in that moment,” said Bailey.

Bailey believes the incident happened because Culbreath is a Black woman and Coleman is a white man.

“We truthfully believe there’s no way he would have felt emboldened to do this to Miss Culbreath, if she wasn’t a Black woman,” said Bailey.

Coleman has a reputation of being hostile, aggressive and intimidating, according to Bailey.

Culbreath says she has lived in Edgefield County all of her life and has never experienced treatment like this.

“I have never been hit by a male, and in 2025, I got assaulted by not only a male, but to me, a white male. My father never hit me. My grandfather, who raised me, never touched me. And even just being in relationships, I’ve never been beaten or anything by a male,” she said.

Bailey says he thinks the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office should investigate whether “any other taxpayers have been intimidated, harassed or oppressed.”

Bailey says they will be taking legal action in the coming days, which will likely be filed in federal court.