This spring, RCS Grading hosted a clay shoot fundraiser for the Grow People Fund. The Grow People Fund is RCS Grading’s nonprofit that invests in the people who build the construction industry through training, education, and support for construction workers across Upstate South Carolina.
The Clay Shoot drew 160 attendees and raised more than $60,000 for the Master Skills Center, the best-attended nonprofit fundraiser that The Clinton House Plantation has seen. The day brought the construction industry together around a cause that shapes its future: building the next generation of skilled trades workers.
Over 20 years in business, RCS has watched the skilled workforce driving construction shrink. The Grow People Fund exists to change that: to put more funding behind the next generation of operators and tradespeople. The industry’s future depends on the people willing to build it, and RCS is committed to giving them the training, tools, and support to get there.
“The Grow People Fund is our brainchild, so we’re connected to it, but at the same time, it’s simply the outward manifestation of our core belief: to help people reach their maximum potential in the trades. We want to give them the tools to affect not only their own livelihood, but also to raise up another generation to do the same. We hope that by investing in the next generation while they’re young, we can trigger a generational reaction, where they’ll invest in the generation after them as fathers, mothers, and industry leaders.”
– Elisha Godfrey, Vice President Operations
That belief is what led RCS Grading to the Master Skills Center. The construction industry is facing a shortage of skilled tradespeople, with fewer young people entering the field to replace those retiring. The Master Skills Center works to close that gap. As an extension of Spartanburg School District 6’s CATE program, the center brings together all seven school districts in Spartanburg County to give students hands-on training in the trades.
Investing early, while students are still deciding how their futures will look, is central to how RCS thinks about growing the industry. Today’s students become tomorrow’s tradespeople, and eventually, the mentors and leaders who invest in the generations to come.
160 people attended the clay shoot: the largest crowd the venue, The Clinton House Plantation, has seen to date. Between rounds, conversations kept circling back to the same topic: the need to grow the next generation of tradespeople.
As attendees spoke about the purpose behind the event, a shared realization surfaced: building the next generation of tradespeople is a real and pressing need, and there’s no clear playbook for how to do it.
RCS doesn’t have all the answers either, but the company is putting resources behind the effort: funding programs like the Master Skills Center, showing up in the community, and hosting events like the Clay Shoot to bring more people into the cause. It’s a start, and RCS hopes more of the industry will join in.
Between entry fees, sponsorships, and donations, this year’s clay shoot raised over $60,000 for the Master Skills Center. Funds will be allocated by the Master Skills Center leadership team for tuition support, equipment, and tools for students.
This year’s event wouldn’t have been possible without the support of our sponsors: Panagakos Tindall Long & Son Utilities, Linder, and Gossett. Their partnership helped make the clay shoot’s biggest year yet.
For RCS Grading, growing the trades is part of the company’s mission: Move Dirt. Grow People. Events like this one further that mission by putting funds behind the students the Master Skills Center trains, giving them a more direct path into careers building Upstate South Carolina.
The Clay Shoot is one way RCS Grading puts their mission into action, and the company plans to keep showing up for it year after year. RCS intends to make the Clay Shoot an annual spring event, with a date for 2027 announced soon.
Interested in sponsoring next year’s event or supporting the Grow People Fund? Visit our Grow People Fund Page.
