Step on to Woodard farms near Darlington, S.C., and you’ll see a farm rooted in family.
“We’re the third generation here on the farm raising the fourth,” says Ty Woodard, who farms along with his father and brother.
Ty’s granddad Frank Woodard started the second wave of Woodard Farms in 1962. Ty’s great grandparents were forced out of farming in the Great Depression, but his grandfather always yearned to have a family farm again.
“He said, ‘If that farm ever comes up for sale, I’ll buy it,’ and so lo and behold, in 1962, he was able to buy that tract of land,” Woodard says.
The Woodards still farm that treasured parcel of land, now growing a mix of crops including soybeans, peanuts and cotton.
“We’ve had several really tough years in our area with hurricanes and floods. This year, the weather cooperated, and we had a really great cotton crop,” says Tracy Woodard, Ty’s wife, who grew up a “city girl” and met Ty during their time at Clemson University.
“As anyone involved in a farm knows, you don’t marry the farmer, you married the farm, too,” she says.
But farm life just seemed to fit, as Ty and Tracy raise the fourth generation of Woodard Farms today.
“I don’t drive a tractor every day or put my hand to the soil every day, but I’m in an unique position where I can share that story about what we do on our family farm. I get the platform to do that in so many different ways,” she adds.
The Dream
With a growing desire to share that story, Tracy and Ty had thrown around ideas. Then divine intervention took hold four years ago.
“In December 2017, the Lord woke me up from a dream, and the dream was ‘Covered in Cotton,’” she says.
It wasn’t just any dream, it was one that was vivid, with God painting every detail.
“It was the logo and what it was supposed to be called,” she says. “We were supposed to take the cotton we grow on our family farm and make it into blankets. Another big part of that dream related back to two years prior to that in December 2015.”
Comfort Through Challenges
Just two years before that dream, the Woodards had faced the unthinkable.
“Our youngest son Tobin, when he was three months old, he contracted bacterial meningitis,” Tracy says. “He spent 35 days in the children’s hospital in Columbia, S.C. He had emergency brain surgery on his first Christmas Eve.”
It was during that time the doctors delivered gut-wrenching news.
“It was the worst season of our lives not knowing whether our son would live,” she says. “The doctors had warned us at the very least, he would lose all or part of his hearing or vision, and at the very worst, that he may not develop past three months old.”
But it was during that time Ty and Tracy found comfort in a unique way.
“One nurse in particular, her name was Allie, she gave us a blanket,” Tracy says. “That blanket became a source of comfort for us as we lived in a cold and uncomfortable hospital. but then it also became this reminder of the Lord protection and covering over our family during that time.”
Following the Dream
From that, her dream told her Covered in Cotton is what her new venture should be called.
“I woke Ty up and said, ‘This sounds insane, but the Lord told me what we’re supposed to do with our cotton.’ And he’s an incredible husband and dad and farmer and man. So he said the thing that you should say to your wife.”
“I said, ‘Yes,’” Ty says. “That meant it was going be a lot of work and a lot of commitment. But we were going to get to do it together and reap the benefits.”
Tracy’s dream happened in December after all the cotton they’d just harvested had already been sold.
“So, Ty, the next day called up our cotton gin and said, ‘We need to buy back some of our cotton,’” she remembers. “We had to buy it back for more than we sold it for. But we bought back 5000 lb. of our cotton.”
To bring the idea to life, she then started googling and calling other companies who make similar products. Tracy’s work truly started from the ground up and has seen remarkable growth.
“This past year, we sent 100 bales through the process, and so when we originally started back in 2018 with 10 bales,” she says.
Cultivated and Crafted in the Carolinas
From throw blankets and baby blankets to hand towels, Covered in Cotton products are 100% American made.
“One of the things that we’re most proud of is that every piece of the production of our Covered in Cotton products are done here in America, and here in the Carolinas,” she says.
Cotton with a Cause
While the Covered in Cotton warehouse and fulfillment now even has a home on the farm, the growth hasn’t come without Tracy remembering their roots, as the products they produce have a purpose.
“For every 10 throw blankets we sell, we donate one to a children’s hospital in South Carolina,” she says.
Her dream told her not to just sell the products, but to also give some away and call it “Cotton with a Cause.”
“Since November of 2018, we have donated 690 blankets to five different children’s hospitals in South Carolina,” Tracy says.
Every December, the Woodards travel back to the same hospital where they spent Christmas in 2015.
“We actually have a donation coming up this month here in December, where we’ll donate another 100 back to the hospital that our son Tobin was in,” she says.
A Special Gift
Each type of throw blanket is made from the highest quality cotton on their farm and named after each of their three children, as well as Ty’s grandmother. Of all the blankets they’ve donated so far, there’s one Tracy cherishes most.
“In 2019, the nurse who gave us our blanket when we were in the hospital with our son, we were able to track her down at the hospital in Columbia, S.C., and we surprised her and got to share our story of what the Lord had done since we originally met her in the hospital. And we got to give her a blanket.”
Not just any blanket, they gave her a Tobin blanket.
“That was a really special moment to be able to just share with her of how her small act of kindness had come full circle and how it was impacting other families all over the state,” Tracy says.
Spreading Comfort and Joy
As the Woodards continue to give back through Cotton with a Cause, Tobin is happy and healthy today. Each December, the Woodards reflect on what their family endured on Christmas Eve in 2015, it’s a good reminder of the true reason of the Christmas season.
“It’s the best part of what we get to do, because we get to bring that time in our lives full circle, and share some hope and some comfort with some other families who are going through something similar to what we had,” Tracy says.
“We want to share agriculture, we want to share truth about it. We want to share cotton, which we’re very passionate about, and all the great qualities of cotton, and our ability to grow it here, but also share a story that spreads hope,” says Ty.
Covered in Cotton continues to plant love as the Woodards say their purpose is spreading comfort not just during Christmas, but year-round.
