It’s about 2 a.m., and “Metal Man” Kevin Campbell is taking his YouTube followers with him as he heads to the beach on the Isle of Palms. “As they say, the early bird gets the worm,” he says as he walks.
This early bird gets the metal – coins, jewelry and other potential treasures buried under the sand. “It’s not just a hobby or a side gig. It’s a passion,” Campbell says of his metal detecting.
That passion can be lucrative for people who charge fees to find lost jewelry. Campbell does it for free. When he finds an item with an unknown owner that has some kind of marking, like an inscription, he sets out to find the person who lost it.
And when Campbell finds items on somebody’s land – he only searches with property owners’ permission – he shows the landowner everything he’s found.
If somebody offers to make a donation to say thanks, he doesn’t say no. Instead, he’s begun giving the money to fund cancer research at the MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital.
“I am a supervisor for hospital security,” Campbell said. “Working at Shawn Jenkins, I see the joy, and I see the sorrow. I see the folks coming in day after day, month after month. Spending a lot of time there, and seeing these children going through this, it just tugs at my heartstrings.”
The MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital is the top-ranked children’s hospital in South Carolina, serving kids from around the state and beyond. Its cancer program is nationally ranked by U.S. News & World Report, which means it’s among the top programs in the country.
You get to watch beautiful sunrises and sunsets, and you get to take a lot of trash off the beach.
Campbell helps keep the hospital’s patients and their families safe while on the job there, in addition to supervising security at MUSC Health’s Ashley River Tower. When he’s not at work, he can now support them in a different way as he hunts for hidden treasures around the state.
“You get to watch beautiful sunrises and sunsets, and you get to take a lot of trash off the beach,” Campbell said. “And you meet some really cool people, especially doing what they call door-knocking.”
Door-knocking, knocking on doors to ask people if he can search for metal on their property, happens near the coast and further inland. “I do a bunch of research before I go out there. I have really old maps, early 1800s, and dive into it, looking for places where there might be old buttons and coins and other things.”
He does some door-knocking in the same video that started with the early morning visit to the Isle of Palms. It transitions to a later visit to Georgetown, South Carolina, the third-oldest city in the state – and a potentially target-rich location. “Let’s go, guys,” he says when his metal detector signals something buried in a yard. “Let it be a silver coin.”
Campbell digs up a small, circular area – and finds what he’s looking for. “Oh, yes!” he exclaims. “Guys! We did it!” It’s a 1946 Washington quarter, worth between $11.50 and $14 for its silver content alone, according to the Numismatic Guaranty Company.
“I’ve been wanting to get this as a bucket lister of mine,” Campbell says.
Also on his bucket list is raising enough money to make a real difference at the MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital. “One hundred percent will go to MUSC children’s cancer research. I’ll be advertising that on my channel.”
That channel, Metal Man Detecting, is doing pretty well for a guy who’s new to the game. The Isle of Palms/Georgetown video got more than 1,200 views in less than a week.
“I had a great day today. It was fun getting out there and meeting a bunch of really nice people,” he says in it. “We’ll see you on the next one.”
Helen Adams
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