Thumbs up to Wachovia for $10,000 donation to Red Cross fund

Thumbs up to the Wachovia Foundation, which recently donated $10,000 to the Pee Dee Chapter of the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. “The Pee Dee Chapter of the American Red Cross has done a heroic job of helping many of our neighbors, including one of our employees who fell victim to a fire this year,” John Bankson, Pee Dee market president for Wachovia Bank, said. This is the second donation this year from the foundation. In March, it contributed $10,000 to the Red Cross after tornados struck the state. The Pee Dee chapter, which serves Chesterfield, Darlington, Dillon, Florence, Marion and Marlboro counties, responded to more than 270 disasters and delivered almost 500 messages to military personnel who had lost a loved one or whose presence was requested by a physician. And like all Red Cross chapters, it receives no funding from state or federal governments. “We depend on companies like Wachovia to become part of our Clara Barton Society and help us keep our promise to the communities we serve. The American Red Cross is funded by private contributions and local United Ways,” Linda Boone-Smith, executive director of the Pee Dee Chapter of the American Red Cross, said. “When disasters strike, help can’t wait. We must respond immediately. We are often on scene in the middle of the night with victims of disaster.” For details about how to help, visit the chapter’s Web site, http://peedee.
redcross.org.

We say it just about every school holiday, but thumbs down to the people who don’t adjust the school zone flashing lights when school isn’t in session. It confuses drivers who can’t be sure whether school is actually in session and can’t decide whether to slow down or observe the regular posted speed limit. It shouldn’t be too hard to turn them off when school is out for a short time and back on when schools reopen. It’s a small thing, but let’s see if we can’t get it right.

Anita Throwe, executive director of the CARE House of the Pee Dee, offers “thumbs up to all the community agency staff who so willingly gave presents, gift cards and monetary donations” to the nonprofit organization, which provides services to children who might have been physically or sexually abused. “All donations were distributed to maltreated children and their non-offender parents,” she wrote. “We wish that everyone who made a contribution could have seen the joy on the faces of the children when they received their gifts.” Throwe specifically commended board members Dr. W. Dean Banks of First Choice Health Care; Thomas Kasler, operations executive at Georgia-Pacific Corp.; Hank Anderson, Esq.; Florence Police Maj. Carlos Raines; Dwayne Brockington, First Reliance Bank’s vice president of business banking; Dr. John Keith of Eastern Carolina Pediatrics; and Elizabeth Poston, a community volunteer. She said other community agencies that assisted with the effort are the Florence County Sheriff’s Office; Kappa Kappa Iota Sorority; Elementary School Guidance Counselors of Florence District 1; and the entire Florence Department of Urban Planning and Development. “One special young lady, Ravyn Miles, and her friends, Angel McFadden, Beaty Garrison, Natalie Ellis, Mary Ashlee Stalvey, Ananda Ford and Jennifer Price, showed up at the door with gifts. They had celebrated the true meaning of Christmas in that they held a ‘Jesus Birthday party’ and had come to donate all the presents to other children,” she wrote. “This was, for me, the true meaning of Christmas. For all who question the values of our youth, please know that some children enact their Christian beliefs.” For more details about the CARE House, its child abuse prevention and educational programs and how to help, call (843) 629-0236.