Thumbs up to bank for its holiday help

Thumbs up to First Reliance Bank for dedicating the months of November and December to making the holidays special for the children within the state’s foster care system. Tiffany Saunders, wife of Rick Saunders, the bank’s president and CEO of First Reliance Bank, recently presented S.C. Department of Social Services adoptions with 40 new winter coats, as well as Christmas gifts for more than 60 foster care children. She also recently held an adoption benefit dinner where each guest donated a coat for a foster care child. In addition, in partnership with DSS, she arranged for the bank to sponsor an Angel Christmas Tree in all its branches throughout the state. Each ornament on the tree symbolized a foster care child and one of his or her Christmas wishes. Through the support of the bank’s customers and associates, the bank was able to fulfill each child’s wish list. The bank also sold plush stuffed animals at each of its branches throughout the remainder of the year with all the proceeds benefitting the state’s foster care and adoption system. “Tiffany and I believe every child deserves a permanent, loving home, and we encourage our employees, customers and community members to consider adoption,” Rick Saunders said. “Through adoption awareness events, we hope to make a difference in the lives of these children.” Each year, more children enter the foster care system than are adopted. More than 20,000 will never be adopted and leave the system at age 18 without a family. “There is much need, but we all can help break the cycle by becoming informed community members,” he said. “And I hope that those who are fortunate enough to adopt will feel the same joy that Tiffany and I do. We are blessed every day.”

Thumbs up to the Florence County Library System for being the only library in the state chosen to present the exhibit “Visions of the Universe: Four Centuries of Discovery.” Presented by the Space Telescope Science Institute, the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the American Library Association through funding from NASA, this traveling exhibit will be presented in only 40 libraries across the country. The exhibit, which is part of the celebration of the International Year of Astronomy, opens Monday. Read more about it in Jan. 23’s edition of 8 Days a Week.

Dr. Kathy Saunders, forensic medical examiner for The CARE House of the Pee Dee, gives a thumbs up to Bi-Lo Charities for contributing $4,746 to The CARE House to support the services it provides to abused children in the Pee Dee. The Bi-Lo Charity Classic Golf Tournament celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2008 and raised a record-breaking $5.6 million. The CARE House is one of several groups in the Pee Dee chosen to be a beneficiary, and it plans to use the funds to enhance medical services and forensic interviews. “We are proud to be a part of the Charity Classic tournament again this year, which gives us the ability to support some of the most vital organizations in our community, and we are honored to award grants to organizations like The CARE House of the Pee Dee, which has changed so many lives for the better,” Carol Browning, director of Bi-Lo Charities, said. The Bi-Lo Charity Classic has raised more than $45 million for charities since it was initiated in 1984. The Charity Classic originally was founded as a fundraiser for Meals on Wheels and has expanded to fund nearly 500 charities each year throughout Bi-Lo’s four-state region, which includes South Carolina.