COLUMN: Thumbs up to fire departments for campaign help

Thumbs up to Pee Dee fire departments for their support of the U.S. Fire Administration’s “Install. Inspect. Protect.” campaign, which is designed to encourage residents to install smoke alarms and sprinklers in their homes. The Florence Fire Department, as well as Florence County fire departments, along with the USFA, have partnered with the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control to install smoke alarms in homes in the area. More than 3,000 people die in home fires each year in the United States, most of whom are in homes without a working smoke alarm. When both smoke alarms and fire sprinklers are present in a home, the risk of dying in a fire is reduced by 82 percent, when compared with a residence without either. According to the National Fire Protection Association, between 2003-2006, almost two-thirds of home fire deaths resulted from fires in homes with no smoke alarms or no working smoke alarms. “The Florence Fire Department is proud to be a partner with the USFA in this very relevant campaign,” Florence Fire Marshal Ken Carr said. “It is a great concern of the command staff and firefighters of the Florence Fire Department if just one citizen is injured or killed in a fire. We urge all residents to have working smoke alarms in their homes.” To learn more about the Florence Fire Department’s local campaign activities, call Carr at (843) 665-3231. For more information about the campaign and other fire prevention methods, visit www.usfa.dhs.gov/smokealarms online.

Thumbs up to Lake City Elementary School for being awarded a $5,205 Arts in Basic Curriculum grant by the S.C. Arts Commission for the 2009-2010 school year. The support will allow the school to improve its innovative arts integration program and to bring in artists-in-residencies to teach dance and drama to students. The funding will allow the school’s students and staff opportunities in dance and drama from artists. These opportunities included West African dance classes, math integrated dance lessons, and school performances in which the community will be invited to attend. This funding will help promote the use of arts integration in our classrooms as an innovative way to reach every child. Residents can see how the grant funds are benefiting Lake City Elementary by visiting the school at 906 N. Matthews Road or visiting the school’s Web site, http://lcps.florence3.k12.sc.us.

Thumbs up to the Eastern Carolina Community Foundation for a series of grants it has made to area agencies in need. The foundation made its first grant, a $10,000 grant to Harvest Hope Food Bank’s Pee Dee branch, in mid-October. The grant was designed to support the new Emergency Food Pantry for the Pee Dee and will serve Darlington, Florence, Marlboro, Dillon, Chesterfield and Marion counties. On Oct. 29, The Naomi Project, Mercy Medicine Clinic and the Johnson Foundation for the Dillon County Partnership 4 Kids Project also each received a portion of $10,000 in grants from the Women In Philanthropy (WIP) Fund of the Eastern Carolina Community Foundation. The fund is a giving circle created this year to maximize women’s leadership in philanthropy by engaging and informing its membership, increasing charitable contributions and improving the Pee Dee through the power of collective giving, according to a press release from the foundation. It is comprised of women who donate to pool resources, enabling a greater impact in charitable giving in the Pee Dee. The foundation is a public charity established in 2006 as a collection of charitable funds built with gifts and bequests from people in the eastern part of the Palmetto State. Its mission is to improve the quality of life in the Pee Dee through inspired philanthropy. For more information on WIP or the foundation, call (843) 667-1131 or e-mail staff at susan@easterncarolinacf.org.