By Rick Abercrombie
On September 24, St. Andrews Optimists gathered representatives of 22 local causes that the Club supports financially. The Club calls the event “Day of Giving.” in its 55 years, the Club has donated more than half a million dollars to the same or similar causes.
The common denominator for qualification is that those recipients’ efforts positively affect the lives of young people. Some of those causes are “Midlands-wide,” while many of them pinpoint the Irmo community.
Optimists not only raise and award dollars; they also, in many cases, work hands-on where possible to interact face-to-face with the youth who benefit.
This year’s recipients are:
Harbison West Elementary School DARE program
Harbison West Summer Reading
H.E. Corley Elementary DARE program
Homeworks
ICRC Children’s Theater
ICRC Youth Scholarships
Irmo Elementary Summer Reading
Irmo Fire Foundation
Irmo High Promise Yourself program
Irmo Police Dept. Community Fund
Katrina’s Kids
Lighthouse for Life
McGregor Presbyterian Preschool, in memory of Stuart Stout
McGregor Presb. Montreat Youth Conference
Nancy K. Perry-Children’s Shelter
Optimist International Foundation
Palmetto Place Children’s and Youth Services
Palmetto Project-Dolly Parton’s Library
Palmetto Project=Families Helping Families
SC Career Kids
Ready by Five District 5 Parenting and Family Literacy
Sharing God’s Love
The format for the meeting includes brief presentations by each recipient. Those statements serve both to inform the assembly about each cause’s activities, and to create the awareness that though separate, they all form a more generous community.
The funds that were presented had been raised by the Optimist Christmas Tree Lot and by the Club’s spring golf tournament.
