Police group gives thousands to community organizations
Rocky Nimmons/Courier
Pictured, front row, from left: Sandy Hamilton — Country Santa; Regina Peppers — ADOPT; Ashla Shingler — Hospice of the Upstate; and Greta Young — the Parenting Place. Back row: Pickens County sheriff Rick Clark; Butch Womack — Pinnacle Mountain Fire; Dave Davenport — Reserve Officers of the Upstate; R.A. Gibson — Shriners Hospital for Children; Brad Holland — Miracle Hill Children’s Home; and Foothills Lodge No. 9 Fraternal Order of Police president-elect J.B. Kelley.
PICKENS — During the season of giving, the Foothills Lodge No. 9 Fraternal Order of Police took part by presenting eight organizations with funds that will help them make ends meet as 2016 comes to a close.
On Thursday, Lodge No. 9 vice president and president-elect J.B. Kelley, along with Pickens County sheriff Rick Clark, presented the organizations with checks at the Pickens County Law Enforcement Center in Pickens. The lodge voted to donate the money before Christmas.
The lodge is made up of retired and active local municipal, county, state and federal police officers.
“Today we are making donations back to the community through civic organizations that we feel are in need of our funding,” Kelley said. “We try every year to select different organizations”
Kelley said the lodge has different fundraisers during the year that help raise the money being given away.
“Some of the organization we give to really count on it,” he said. “Their funding is being cut so much.
“This brings camaraderie amongst all the members of the lodge. It also makes everyone feels like they have done something to help better the world.”
The lodge currently has around 120 members.
“We really look forward to this,” Kelley said. “It is our major event we do each year.”
Donations from the lodge this year included $2,100 to Pinnacle Mountain Fire relief, $500 for Country Santa, $1,000 for Miracle Hill Children’s Home, $500 for the Parenting Place, $1,000 for the Shriners Hospital for Children, $500 for Hospice of the Upstate, $200 for All Dogs of Pickens Transport (ADOPT) and $200 for Reserve Officers of the Upstate, a military organization.
