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The United Way of Anderson County held its annual meeting on Thursday, April 29, 2010 at the Hilton Garden Inn. During the evening several volunteers and organizations were recognized and thanked for their participation during the annual campaign and the United Way fiscal year. Campaign Chair, Ben Hagood of Carolina First Bank, thanked the campaign cabinet and volunteers for helping to raise, $1.660,756 during this year’s campaign to match the amount raised last year. AnMed Health was recognized as having their best campaign year ever, raising $417,678, almost a 4% increase over last year. In recognizing companies and organizations with the highest giving per capita, Duke Energy with 100+ employees had a per capita gift of $249.33; Blue Ridge Security with 51-99 employees had a per capita gift of $276.42 up from $257.22 last year and also had 100% employee participation. With 26-50 employees, John S. Rainey Generating Station had a per capita gift of $317.30 up from $286.42 last year. Maynard’s’ Home Furnishings rounded out the top campaigns in the 2-25 employees category with a per capita gift of $472.61 up from $432.17 last year. Pat Patrick of Attaway, Inc. was recognized as the incoming campaign chair for 2010-11.
The D. Kirk Oglesby Award of Excellence was presented to Dr. Frankie O. Felder for leading the Imagine and Neighborhood Project in Belton that took a $5,000 United Way grant and with an army of 127 volunteers and three months of Saturday’s turned it into over $75,000 of community impact through improvements to 25 homes and properties in the Zion Street neighborhood.
For their company having 100% employee participation in the campaign, their management team’s involvement in various areas of United Way and for providing their printing services to United Way at “rock bottom prices”, Attaway, Inc. was presented with the Spirit of Anderson Award.
The new slate of officers was also installed at the meeting:
Pat Joye, Chair of the Board of Directors; Mary Gay Drake, 1st Vice Chair; Rev. Jim Thomason, 2nd Vice Chair; Brian Johnson Treasurer.
During the meeting, the 2010 leadershipNEXT Fellows were recognized. This is the largest leadershipNEXT class ever, with 32 Fellows. The participants are: Chad Allen, Southwood Middle School, Anderson School District Five; Lauren Barnett, AnMed Health; Clint Bates,Suggs Johnson, LLC; Wes Billingsley, Elliott Davis, LLC; Vernita Boone, Anderson Interfaith Ministries; Tracy Bowie, Anderson Interfaith Ministries; Nedra Brown, AnMed Health; Rey Castro, Cross Country Home Services; Stephanie Collins, AnMed Health; Lacey Councill, Doclink; Jason Craddock, Bank of Anderson; Meredith Driver, First Citizens Bank; Erin Fann, City of Anderson; Jennifer Hardin, Pharm. D., AnMed Health; Nicole Hatten, Publix Supermarkets; Kristen Jordan, IMPACT!; Brooks Keys, Palmetto Insurance; Lorin Larason, AmeriCorps - Anderson School District Four; Brian Little, AnMed Health; Mandy Long, Carolina First Bank; Michael Mance, Anderson Area Chamber of Commerce; Julie Morrison, AnMed Health; Danielle Norris, SENIOR Solutions; Farrah Norris, AmeriCorps - Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Upstate; Marie Peace, Harris Carpets/Flooring America; Matthew Perkins, Law Office of Matthew A. Perkins, LLC; Melissa Powell, Anderson Free Clinic; Ashley Pruitt, Hospice of the Upstate; Blythe Smith, DHEC, Region 1 Public Health Office; Imani Smith, AmeriCorps, United Way of Anderson County; Tiffany Watkins, IMPACT!; Dr. Joel Williams, Clemson University.
Michael Cunningham, Director of Communications with AnMed Health and Founding member of leadershipNEXT was the featured speaker for the evening. He compared the participants in leadershipNEXT to a battery…When left alone, it is a simple battery with a lot of stored up energy and a lot of potential. But, when put in the right infrastructure it becomes an energy source to light a path. Putting the battery in a flashlight, he illustrated the importance of LeadershipNEXT as it harnesses and utilizes the energy of its Fellows as they light pathways in the community.
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