Foothills Community Foundation celebrated its 15th anniversary on September 23rd at the Bleckley Inn with approximately 140 guests in attendance. Board chairman Gray Suggs welcomed the guests and asked all founders and former board members to stand for recognition. He thanked them for their leadership, vision and generosity. Many of the Foundation’s original board members from September 1999 were on hand for the occasion including Cordes Seabrook, Harold P. Threlkeld, Kelley Smith O’Quinn and Tom Ervin, founding president. In addition, current board members Fred Foster and John Miller were recognized as original founders.
Foundation president Robert Rainey explained that Foundation board members made the decision to celebrate the occasion by granting gifts to community non-profit organizations. Each board member selected a nonprofit recipient and provided funding for the grant. Mr. Rainey raised a glass and offered a toast to the late William Law Watkins, who founded Foothills Community Foundation with a bequest from his will and challenged the crowd to honor his memory by choosing to “do good forever”.
Foundation Board Member – Grant Awarded to:
Lamar Bailes – Salvation Army of Oconee County
James T. Boseman – Westside Community Center
Glenn D. Buddin, Jr. – Collins Children’s Home
Irvin L. Cauthen – Meals on Wheels
Fred L. Foster – Salvation Army of Anderson County
Ann D. Herbert – Anderson Area YMCA
F. Stevon Kay – Anderson Arts Center
Theresa G. Knoepp, MD – Blue Ridge Council of the Boy Scouts
John A. Miller, Jr. – GAMAC
Jane Watkins Mudd – Anderson Interfaith Ministries
William B. Pickens – Cancer Association of Anderson
Edward A. Spitz – Tri County Technical College Foundation
D. Gray Suggs – Tri County Young Life
Joseph J. Turner, Jr. – Clemson Community Foundation
S. Smith Wham – Calvary Home for Children
Robert W. Wilkes – Haven of Rest
