We’d like to commend all those who volunteered and participated in the second annual Family Promise Bed Race.
The race was great fun and best of all $10,000 was raised to help support Family Promise.
Family Promise’s mission to help the homeless in Effingham County is a noble one, and we can’t say enough good things about them.
Family Promise director Ashley Moore seems to be doing a great job and from what we hear the Family Promise group, including area churches, are making a difference in peoples’ lives.
That is something to be grateful for.
There are about 74-75 families in our county who are homeless, representing about 200 children.
Currently Family Promise is serving its seventh family through its three- to four-month program.
Family Promise is a non-profit that provides shelter, food and resources to homeless families in Effingham through an Interfaith Hospitality Network that includes host congregations from local churches.
Host churches provide lodging and meals for the families. At the Family Promise Day Center in Springfield families are provided access to showers, laundry facilities, computer labs, closet space, a mailing address and phone numbers. The director helps families establish goals and monitors their progress each week.
Transportation to job interviews and work is also provided.
Rincon United Methodist Church is now part of the Community Housing Collaborative that will allow a once homeless family the opportunity to live in a transitional housing unit after completion of the initial Family Promise program. The transitional housing unit is being provided by Rincon UMC with Family Promise continuing case management services with the family.
The first recipient is a mother and her 11-year-old daughter.
The demand continues for this program, and we are hopeful more churches will sign up to help.
Pipeline
We were glad to see that the Georgia Department of Transportation has stepped up and will hold public hearings on the proposed Palmetto Pipeline.
Allowing the company that wants to build the pipeline, Kinder Morgan, to hold “open houses” on the issue was self-serving – for DOT to avoid the process and for the company to set the meeting’s process.
Public hearings held by DOT do a much better job at serving the public’s interest. Georgia DOT is also now asking more questions of Kinder Morgan about any public benefit from the pipeline — a move welcomed by many. We expect our tax money to pay for officials who will thoroughly research a process and thoughtfully consider public comment.
Kinder Morgan plans to build the new pipeline to bring gasoline, ethanol and diesel from the Gulf Coast and from South Carolina to North Augusta, S.C., Savannah and Jacksonville. Its proposed route in Georgia parallels the Savannah River, then heads south to Jacksonville. A terminal is planned for south of Richmond Hill to serve the Savannah area with approximately 25,000 barrels a day of the pipeline’s 167,000 barrel daily capacity.