Member donations reach $2‑million milestone

Since York Elec­tric intro­duced Oper­a­tion Round Up in 2000, par­tic­i­pat­ing mem­bers have con­tributed $2 mil­lion for local char­i­ties in York, Chester, Lan­cast­er and Chero­kee coun­ties.

By allow­ing YEC to round up their bills to the next dol­lar, their aver­age month­ly con­tri­bu­tion is only about 50 cents. But, mul­ti­plied by the pow­er of coop­er­a­tion, their small change makes a big dif­fer­ence for orga­ni­za­tions like the York Coun­ty Can­cer Asso­ci­a­tion, the Clover Area Assis­tance Cen­ter and the Fort Mill Care Cen­ter.

A crucial difference

Cre­at­ed in 1959 by the late Judy Bled­soe, the York Coun­ty Can­cer Asso­ci­a­tion cur­rent­ly serves 19 unin­sured and under­in­sured clients—all coun­ty residents—with 156 client ser­vices. Those include can­cer med­ica­tions, sup­plies such as osto­my and mas­tec­to­my prod­ucts, nutri­tion, and trans­porta­tion costs for doc­tor and treat­ment appoint­ments.

The Oper­a­tion Round Up Trust Board, which admin­is­ters mem­ber dona­tions, grant­ed the asso­ci­a­tion $8,500 for this fis­cal year, says Bet­ty Loftin, asso­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent. It came at a cru­cial time, says her hus­band, Bob, the non-prof­it’s trea­sur­er. The asso­ci­a­tion received no Unit­ed Way sup­port this year due to a fund-rais­ing short­fall.

The Oper­a­tion Round Up grant will allow the asso­ci­a­tion to serve clients through next June. “We were ecsta­t­ic,” Bet­ty says. “When [the co-op] called that morn­ing to tell me, I could­n’t help it, I cried.”

No won­der. With­out the asso­ci­a­tion’s help, some can­cer-strick­en clients often face tough choic­es, Bob notes: “It can be between pay­ing for food or pay­ing for med­ica­tions.”

Crisis prevention

Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Karen van Vierssen says the Clover Area Assis­tance Cen­ter often helps peo­ple who have nev­er had to ask for aid. “It’s usu­al­ly a cri­sis pre­ven­tion sit­u­a­tion,” she says. “If you are liv­ing from pay­check to pay­check, all it takes is one incident—a car breaks down and that’s how you get to work. They have to decide between the repair or a util­i­ty bill or food. We are able to reduce the wor­ry and pre­vent a worse issue.”

Rely­ing most­ly on local sup­port such as Oper­a­tion Round Up’s, the cen­ter care­ful­ly screens appli­cants. “We have a real oblig­a­tion as stew­ards of the mon­ey to make sure it goes where it’s need­ed,” she says. Prov­ing their sit­u­a­tion empow­ers clients to move toward self-suf­fi­cien­cy, van Vierssen says, “That’s what we’re about: Empow­er­ing peo­ple to become more self-suf­fi­cient and less depen­dent.”

‘The perks’ of helping

For years, Oper­a­tion Round Up aid has helped the Fort Mill Care Cen­ter pro­vide emer­gency food, util­i­ty assis­tance, emer­gency den­tal care and oth­er ser­vices. In 2013, for instance, the cen­ter gave $246,452.70 worth of food to 2,831 fam­i­lies.

Pres­i­dent Eileen Mis­ek shares thank-you’s from grate­ful clients who just need­ed a hand up, not a hand­out. One wrote, “Suc­cess is the fruit of per­son­al effort plus sup­port and encour­age­ment from some­one like you.” Said anoth­er: “A super hug for all you do all the time to take care of ‘the least of these,’ those who need it most in our com­mu­ni­ty.

The cen­ter’s vol­un­teers, who con­tribute more than 3,000 hours a year, are inspired by mes­sages like these, Mis­ek says: “That’s what you call the perks!”

To enjoy the perks of know­ing your small change will make a big dif­fer­ence local­ly, call (803) 684‑4248 to sign up for Oper­a­tion Round Up.

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