Members of the SC Bar Young Lawyers Division delivered more than 135 backpacks of school supplies to Watkins-Nance Elementary School, W.A. Perry Middle School and The Cooperative Ministry recently as part of its annual Backpack Drive.

It is the fourth year the group has teamed up with the Cooperative Ministry to collect the supplies for various schools across the Midlands.

“Thanks to everyone who donated supplies and volunteered their time, YLD was able to provide backpacks and necessary school supplies to students who really need them,” said Paul Hoefer, backpack committee chairman. “I look forward to this project each year, knowing that we get to help students start their year off right.”

The Young Lawyers’ Division includes members of the SC Bar younger than 36 and those with less than five years’ membership.

UPS serves up hope

The UPS Foundation recently presented $5,000 to Harvest Hope Food Bank to help ongoing efforts to combat hunger. The funds will be used for warehouse renovations at the food bank’s Greenville facility.

It’s just the latest UPS Foundation’s donation to Harvest Hope. Another recent contribution included a $10,000 grant to install GPS navigation systems in Harvest Hope’s delivery vehicles.

The donation comes as the food bank continues to experience significant requests for emergency food assistance.

Harvest Hope saw an average of 325 families each day at its emergency food pantries on Shop Road in Columbia and 12th Street in Cayce in June, when it provided food for more than 6,820 families. That was about 800 families more than the same time last year.

Boost for history

Historic Columbia Foundation has received an $11,500 grant from AT&T to support its Mann-Simons community engagement project.

The Learning Our History – Shaping Our Future project uses the Mann-Simons Site and Modjeska Monteith Simkins House to expose youth and elders to local African-American history.

“We cannot fully appreciate where we are and where we’re going until we know where we’ve been, until we know our history,” said Ted Creech, external affairs director for AT&T South Carolina. “By adding new technologies and new ways of experiencing the Mann-Simons Site and the Modjeska Simkins House, the Historic Columbia Foundation will be able to more meaningfully engage the community in more than two centuries of local history.”

The AT&T grant supports a partnership between Historic Columbia Foundation, the University of South Carolina, Richland 1 and the Booker-Washington Heights neighborhood.