Grandmother gets help from Woodyard Fund

A Columbia grandmother who received assistance from a nonprofit organization when she was younger sought help from them again last week, and they came to rescue right in time.

Thelma Potts, 62, is a single grandmother who was just four days away from facing disconnection.

Potts said low temperatures in the past couple of months resulted in a much higher electric bill than normal. Potts currently is unemployed and lives on a fixed income, so she was not able to pay the bill on her own in its entirety.

“We were having a very cold month lately,” she said. “I had to keep on my heat throughout the day,” she said.

Potts said she initially had heard about the Salvation Army when she was a little girl growing up in Sumter. She said her mother was a single parent who struggled often, so the Salvation Army provided their family with help.

Potts moved to Columbia in recent years, and she heard about the Salvation Army of the Midlands’ Woodyard Fund.

She visited the Salvation Army’s office Thursday and said she was overwhelmed when they agreed to pay her bill.

“I’m very grateful and thankful for the Salvation Army that they helped me as much as they did with our utility bill,” she said. “I don’t have to worry for the next month about being cold.”

Potts encouraged anyone who is able to donate to the Salvation Army and the Woodyard Fund.

“A lot of people are really in need of this fund during this time of year,” she said. “January and February are the most difficult months for people with heating bills because they go up.”

Potts said she knows from her experience with the organization as a child and more recently that it is a blessing to those in need.

“The funds do go toward what they are needed for,” Potts said. “They definitely do that.”

The Woodyard Fund helps residents in crisis in Richland, Lexington, Fairfield and Newberry counties pay for utilities. The fund dates to 1816, when the Ladies Benevolent Society provided firewood and coal to families in need. In 1930, The State newspaper’s editor, William E. Gonzales, began publicizing the fund. It became a tradition the newspaper continues every winter.

This story was originally published February 12, 2016 at 6:01 PM.