Beaufort County School District accepted a $56,000 donation. Here’s where it will go
Parker’s gas station donated $56,000 to the Beaufort County School District as part of its Fueling the Community program, according to a school district press release.
The program, which was started in 2011, sends one cent per gallon sold on the first Wednesday of each month to local schools, the school district said this week in a press release. The charitable initiative began as a way for the company to support education in the areas where it is stationed, said Olivia Parker, the company’s community outreach manager. There are no requirements for how the schools may spend the donated funds, she said.
“We think it’s important to let each school district or each school decide how to best allocate Fueling the Community funds,” Parker said in a statement Friday.
Beaufort County residents selected local schools they wanted to see receive the money via the company’s rewards app. Of the $56,000 donated, $25,000 will go to the schools that customers selected, according to Candace Bruder, a spokesperson for the school district. That money is typically used for classroom supplies, teacher appreciation and special recognition for students and staff, she said. The rest of the funds, $32,000, will go to the district’s annual, “Teacher of the Year” and “Support Person of the Year” recognition program that calls out school staff like nurses, teachers, office personnel and bus drivers.
“These funds don’t go directly to the district support staff person of the year but are used to celebrate support persons of the year from each of our schools at a district event,” Bruder said.
While supporting schools is the program’s primary focus, Parker said, it has also made contributions to “healthcare initiatives throughout coastal Georgia and South Carolina.”
“We believe that education has the power to uplift communities while reducing poverty and crime,” she said. “Education truly is the tide that lifts all ships.”
