Community Impact Awards

On June 3, 2008 United Way of the Midlands hosted their annual Community Assembly event in order to bring people from the community together and celebrate those who continue to make a difference in others' lives through volunteering.  Community Impact Awards were presented to five different recipients for their outstanding contributions to helping people in the Midlands.
"It's important that we recognize those who help to advance the mission of United Way of the Midlands—improving lives," said Mac Bennett, President and CEO of United Way of the Midlands. "It is these people who get out there and give their time and energy each and every day who really make our community a better place. It was difficult to narrow the nominations down to the winners, but we are proud to announce five truly deserving recipients this year."
The nominees for the United Way of the Midlands Community Impact Awards are a person or group of people that have demonstrated a commitment to volunteerism and made an impact to causes, programs or projects that support human service needs in the midlands. Nominations were submitted for volunteers who participated in service projects for Untied Way of the Midlands or a certified partner agency in the counties of Calhoun, Fairfield, Lexington, Newberry, Richland or Orangeburg in 2007. Each winner did so in a slightly different way, but all of them had a tremendous impact on the lives they touched.   
M. Todd Crump, M.D.
Dr. Crump has volunteered over 1,000 hours with The Free Medical Clinic, which provides quality healthcare, at no cost, to residents of the community who cannot pay for such services and who do not have health insurance. As the clinic's volunteer medical director, he supervises both the technical and medical operation of the clinic. In the past five years, Dr. Crump's tireless efforts have helped to increase the reach of the Free Medical Clinic tremendously thereby providing quality healthcare to those in the community who need it most. His incredible investment of time and energy, technical expertise and dedication demonstrate his resolve to make the Midlands a better place.

Ken Sulser
Ken volunteers six hours daily, four days a week with the Babcock Center, a nonprofit organization that provides rehabilitation services for men and women with mental retardation, autism, head and spinal cord injury and related lifelong disabilities. Even at age 86, he is one of the Babcock Center's most dependable and dedicated volunteers, working all day long retrieving calls to ensure that the staff is dispatched correctly, completing numerous facility checks, and planning and implementing daily activities. He also works behind the scenes, providing insight and guidance to our consumers on their life-altering situation, serving as a confidante. His loyalty is not only evident to consumers with head and spinal cord injuries and our agency but is also very prevalent through generations of personal commitment and public education.
Ron Amerson
Ron has been a Red Cross Disaster Volunteer for over 15 years, teaches health and safety programs, works with our youth council, helps maintain our communications equipment and ensures that this Red Cross chapter is ready to face any emergency.  Even while being employed full time and also attending classes to receive his Master's Degree, he takes on countless responsibilities such as learning new programs to teach our staff, volunteering as a Red Cross CPR and First Aid instructor and facilitating youth programs that advocate volunteerism. Ron has saved lives through health and safety programs, changed lives responding to disasters and made a difference in the lives of many others.
Anida Mims
Anida is a lifelong volunteer who is commitment to her community continues to strengthen each year. She is passionate about the fight against drug and alcohol abuse and is a dedicated contributor to the work of LRADAC, which offers a wide array of prevention, intervention and treatment programs in locations convenient to residents of Lexington and Richland Counties. She has served on the board of directors and on numerous committees and in doing so has been instrumental in educating the community, helping new laws get passed and creating a resource library for public use. She is also very active in her church and enlisted the congregation's help for LRADAC's clients, resulting in both monetary assistance and furniture for the organization's women's shelter.
William "Bill" Horton
Bill is committed to advancing the work of the American Red Cross of Central South Carolina through leadership. He served on the board of directors for 6 years and in that time increased the number of people receiving life saving training by 10%, cultivated his staff, volunteers and our Board of Directors and transitioned the organization from a local chapter to a regional chapter. He has helped to steward the development of the new Columbia Region Board and continually spearheads the ongoing process of looking for new development to improve chapter services. His diligence has improved the way the American Red Cross of Central South Carolina raises funds, administers processes, and delivers services.
The criteria for the United Way of the Midlands Community Impact Award are as follows:
  • The nominee must have volunteered for United Way of the Midlands or a Certified Partner Agency
  • The nominee may not be a winner in any other category
  • The nominee's volunteer hours must have been served in 2007.