Fire victims of Optimist Village not forgotten

Tommy Mann, Jr.
The Orange Leader

PINEHURST June 27, 2009 10:44 pm

— Friends helping friends and neighbors helping neighbors. That’s what it was all about Friday at Optimist Village.
On Friday afternoon, representatives from Orange Savings Bank and the Senior Housing Crime Prevention Foundation (SHCPF) were honored to present the 48 displaced residents from Optimist Village a free Wal-Mart $20 gift card to take care of necessities after a recent fire.
Many Orange Savings Bank representatives, including current president and CEO, Stephen Lee, and Darby Byrd, former president and CEO attended this special event.
“Nothing is quite as devastating as losing your home to a fire,” Lee said to the residents gathered in the office Friday. “We just hope, in some small way, this gift will help you with some of the things you need.”
Byrd said the gift card presentation is just one way to continue helping these residents, as they wait for their complex to be rebuilt.
“You people are near and dear to our hearts,” Byrd said. “We’ve known many of you for years through the community. We just wanted to give you a little something that would hopefully brighten your day.”
Resident Eva Turner was happy to receive a little extra assistance.
“It will really be useful for me because I’ve had to buy a lot of things all over again, down to my toothbrush,” Turner said. “But I’ll probably spend it on things I need for cooking. I like to cook for people. It makes me happy and it makes them happy too.”
Attorney Tommy Gunn, who also attended Friday’s presentation, represents Optimist Village and is also a Orange Savings Bank board member.
Gunn said he remembers helping to form Optimist Village many years ago and recalls the “thousands of pages of paperwork” sitting on his desk and in files pertaining to the facility.
“Optimist Village has served the needs of this community for many years,” Gunn said. “And it will continue to do so. You have our deepest sympathies for your recent loss. “The building will be reconstructed at some point in the future, and Optimist Village will be back to the way it was before the fire.”
Since 2004, Optimist Village has been protected by the nationally acclaimed crime prevention program, Senior Crimestoppers, sponsored on behalf of Orange Savings Bank. This program helps to provide a crime free living environments to low to moderate income seniors residing in nursing homes and HUD facilities nationwide.
Crime against the most vulnerable citizens in our society, the elderly, is a long-standing, constant battle that can be reduced and eliminated through the operation of the Senior Crimestoppers program in nursing home facilities and HUD properties.
Senior Crimestoppers has a zero tolerance-to-crime platform and uses personal lock-boxes for the residents, cash rewards paid anonymously for information about any crime incident, and effective, on-going education to accomplish its results.
The program currently operates in over 4,000 nursing home and HUD facilities in 45 states and has reduced all aspects of crime by a certified 92.55% through March 31, 2009.
“We are honored to help all of the facilities in the Senior Crimestoppers program in any way we can when tragedy strikes,” said Lori Millar of Senior Housing Crime Prevention Foundation. “That is why we decided to donated the gift cards during this difficult time at Optimist Village.”
Terry Rooker, president of the SHCPF, echoed Millar’s concern.
“Our staff has worked very closely with Optimist Village and Orange Savings Bank over the years, and we wanted to help in any way we could,” Rooker added. “When Mr. Byrd told us that the displaced residents still needed the daily necessities, the Foundation used our Random Acts of Kindness fund to send each displaced resident a Wal-Mart gift card so that they can get what they need.”

Tommy Mann Jr. is a reporter for The Orange Leader. He can be reached at 409-883-3571, Ext. 2619 or tmann@orangeleader.com

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