Wednesday, May 16, 2001

Annual breakfast honors business partners

"The Fayette County School System is respected throughout the state due to the efforts of many people. A large part of our success is attributed to the generosity of our business community," said Fayette County school board Chairman Mickey Littlefield during the annual Fayette County Partners in Education Recognition Breakfast recently at the LaFayette Education Center.

Approximately 170 local businesses serve as Partners in Education for schools throughout Fayette. Each year, the school system and the Fayette County Chamber of Commerce co-sponsor a breakfast in honor of the many contributions made by the local business community. As a highlight of the event, the Partners in Education Committee give special recognition to a small business and corporate partner who have contributed a significant amount of time and resources to Fayette's schools. This is the second year that the Partner of the Year Award has been part of the recognition breakfast.

"Last year the committee felt that we needed to do something special for those partners who have really gone above and beyond for our schools so we decided it would be nice to honor them with an award," says Jim Pittman, co-chair of the Partners in Education Committee.

The nominees for the second annual Partner of the Year Award were Fairbanco, First Union Bank (Fayetteville), J & R Clothing, Inc., Publix (Fayetteville), SunTrust Bank (Peachtree City), Wachovia Bank (Fayetteville), Fayette Chiropractic Center, Florida Rock Industries, Leslie Contracting, Publix (Peachtree City) and Ultimate Security.

The winners of the 2001 Partner of the Year Award were Fayette Chiropractic Center (small business) and SunTrust Bank (corporate).

The Fayette Chiropractic Center has actively participated and supported two of the school system's volunteer programs, the Friends Mentor Program and the Partners in Education Speakers Bureau. More than half of the staff at Fayette Chiropractic are active mentors in several of the county's elementary schools. In addition to mentoring, the business also works hard to help the school system's volunteer recruiting efforts by displaying program brochures, news articles and pictures of their staff's mentoring activities.

Additionally, staff members have gone before local business and civic groups to talk about the impact mentoring has on children and to encourage stronger community participation. Rather than focus on their business, the advertisement they purchased in this year's Town Planner publicized the mentoring program and served as a reminder to the community as the new school year begun.

SunTrust Bank has been actively involved in several programs and activities in the school system. As a partner to Oak Grove Elementary School, the business has provided "pat on the back" ribbons to students which recognize outstanding performance. A donation of $525 was given to the kindergarten class to purchase equipment for their Poetic Journey Portfolio and another $500 was donated to the school's running club for the purchase of team shirts for all of the students to wear to their events.

For the holidays, each staff member prepared a stocking for a family in need whose children attend Oak Grove. The stockings were for grandmother, grandfather and three children and included items such as toys, school supplies, toiletries and candy.

Schools and businesses nominate companies and organizations for the Partner of the Year award. A maximum three-page letter describing what the nominee has done for the school is part of the formal nomination process. A group of judges made up of community members read the nominations and select one small business and one corporation as the recipients of the award.

Both the small business and corporate partner of the year received trophies. All nominees received a certificate.

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