 All right, good afternoon to everyone and thank you so much for your presence here today. Thank you, Mayor Benjamin Of course our city council members that are present with us. We have council of McDowell with us Councilman Davis. Thank you so much. I wish for your support and being here. We also thank you To the parks and rec foundation and the actual department as well I want to acknowledge our city manager Teresa Wilson who is absent today for her support And leadership as well. We are extremely Excited about to formally announce The grand award of twenty thousand dollars To the parks and rec foundation from the truest foundation The funding received will sponsor a virtual mentoring program That will serve fifty city of Columbia youth ages eleven through seventeen With the goals of increasing youth knowledge skills And understanding for the following areas Number one self-worth self-esteem Number two health and unhealthy peer relationships college and career readiness Financial literacy money management one-on-one The benefits of nutrition and regular exercise and also a leadership one-on-one class So these are areas that could could change lives and influence positive decisions for our youth We're looking forward to working with them across the city of Columbia Now this time please help me welcome our mayor Steve midgerman For some remarks Thank you, Henry. Thank you, Mike for leading the applause. I appreciate that. It's it's always wonderful to be here, particularly here on on on Busby Street with with my two dear friends and brothers Sam Davis and Ed McDowell. This space as many of you may know as you get up and down Farrow Road This is kind of disputed territory as of whether or not this is district one or district two They they debated depending on what the occurrence is but there's a commitment to Continuing to invest Not just in the in the physical infrastructure, but the people are the amazingly talented and gifted and proud people who make up this community In order to do that particularly in the most in the wealthiest and most powerful Nation in the history of the world it requires strong partnerships Partnerships between the public sector the private sector the philanthropic Sector and the leadership that's been ongoing in our department of parks and rec for years the support That's been given to them by a parks and rec foundation and the wonderful partnerships. They've been able to build with incredible world-class organizations like truest Particularly like these types of investments and into our children into our young children We know all very well that opportunity may know zip codes, but but but talent and Ability does not so if we invest In these young people our babies It's amazing what we will see come of them So it was important I know for me and for Ed and Sam to be here and say thank you to Mike and Chris For the commitment of truest to this incredible community Henry Randy the whole team just thank y'all so much for your your constant stewardship and thank you so much to the incredible parks and rec foundation The leadership in this this this breath of new and fresh air that we see coming into the into the foundation That will anew or to the benefit of our of our children Supported by these wonderful gifts from truest Couldn't be couldn't be more Appreciated now. I'm gonna I never when the week the program has Mike coming up next But I sense my two colleagues back here. I can I can hear them now one one is a preacher and one's a preacher's kid I'm not sure what you can read in the end of that one will have you pass in the hat by the time it's over But did you all want to say something briefly? You want to say something real quick? miss me down mayor pro tem Senior member of council sand Davis Any wonderful to have an organization and yet Mike and Chris To come representing this bank and of course the foundation The wonderful things that are going to be done the powerful things that Enraptures all of us remember This grant is for children For 11 through 17 it enraptures possibilities and The kind of zeal and zest that our kids need to be a part of So my thank you very much We thank this foundation and the $20,000 because we were going to do so well with this $20,000 next year. We're looking for 35. Amen I'm in the cleanup spot in terms of giving thanks and The foundation is typical of the partnerships that we've put together over the years with parks and rec City foundation is responsible for the construction of the relatively new Greenview gym. That's an example of what these types of gifts and And our partnerships have done over the years and so To work with the young people at this point in time in our experience and history Is very important a Number of them are Not shut in but they're not able to do a lot of the things that they normally would be doing and especially those nearing graduation and those that Would normally be doing work now at school, so To help fill that gap and to help develop skills There's a deep appreciation for this and as it has said we look forward to a continued relationship and We will Not only will we pass the plate to you We're going to do our part to contribute Thank you Mike Brennan the South Carolina Regional President of Jewish Maine Thank You mr. Marin. Thank you brother and What a joy it is to be here with all of you today. This is an amazing Facility out here and I assume that amazing things are going on in this facility out here And we couldn't be more proud to make an investment in One of the most important parts of our community and that's the youth of our community Anytime that we can invest in their reading skills their financial understanding skills Their skills of self-worth and self-esteem. It's a good day, so Councilman McDowell, I know it's just twenty thousand dollars, but I think you've already laid down the Challenge for thirty five next year, so I'm gonna I'm gonna get to I'm gonna get to work on that with with our foundation But at truest our purpose is pretty simple To inspire and build better lives in community. That's why we do what we do as a bank and This is a great Investment that I think will inspire and build better lives and into community and when BB&T and Sun trust decided to Merge we told the world that we would be better Together and we believe that we are But that also applies to this partnership between parks and recreation the city of Columbia and Randy and the entire group out here that I think Between truest and parks and recreation the city of Columbia that we are better Together, so this is a great day in Columbia. Thank you Thank you all so much for your for your comments. I do want to acknowledge Mr. Larry Jackson who is the vice president of the residence and family services that's here They partner with us from the Columbia Housing Authority, so thank you so much miss Jackson for being with us on today I also want to thank mr. David Jackson who's with Wrist and school district one. They also partners partner with us on his efforts So so thank you so much for your partnership and all that that you all do as well and think again the truest foundation for These efforts You know we we think about all the work that's that's being done by the city of Columbia Wrist and school district one the Columbia Housing Authority as well as our Partnership with truest as well as the parks and rec foundation and it's just just an amazing opportunity to see the work Actually come to life and see how this will also impact our young people in our communities all across the city So we're grateful For this opportunity grateful for the partnerships and we look forward to future endeavors going into next year So thank you all so much For being here We are going to take some photos after this so we're prepared with our PR team To do so and I'll just thank you so much for your presence on today. All right. God bless you Hello, my name is Ed McDowell and I'm the council council person for district two We come to celebrate today the grant and the funds from the truest foundation of course the truest foundation of course has Granted funds for virtual mentoring program the program consists of 50 youth and Of course in tainting and Grappling with the issues of young folk and their ability to look at issues like self-worth career opportunities 50 youth will meet on a bi-weekly basis To look at and to strategize the opportunities that are out there for them This grant of $20,000 will enable this virtual reality To take place We have a community development manager in South Carolina his name is Matt and Matt Just looks for connections Throughout the state where we can invest in things that we think fulfill our purpose as a company and you heard me say Inspire and building better lives in communities and this was an investment he brought to us and said This accomplishes that and that's why we need to do it when we merged the two banks together And I think you heard me say that we said we were going to be better together Which enabled us to do more and be more and that included the creation of the truest Foundation to make these kind of investments and every time we partner with somebody in the community I like to say we're better together also So truest in the city of Columbia and parks and recreation are better together Well, you know with the with the The program that they'll be promoting Every every kid in this area and beyond for that matter will benefit You know this facility is an example of the Of a Not a shelter but a but a an environment and a facility that can facilitate I think the kinds of programs training projects That that will come through the program. And so it's um It's an added amenity for this corridor and for the neighborhood neighborhoods In the immediate area Of course, it's not limited to to just the kids in this area but throughout the city But it's an opportunity for people to come Look view this facility. It's a state-of-the-art facility And that's I think very important if you're looking at you know training and skills development for young people we're talking about Taking every opportunity to transform the lives of these incredibly talented young people In columbia. We know that they're gifted And that the more time and effort and resources we pour into them the more we'll get out of them And these partnerships are so important to making that happen the government can do a lot But the government can only do so much it takes the time talents and treasures of individuals and And companies and everyone else so this gift from truest is is so important and we're thankful for it You know, some of our children obviously are still learning remotely And It's it's not been optimal for so many of our of our Of these amazing gifted children So having the efforts to be able to do this in person But also be able to do remotely virtual mentoring It's crucial right now. We're coming out of the greatest pandemic since 1918 the greatest economic disruption since 1932 and you know in all the social unrest the greatest probably since 1968 And these amazingly talented young people have had to work their way through it without the skillsets of experience or resources that we have So it's that much more crucial that that's investment be made now and these partnerships be forged