Bethel Senior Daycare receives $70,000 from Timken Foundation

Clients at Bethel Senior Day Care will soon be riding a new bus, thanks to a $70,000 grant from The Timken Foundation. Pictured are (front row, left to right): Casey Painter, Administrator Dr. J.W. Sanders Jr., Marie Wood. (Back row, left to right): Mae Sue Gregory, Luetta Harris and Carolyn McCurry. The staff at Bethel Senior Daycare has a lot to be thankful for this holiday season, as they’ll soon be able to afford new bus for their clients. Due to a generous gift from the Timken Foundation, the local adult daycare will be upgrading its transportation system soon.

“We are very excited about the grant,” said Dr. J.W. Sanders Jr., administrator at the facility. “That’s a definite need for our growth at the daycare and it meets a real need for our clients. We have numerous clients who have problems with mobility or who are wheelchair-bound, so the new vehicle will help a lot of them. Really, our other van has gotten to the point where should retire.”

The only nonprofit and church-based adult day care center in Cherokee County, Bethel was awarded $70,000 from the Timken Foundation of Canton, Ohio, for the purpose of purchasing the new 12 passenger coach bus as well as providing funds for a parttime driver, fuel, normal maintenance and repairs. The vehicle can also accommodate two wheelchair-bound individuals.

Medicaid requirements mandate that the daycare pick up clients if they live within 15 miles of the facility, and sometimes the range is a tough call for Sanders and the staff.

“That mandate has been interesting sometimes,” he said. “We’ve had some areas measured and there are folks who live 14.5 miles or 14.8 miles away and so we’ve got to pick them up. This meant having to do extra runs sometimes with our old bus and could be strain on finances. We are nonprofit but we get reimbursed by the government. Last year was the first time in about seven to nine years that there had been any increase in funding for adult daycare services. I know several centers in South Carolina that have had to close down. This grant will help tremendously.”

Mark Propst, general manager of Timken’s Gaffney Bearing Plant, commented on how it is important for senior citizens to remain active and stay in contact with their community and friends.

“A bus is critical for this daycare’s program to be able to provide transportation to the local social activities that these folks so badly need to maintain their healthy outlook on life,” he said.

Propst was key in helping Sanders and the staff apply for the grant.

“I was aware of the foundation through Mark,” Sanders said. “And he really helped us get together a proposal. We outlined what we had and what we needed for the foundation to review and they gave us a few thousand dollars more than we asked. It was truly a great blessing for us.”

The adult daycare is located in the Family Life Center of the Bethel Baptist Church at 218 Dr. L.M. Rosemond Lane, but Sanders emphasized that the facility is open to anyone regardless of religious belief, nationality, creed or race.

“We serve the entire community,” he said. “You don’t have to be a member of our church and you don’t have to be Christian to come here. We view this as a ministry, not as a business.”