SGIG's Message

To: All Scottish Rite Members in South Carolina

From: Illustrious Michael D. Smith, 33°, S.G.I.G.

20 Years of Service to Children of South Carolina!

On September of 1987 the Scottish Rite Foundation of South Carolina, Inc. opened the doors on the Columbia Scottish Rite Center for Childhood Language disorders. This very special program began in a renovated conference room at the Columbia Scottish Rite Center on Garners Ferry Rd. This flagship facility, in its early years, served a small number of children with speech and language disorders with direct evaluations and speech therapy at no charge to the families of those children we served. From very humble beginnings, this program is now a in a period of major expansion with needs for additional facilities and budget to meet the growing needs in the communities we serve. Some of our very first students have graduated from college and are highly successful.

The program has continued and expanded to all areas of South Carolina with “Rite Care” Centers now operating in Greenville and Charleston as well as in the new E.C. Singleton Rite Care Center in Columbia with service to over 125 children every week. We are providing world class services to children with this outstanding service model still at no charge to the families. We are very active by serving as a graduate training sites for students enrolled in Speech Language Pathology and also offering continuing education in our Scottish Rite Centers by offering nationally and internationally renowned speakers that come to us and provide expert training for local public school speech pathologists. Last year we hosted over 300 speech pathologists in Columbia, Charleston and Greenville.

Through the dedicated effort and countless hours of hard work of our brethren, we continue to fund our operations but are limited by our budget constraints. As we enter the our 21st year of operation I ask for your financial support of the program with contributions, service hours to projects and your consideration of establishing our program in your estate planning. We currently spend over 99% of all funds directly on the childhood language services. We spend less that 1% on recognition of donors. We are very fortunate to have our extremely talented administration and staff of clinicians under the direction of our State Executive Director, Mrs. Martha McDade. Thanks to Martha and our entire staff for the great service you provide each and every day! We are so proud of all of you!

Our Valley Boards of Directors and our Trustees give countless hours each year to the support of our program with their time, talents and dollars. We owe a great debt of gratitude to these gentlemen for their leadership and support.

To continue to support and grow the program, I ask for your support as we seek support from the others in the communities which we serve. You, the individual brother, can assist in one of the premier Charities in South Carolina with your support.

We will hold a special celebration later this year to commemorate the 20 years of service and to share our progress with all our members so be on the lookout for our meeting invitation coming soon. I hope you will make plans to attend and share in the excitement of the children and their families in the progress that they are making because of the heroic effort of our staff and a few of our brethren.

Your valley is also scheduling a visit to the center closest to you in the near future. Call your Valley Secretary for details of the upcoming Open House visit for your valley. Make time to see our centers and meet those working on behalf of the Scottish Rite. You will be blessed by the experience.

We have been truly blessed with this opportunity. Having just completed our August Trustees meeting, I am encouraged with all the activities that are planned and l ask for your support as we move to “Make a difference every day, one child at a time.”

SUPREME COUNCIL MEETING It was indeed my honor and privilege to represent you and all the “Scottish Rite Gentlemen from South Carolina” at the recent Supreme Council session in Washington DC. Our MW Bro. Gerald Carver, Grand Master served as the active candidate in the presentation of the 33rd and last degree of the Scottish Rite. He made us very proud as he reminded the world of the importance South Carolina has made in our great fraternity!

I have seen first hand the many contributions from so many of our Scottish Rite brethren as we continue to move forward. We have tremendous fellowship and are making a real difference in the communities in which we live every day!

I ask for your continued support and if you have not been active with the Scottish Rite, I ask for your support and participation. We need you to come back! Plan now to attend an upcoming meeting or reunion in your valley to see some old friends and make some new ones.

I look forward to seeing you this fall. Come share your talent and skills given in trust to you by Almighty God to be used for the betterment of your fellow man!

Fraternally, Ill. Michael D. Smith, 33° Sovereign Grand Inspector General in South Carolina