Second ‘Stone Soup Supper’ SUCCEEDS!!! 

East Cooper Community Outreach held its second annual Stone Soup Supper in late September at the Daniel Island Club. The sold out event raised more than $86,000 and netted over $68,000. The event featured an inspirational speaker, an award presentation, and an update of the organization’s annual progress. 

The featured speaker was General Tom Mikolajcik, United States Air Force, retired. Mikolajcik, who suffers from ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease), encouraged those in attendance to become more personally involved in their community. He told the story of a pilot in WWII who gave ‘hope’ to the refugees of western Europe. “Giving money is easy. Giving your time shows true commitment. ‘Hope’ is what the clients of ECCO need. You can give ‘hope’ by being personally involved and that will make our community stronger,” he said. 

Bill Condy, ECCO’s Board President, presented the Stone Soup Award to Lisa Summerlin for her undying commitment to ECCO’s free dental clinic since 1992. Summerlin recently resigned as the director. Condy said, “Lisa’s dedication and compassion for the people has kept the clinic going and growing.”  

Summerlin’s contributions have been numerous.  These include:

·       recruiting more than 40 volunteer dentists and students to work in the emergency clinic, which provides tooth extractions

·       arranging the partnership with the Trident Tech, who provides students for cleanings

·       overseeing the establishment of the preventative dental program, which was made possible by Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina

·       partnering with MUSC’s College of Dentistry in providing students for the restorative program and ‘state-of-the-art’ equipment to give ECCO’s clients the best care available 

Jack Little, Executive Director, informed the crowd of the progress in the “Out of Poverty” initiative. He told about the beginning of a class for people in poverty and how they would be supported by a team of Coaches. He encouraged the attendees to volunteer to make a difference by serving as a ‘Coach.’   

Plans for the event began last year. Sandra Reyna, Chairperson, Jody Baker, Shellie Gay Bohannon, Diane Broom, Janet Cracraft, Jennifer Doyle, Barbara Moore, Linda Nelson, Donna Norvelle, Becky Olbrich, and Frank Shannon made up the committee.