Since 2016, one local bank has wanted to make an impact on the youth of the community.
Carter County Bank President Andrew McKeehan hosted the principals of each of the three city elementary schools – East Side’s Travis Hurley, West Side’s John Wright, and Harold McCormick’s Eric Wampler – Friday morning and provided each principal with a check worth $500 to benefit a particular project at their respective schools.
“Last year, we decided to go and help all of the school systems in the area,” McKeehan said. “We were able to help Happy Valley with a project last year, so this year we decided to work together with Elizabethton City Schools. We’ll work with the other three county schools over the next three years. If funds are still available after all of these projects, we’ll just go back around and start the cycle again.”
Hurley said that East Side would use the funding toward supporting the creation of a reading garden on campus.
Over at Harold McCormick, Wampler indicated the funds would go to support the purchase of EZH20 filling stations, water fountains that easily allow students to fill their water bottles with filtered water.
Wright added the funded provided by Carter County Bank would go toward the overall cost for the school’s upcoming all-access playground. The West Side PTO has continued to raise money for the project, and with the additional funds, the school is nearing their $80,000 goal.
Helping the community is something Carter County Bank wants to be part of, according to the president, and the decision of giving back to the children came with relative ease.
“It’s a big thing we definitely want to be part of,” McKeehan said. “The children are our future and will be the future leaders for our county and our city. We want to give them every opportunity to be successful, and if we can play some small role in the work each of the school systems provides for our children, it makes this all worthwhile.
“Our school officials, like these guys, are the ones who are molding our children to be our leaders. We appreciate what they do, and we want to help where we can,” McKeehan added, motioning to the principals.