Duke Energy plant employees donate bikes to DCSD students
Darlington County School District students got an early start to their summer fun Thursday when they received bikes donated by employees of the Duke Energy Robinson Plant in Hartsville.
Over 140 kids received brand new bikes and helmets. Several elementary school-age students were on hand at Hartsville High School where the bikes were displayed. The first to receive the bikes, they even got to take them for a spin around the school.
DCSD Public Information Officer Audrey Childers thanked the Robinson employees for their dedication to the local community.
“The employees of Duke Energy’s Robinson Plant are our family, our friends and our neighbors in our community,” Childers said. “We are very, very grateful to have them.”
Childers said that the nuclear plant employees partner with DCSD numerous times throughout the year.
“They are a tremendous part of our school district and they work with us on a regular basis in many different ways, whether it is helping to mentor our student, building butterfly gardens or providing summer reading tools and activities, or something like today when they give the children something really special to enjoy their summer,” Childers said. “We are grateful for all that the employees at the Robinson Nuclear Plant do for our community and for our students.”
Duke Energy spokesperson Charles Ellison said that the generous employees of the plant made the donation possible.
“We started planning for this in February and then we started promoting this on site, completely employee driven,” Ellison said. “This is all money from employees at Robinson Nuclear.”
Ellison said that some friendly competition made this donation even more successful than they had anticipated.
“This is something that we have done now for two years and each year it gets bigger and bigger,” Ellison said. “Our original goal was to raise enough money for 100 bikes and we ended up raising $22,000. We basically put the word out on site and the work groups are really great. They have a lot of friendly competition to see who can raise the most and they really get into it.”
Ellison said that when the employees of Robinson set out to do something, they do it big.
“I tell folks that one of the things that I am most proud of in my time at the plant is that we have never failed to hit a goal when it comes to community outreach,” Ellison said. “The folks at Robinson raised $22,000 in a little less than a week’s time to go toward the purchase of bicycles and helmets for students in our area. We look forward to giving those out over the next two weeks. This kicks off that part, which is actually our favorite part, getting to see those kids with their bicycles.”
The size and color scheme of the bikes varied so that each child had one unique to them. It was clear from the smiling faces that the students would have a lot of fun with their new bikes over the summer break.