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WEST POINT — The Bobby G. Elmore Foundation has gotten off to a fast start in its first year of operation. Founder Jared Elmore talked about that at Thursday’s noon hour meeting of the Weest Point Rotary Club. The local 501(c)3 nonprofit got its start in March 2023, started helping people in need in June and had a very successful fundraiser in July.

The foundation is named in memory of Jared’s dad, the late Bob Elmore, who died in 2022. During his lifetime, the elder Elmore helped many people struggling with basic needs. White he was running a Sears store on Fob James Drive in Valley, He became well known for getting needed appliances to people who had a hard time in paying for them. “He probably gave away more items than were paid for,” Jared said. “My dad was my beset friend. What better way to honor his legacy than to have a foundation named after him

In the first few weeks of the foundation being active, more than $11,000 was raised, almost half of that amount coming in the golf tournament at the Point University Golf Club. Jared’s church, Hopewell Methodist, has been very helpful in getting the foundation off to a good start.

Jared works for 4 Seasons Heating & Air and has seen many situations of elderly or disabled people having problems with their heating or air conditioning but being short of the money needed to take care of it. “There’s a lot of poverty in this area,” he said. “I have seen many situations where there are good people who have worked hard all their lives, are now rqtiredbut are short on money. It’s such a shame that they have nothing to show for all the years of hard work they have put in. They are in need of help, and that’s what the Bobby G. Elmore Foundation wants to do.”

The foundation’s first project was to help a family of five replace a dryer. They followed that up by helping a family replace a washing machine.

In another situation, a tree had fallen in someone’s yard and demolished a fence. It sat there for some time because the family couldn’t pay to have it removed. The foundation helped them out of that fix.

Jared said there’s a lot of people in the local area who will volunteer to help people in such situations but are not aware of what needs to be done. “We are trying to get the word out about what we are doing,” he said. “We have a lot of information on our Facebook page. There are a lot of people out there who need help but are reluctant to ask for it.”

Help is out there, but many in need are not aware of it. The new foundation has built ramps for disabled people. Jared said that Dr. Rick Kuhn and volunteers from the Church of the Highlands in Auburn is outstanding in doing this for people in need in the east-central Alabama region. “Miss Kim (Roberts) at the Chattahoochee Fuller Center Project is great in finding out who needs help,” Jared said. “Our goal is to help people who genuinely need assistance. There are some people out there who will take advantage of people’s generosity. They can take care of their own needs but are willing to take advantage of situations when they really don’t need to. This can ruin things for those who really need help.”

Making such mistakes has to be weighed against not helping someone who really needed it.

“There’s a lot of information about us on our Facebook page,” Jared said. “People can call us any time. We work with the Chattahoochee Fuller Center a lot, and I have seen so much need. There are some people in our community who have  few, iff any, reliable appliances. It’s a goal of this foundation to help such people meet their basic needs. Many of them have worked hard all their lives, played by the rules and have nothing to show for it. It’s just not right for them to go without.”

Jared wants the golf tournament fundraiser to be an annual event. “We are planning to have our second one next May,” he said.

It’s appropriate to have the tournament on the Point course. Bob Elmore was an avid golfer, and played many rounds on that course.