Mothers Day Tea at Mantissa
Several generations shared tea together on Sunday afternoon at the Mother’s Day Tea at Mantissa; seated left to right: Alex Doubles, her nieces Mary Sullivan Powell, Miriam Powell on her mother’s lap, Lindsay Powell, and their grandmother/great grandmother Greta Norwood.
Photo by Jana E. Pye
By Jana E. Pye, Editor, editor@newsandpress.net
A delightful afternoon tea in celebration of Mother’s Day was hosted by The Mantissa Executive Suites and Spa in Hartsville Sunday, May 8. All proceeds were given to the Trent Hill Center for Children and Families.
The founder of the nonprofit organization, Scottie Hill, is the Chair of the Social Work Program and on faculty at Coker College, shared that the center is named for her late father, Trent Hill.
“The purpose of the organization is to provide services both residential and non residential to children in Darlington County who have been removed from their homes due to abuse or neglect or are a risk for abuse or neglect, and their families “We hope to fulfill a need by being able to provide a safe space for children to live, grow, develop and flourish when they are removed from their homes for abuse and neglect as they temporarily await reunification.” shared Hill at the Mother’s Day Tea. “We want to work with their families with social workers and counselors to hopefully provide the services needed for them to eventually be able to be reunified with their children.”
Scottie Hill with her family
Photo by Jana E. Pye
There is currently a shortage of foster families in Darlington County, and in the entire state of South Carolina.
“There are much fewer foster homes in this county than there are children who need them,” continued Hill. “Children have been sent as far away as Greenville and Myrtle Beach. So the children are not only removed from their home and their family, they are removed from their school and relationships that they have that might be supportive or have meaning to them. My hope is provide this service in the community to assist children as they go through this process in hopes of minimizing the trauma of events by being able to be supported in their community.
Plans to renovate an existing property have been tabled; the plan now is to build a center from the ground up, allowing for specific plans for not only a residential setting but areas for counseling, training rooms for families at risk, and office space.
“I feel very strongly about it being situated in Hartsville,” continued Hill. “I feel Hartsville has the unique set of people and organizations, and resources to help support these families. I hope to mobilize all these resources, and maybe in the future reunification of the family is a feasible goal, and residential placement is only temporary.”
“The Trent Hill Center for Children and Families is going to fill an important need in Darlington County in regards to fostering children and assisting with family reunification,” said Tim Blackwell, General Manager of The Mantissa Executive Suites and Spa. “The Mother’s Day tea at The Mantissa was a wonderful way for our community to celebrate family. The event raised a little over $1000, which would not have been possible without such strong community support.”
To donate to the project, checks may be made out payable to the Trent Hill Center for Children and Families and mailed to 706 W. College Avenue, Hartsville SC 29550. For more information, contact: 843-309-5502 or TrentHillCenter@gmail.com. The mailing address will change over the summer, as an office space will be secured until the center is complete; a website is planned for the near future as well, with options for online donations. Keep up with the progress at their Facebook page: Trent Hill Center for Children and Families Mobile users, please click link to view more photos: Mother’s Day Tea at Mantissa
To learn more about being a foster family, visit: www.scfamilies.org or contact Darlington County DSS at: 843-332-2231, Hartsville or 843-398-4420, Darlington
To volunteer to be a Guardian ad Litem to be a “voice for the child” contact: Darlington County Guardian ad Litem at 642 W Carolina Ave, Hartsville, 843- 383-2333 or visit: scgal.org/darlington