Each month, Helping Hands features a mortgage professional or group that has volunteered to lend a hand to others in need

Ivanna C. Sukkar

As published in Scotsman Guide's Commercial Edition, March 2009.

Name Cindy Swafford, vice president of commercial banking, Community First Bank

Project SENIOR Solutions

Site Anderson, Oconee and Greenville counties, South Carolina

How Swafford says she volunteers primarily in a "board and oversight capacity" with SENIOR Solutions, an organization that aids people ages 60 and older in three South Carolina counties. The organization provides transportation, home-delivered meals, classes, adult-daycare centers, computer lessons, library services, special events and more, Swafford says.

Swafford began volunteering with the 41-year-old organization in 2000, she says, and was the board chairwoman in 2006. This year, she will be board chairwoman for SENIOR Solutions' Lakeview Assisted Living division in Oconee County, she says.

In addition, Swafford assists with SENIOR Solutions' various services as needed, she says. She says she has delivered meals and visited and participated in dance classes, among other things.

Why Swafford, who also volunteers with other nonprofits and charities in her area, says SENIOR Solutions is "near and dear" to her heart.

She adds that SENIOR Solutions helped her care for her grandmother nearly 20 years ago.

"[The organization] makes me appreciate the senior adults in my life," Swafford says. "They have great wisdom and experience, and they brought us to where we are. We need to appreciate [that] more."

Impact People who take part in SENIOR Solutions' services "love the organization," Swafford says.

"They're tickled that they have somewhere to come where they are taken care of, where they can have a hot meal and where they can interact with others their age," she says.

Swafford adds that the organization helps seniors "maintain their dignity and independence and helps them live independently and remain healthy as long as possible."

Try it www.seniorsolutions-sc.org

Ivanna C. Sukkar is senior associate editor at Scotsman Guide. Reach her at (800) 297-6061 or ivanna@scotsmanguide.com.

To share your company's story, e-mail helpinghands@scotsmanguide.com.