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The Troup County Board of Realtors donated $1,000 Wednesday to the Georgia Sheriffs’ Pineland/Camp Pioneer in LaGrange.

Pineland is a part of the Georgia Sheriff’s Youth Home, a residential care program directly serving abused and neglected children. The Pineland home is located on 2,400 acres of farm and timber land. 

“Our LaGrange location is one of the biggest land wise, and we also have a summer camp program which is open year-round,” Residential Director Wayne Pittman said. “Right now, we have four boys in the residential program. The boys can’t leave campus currently with the pandemic. We’re fortunate that we have a big area for recreation. They canoe, kayak, swim and fish, so and we are fortunate we can still do those type things.” 

At Pineland, the boys receive things they need, including clothes, shoes, toiletries and positive relationships.

“Donations like these are needed because we get boys from all over the state,” Pittman said. “We will get children in the middle of the night whether from DFACS or from a private placement. These kids sometimes come in with nothing. A lot of the funds we get will buy clothing for the kids. Sometimes they go through two or three bookbags a year.” 

Pittman said donations and funding also helps support recreational activities that the boys are in involved in or help buy items and equipment for Camp Pioneer. 

“Most of the time it really goes to clothes for the kids in need or even a pillow for their room,” Pittman said.

 “I am always excited to receive donations. With school being canceled and now that it is also summer, we have the boys all day long. We have noticed our food cost has jumped because we are feeding them three times a day when typically they ate breakfast and lunch at school.”

In October, TCBOR hosted its annual golf tournament at the Fields Golf Club that benefits local organizations each year. 

“We always want to give back to our community and this was one of the ways to give back to one of our local organizations that are in need within our community,” said TCBOR Golf Task Force Chair Patty Maenhoudt. 

“We were very excited to give $1,000. This was one our best tournaments we’ve ever had. We were actually able to give a little more this year. We were thankful to have the sponsorships that we had within the community and be able to give that back to the youth home and camp.” 

Maenhoudt said they are in the planning process for the annual golf tournament currently and are hoping to host it again in October. 

“We are making sure we are going to follow all CDC guidelines and such,” Maenhoudt said. “We’ve got to make sure that everything is in place and that it would be safe environment for everyone to come and have a good time and be out there.”