News & Events
Thornwell Receives $1 Million Foundation Gift
Thornwell Home for Children President Robert W. Stansell, Jr. announced that the Cassels Family Foundation of Columbia has given a gift of $1 million to fund an endowment for Christian nurture. The Cassels’s gift will help to underwrite a comprehensive program of Christian nurture at Thornwell supporting worship, bible study, mission outreach, liturgical music and the arts, and summer Christian camps and conferences.
Present for the announcement at Thornwell’s annual Christmas dinner were Bill and Charlotte Cassels, Jr., W. Tobin Cassels, III and Katherine Cassels Wolfe and her husband, Jack Wolfe. Bill Cassels is chairman and chief executive officer of Southeastern Fright Lines and Tobin Cassels is president of SEFL. Southeastern Freight Lines employs almost 7,000 employees operating out of 76 service centers in 12 states and Puerto Rico. It is one of South Carolina’s largest privately held companies and one of the nation’s most successful trucking companies.
"At the center of Thornwell’s ministry of hope and healing is the nurturing of faith for our children. We want every child who comes to Thornwell to know that he or she is a child of God and to learn to live out that faith in their lives. The Cassels Family Foundation gift will ensure the strength of Thornwell’s program of Christian nurture far into the future and will touch the lives of countless children," said President Stansell.
Thornwell will continue to seek additional gifts for funding Christian nurture programming. A gift of $500,000 from the Robert M. Vance family of Clinton in 2006 along with additional matching funds from churches and individuals is creating a strengthened endowment for the home’s ministry.
President Stansell said, "Investment income generated by the Cassels’ inspiring gift will provide much-needed resources to underwrite the heart and soul of Thornwell’s ministry of Christian worship, nurture, service and fellowship. We are humbled by their generosity."
Thornwell Home for Children is a ministry of the Presbyterian Church (USA) serving children and families since 1875. Located in Clinton, South Carolina, Thornwell serves children from South Carolina, Georgia and Florida of pre-school age through post-secondary school age who have been abandoned, abused or neglected.
