A Word from Our Vice President Paul Pappy

We can all honestly brag on our amazing small town community here in Travelers Rest. It’s clean, safe,
and beautiful. We want to raise our families here because of how our community welcomes us, our
values, and our relationships.

Part of what makes our community so vibrant is the leadership of our Police and Fire Departments and
the efforts they put forward to keep TR in the condition we’ve grown to know and love. Our leaders,
Chief Ben Ford of the Travelers Rest Police Department and Chief Greg Robertson of the Travelers Rest
Fire Department, along with their full time officers and volunteers, are critical in their roles of serving
our community.

Because of the sacrifice of time and personal safety, our new foundation, the Travelers Rest Police and
First Responders Foundation, aims to recognize that sacrifice. Our foundation is a support vehicle to
build morale, culture, and intra-community relationships. We share a mutual interest in responsible and
safe growth, caring for the families in our community with selfless love, patience, and compassion. We
want to bridge the gap and “extinguish” any supposition about our first responders simply because we
don’t “know” them. We will be offering several opportunities to get to know your Police Officers and
Fire Fighters in an informal setting; getting to ask those burning questions and have those long overdue
conversations.

Our Foundation is working to gather donors and resources to offset budget restrictions that keep the
departments from upgrading their resources, staff, vehicles, etc. Our primary function is to be members
of the community, active in bringing the community together. The biggest ask from the departments
was, “How can we meet our community on their turf?”

Both Chiefs are from Travelers Rest and know this community from when it was a 1500 person
“township” to it’s current growth machine status.

I would ask every Travelers Rest resident or vested community member who is reading: “What are you
willing to offer to support and promote your TR community… to influence and recognize those who are
already positively influencing?” Our first responders have earned our support and we should do all we
can to lift them up!

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