AUGUSTA, Georgia (WJBF) – Thursday, June 9th was a big day for the Exchange Club of Augusta as the club awarded its annual collected donations to different local non-profits.
Today also saw the awarding of the Exchange Club’s Ronnie Strength Award, which is named for the former sheriff.
The current Sheriff of Richmond County Richard Roundtree, who chose the recipient, announced the winner – this year, the Sheriff chose the Jessye Norman School of the Arts to receive this special honor and an additional $5,000 in donations.
The school was unaware that they would be receiving the award.
Gary Dennis, Executive Director for the Jessye Normal School of the Arts, accepted the Ronnie Strength Award for the school, and told WJBF the art non-profit’s plans to use the donation for good.
“It’ going to help us pay for one of the seven summer camps that we are delivering to folks free of charge this year,” Director Dennis says. “We’ll serve more than 400 students at no cost to them or their parents through the course of this year and this is going a long way to help toward that.”
This year, the Club handed out more than $100,000 in donations raised from the Georgia-Carolina State Fair and Augusta Charity Classic.
