Fred Anderson Toyota of Greer awarded the Forrester Center for Behavioral Health $20,000 as a part of their October Drive for a Difference.
Drive for a Difference is an annual event held in the last few months of the year that aims to give back to local organizations and charities. A new organization is selected each month, and for the month of October, the Forrester Center’s Greer location was chosen.
“The Andersons have always been a giving-back-to-the-community type of family,” said John Azzarelli, General Manager at Fred Anderson Toyota. “Giving to charities that help people get out of tough times is the biggest satisfaction.”
Jamison Smith, Interim CEO of the Forrester Center, says that the funds will be used to help financially support clients who may need assistance with their copays.
“We’re very grateful for that, because it's a big need in every community,” Smith said. He mentioned how, when he first got the phone call about the donation, he had thought one of his coworkers was pulling a prank.
The Forrester Center originally began as the Spartanburg Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission, a County-appointed authority starting in the 1970s. The group changed its name to the Forrester Center in 2016 and began doing outreach work in Greer in 2021.
In the beginning, the group would come out once-a-week to provide services at Daily Bread Ministries, focusing on delivering Suboxone and Narcan to the community. These are medications that help prevent opioid abuse and overdose.
Now, the Greer office offers adult treatment services for all substances on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, with hopes to provide treatment more frequently in the near future. The center offers both medical and non-medical therapies to their clients in an effort to address all of the driving factors behind the addiction.
Substance use treatment, Smith says, is commonly stereotyped. Several members of the Forrester Center’s Greer team agree, noting that there are a lot of misconceptions about treatment.
“There’s a stigma about it, and about the medication,” said Ricky Ponder, the program coordinator for the Greer office. “But I've seen it work in people's lives. They’re living, productive members of society.”
Christy Hood, the clinical counselor at the Greer location, echoed Ponder’s statement.
“Some of them will come in, and the stability they have in their life is just unimaginable,” said Hood. “We’ve seen them come in, get stable on their medication [and] start working on some things that they need to improve in their lives.”
Both Hood and Ponder are in long-term recovery from addiction, something that helps them better connect with clients. Hood emphasized the value of treatment in her and many others lives, noting how access to care and medication can make a lasting difference.
“We are very passionate about the community we serve because we have been where they're at,” she said. “[It] is saving lives. It really is. I've seen it firsthand.”
To learn more about the Forrester Center, visit their website or call (864) 582-7588. The Forrester Center’s Greer Outreach Location is located in the Greer Relief Building at 113 Berry Ave.
For more information on Fred Anderson Toyota or the Anderson Automotive Group, visit their websites. More information on the Drive for a Difference can be found here.
Follow Breanna Laws on X @GreerByBreanna
