Memory’s comments on
fundraisers is stunning

We’re not sure where Commissioner Bill Memory was coming from when he jumped all over an attempt by Food Lion to raise money for school supplies for Whiteville Primary School.

Memory was critical of jars placed near cash registers to collect loose change and bills designated for Primary.

Memory’s comment, “I think the boards of education - we give them enough money that they don’t have to put out collection cups” was either a momentary lapse from reality or a case of speaking before thinking.

Ask most any teacher and they’ll tell you they have to pony up their own money for simple school supplies. Books go unbought, science experiments can’t be done because there’s nothing to experiment with, teachers’ supplements lag. The list goes on and on.

We’re not going to pontificate on the importance of education. Everyone knows that a sound education is absolutely critical whether a young person succeeds or fails in life.

Will a few dollars thrown into a jar at Food Lion save our schools? Of course not, but God bless any business, and there are scores and scores of them, that make it a point to contribute money or hold fundraisers to help our underfunded schools.

Few people genuinely want to buy boxes of doughnuts week after week sold for school fundraisers, but we do it with smiles on our faces because we know it goes to a good cause.

Memory could better spend his time contemplating how the commissioners can be better partners with the schools to improve education rather than railing against honest efforts to help support them.