On Friday, Sept. 24, celebrate ECCO's humble beginnings at its Hurricane Party and Anniversary Fundraiser in the Omar Shrine Temple in Mount Pleasant at 7 p.m. East Cooper Community Outreach has been helping their neighbors in need for more than 20 years.

They were founded in the aftermath of Hurricane Hugo when pockets of poverty throughout the East Cooper area were discovered.

Those communities that lived in poverty took a lot longer to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Hugo, and were impacted more harshly because of their living conditions.

Emergency needs such as food, clothing, and medical assistance were immediately set up through Christ our King Catholic church as the humble beginnings of ECCO. 20+ years later, we continue to be an ecumenical organization helping those in situational and generational poverty East of the Cooper and South of the Santee Basin.

They have grown into a 14,000 sq. foot facility, with state-of-the-art dental, medical, and prescription assistance clinics. ECCO continues to offer emergency food, clothing, and financial assistance for utilities.

Yet, their focus is to help their clients obtain the skills and resources they need to get out of poverty and lead sustainable and self-sufficient lives.

They now offer a myriad of educational programming such as GED classes, Getting Ahead classes (16-week workshop focused on identifying barriers in their lives and communities and focusing on the resources they have), financial literacy, basic computer skills, WorkKeys, and job readiness.

ECCO partners with many other local organizations to offer more programs like these to clients and house them at ECCO to make the center a one-stop shop for the resources they need, so they can spend more time on getting out of poverty and less time and money just trying to get by.

Top Five Reasons to be a Sponsor

1. East Cooper Community Outreach has a 20-year history of helping people in poverty. We are using that experience now to help people out of poverty.

2. Good P.R. for your business. People are known to patronize businesses that support local non-profits.

3. Publicity for your business or organization

4. Enhance your business credibility through a philanthropic partnership.

5. In 2009 we were able to provide 148,000 meals through our emergency food program.

We assisted almost500 people with emergency financial assistance, and had more than 350 people partake in our various education programs.

Be part of our vision to reduce poverty in our community. This year we hope to raise over $150,000 for our neighbors in need. $0 94 cents of every dollar we raise goes directly to programs and services for our neighbors in need.)