The Leflore County Board of Supervisors approved a $7,500 donation to the Fannie Lou Hamer Cancer Foundation during its Monday meeting.
The foundation, a Ruleville-based organization that was started in 2004, is a nonprofit devoted to the eradication of cancer in the Mississippi Delta.
It offers educational, support, research and advocacy services for the prevention of cancer. The group takes its name from Fannie Lou Hamer, an activist for voting, women’s rights and civil rights, who died of complications of heart disease and breast cancer at the age of 60 in 1977.
In a letter to the supervisors, Freddie White-Johnson, the founder and president of the organization, said the donation would greatly help the nonprofit in its mission.
“Together we can make a difference in the fight against cancer in Leflore County,” the letter read.
The board, which had budgeted to give a donation to the group earlier this year, voted unanimously to award it $7,500.
In other business, the board also approved hiring authority to Justice Court Clerk Martha Howard in the court’s search for an American Sign Language interpreter.
Howard, who spoke to the board on Monday night, said she was searching for someone who could help with an upcoming court appearance of a defendant who has a hearing impediment and has requested assistance. Howard added that ideally the interpreter would also be versed in Spanish to help with translating if that need arises.
She said that, from her search so far, she has found only personnel in Jackson and Tupelo but hopes to find a more local professional who could be easier to reach in the future.
•Contact Adam Bakst at 581-7233 or abakst@gwcommonwealth.com. On Twitter at @AdamBakst_GWCW.
