Sargent Chiropractic Clinic was named Mauldin "Business of the Year" Tuesday night by the Mauldin Rotary Club at its annual banquet.
In addition, the Rotary also named David Terry it's Policeman of the Year, and Gabe Mull as Fireman of the Year.
As about 60 local Rotarians looked on, past-president Jon Whitehead cited Dr. Jared Sargent's selfless giving of his time and resources not only to grow a successful business, but to give back to his community in numerous ways — everything from Sargent's regular community blood drives to his recent efforts to raise money and supplies for victims of Hurricane Sandy in his native New Jersey.
"We know how hard it is to give away our time," said Whitehead, who also noted Sargent's role as team chiropractor for the Greenville Road Warriors hockey team. "Time is our livelihood. So tonight we honor a businessman who freely gives his time away and pours a lot back into the community."
Whitehead noted that after Sandy struck the northeast, Sargent not only marshaled money and supplies for storm-stricken victims, but also closed down his business for several days so that he could personally deliver the aid and supplies himself.
"I just found out about this last week and I thought it was a qute an honor," Sargent said. "I also want to say thank you to my wife. She puts up with an awful lot of stuff from me. Who wakes up one morning and says, 'Hey, I'm going to to drive into a Nor'easter because I've got this truck all packed with stuff, so I'm going to drive it into a blizzard because it seems like a good idea to go help the folks we grew up with?'"
He added: "We're from New Jersey originally; South Carolina is home to us and we love it, and Mauldin has been an absolutely fantastic place to open an office. April will be our fifth year and it's just been a lot of fun."
"Mauldin has been such a great place for me, and it's been a pleasure to be involved in the community," Sargent told Patch. "My wife and I talk regularly how about how we feel we're more connected to the Mauldin community even though we don't live there. My office is there, but we live in Greenville and we spend a majority of our time [in Mauldin]. It's a great community and a really good business climate. From a business perspective, I couldn't imagine having my office anywhere else."
In addition to the honors Tuesday night, the Rotary also heard from fellow Rotarians Sara Mansbach and Patrick Gue about the organization's literacy efforts in Haiti, especially the mountain village of Cange.
The island nation, the Western Hemisphere's poorest, also has the hemisphere's worst literacy rate, Mansbach said. Through Rotary's efforts, however, great strides have ben made in improving the lot of school children through the creation of a library, the training of teachers, and providing books for children for their very own, in both French and the their native Kreyol (or Creole) language.
"These children have never had any books in their homes in their lives," Mansbach said.
"When you don't have a lot of things, the small things mean a lot," said Gue.
To help continue the Haitian literacy effort, Mauldin Rotary presented Mansbach and Gue a check for $2,000.
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Sargent Chiropractic Named Business of the Year by Maudin Rotary
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