Alzheimer’s Family Services of Greater Beaufort was the recipient of a $2,500 donation from the Old Village Association of Port Royal.

Nancy Plank, president of the board of directors of OVA and owner of Smokin’ Planks Restaurant in Port Royal, said the board made the decision to donate to AFSGB because they always volunteer and support any activity the OVA hosts.

“We never have to ask; they are always there from before the event starts until after it ends,” she said. “They show up in their purple and work tirelessly. When we changed our festivals from being ticket-oriented to cash for food and beverages, they fell right in step with the change, making sure they had additional volunteers to handle the change. “

Eric Fennell, treasurer of OVA and director of Helena Place Assisted Living in Port Royal, added, “With the change to cash sales, several booths and vendors were having trouble always making change for their customers. but AFSGB was on top of that, always making change for other vendors and trying to help to make sure everyone always had what they needed.”

OVA hosts two major festivals a year, the OkterPRfest (to be held Saturday, Oct. 8) and the Softshell Crab Festival in April. Proceeds from both festivals help support economic development of businesses in Port Royal.

Alzheimer’s Family Services of Greater Beaufort is a local nonprofit providing education and support to area caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s. It holds two of its three Social Day programs in Port Royal as well as one of its support groups for caregivers.

Arlene Heape Hull, the Executive Director of AFSGB said they were “both surprised and grateful for the donation. We volunteer with OVA because it is the right thing to do. There are a lot of nonprofits in this area and we really need to all work to help each other out. We have fun working these festivals for OVA, and when we all show up in our purple shirts, we make a presence and help promote awareness of our agency. At the end of the day we are all tired and say we won’t do it again next year, but then we always do. We love it when we hear people call us the purple people!”

<em>Top photo: AFSGB's "Purple People" work the beer and wine tent at the 2016 Softshell Crab Festival.</em>