Palmer Home Receives Hefty Donation From Red Hills Mine

Palmer Home Donation

COLUMBUS, Miss. (Press Release) — Palmer Home for Children received 184 bales of top quality Bermuda grass hay and a donation of $4,500 towards the purchase of a 4-horse trailer for the organization’s horseback riding program from Red Hills Mine.

The Red Hills Mine (RHM) is owned and operated by the Mississippi Lignite Mining Company, a subsidiary of The North American Coal Corporation. The annual coal production from RHM is approximately 3.6 million tons-per-year and requires the mining and reclamation of approximately 100 acres of land annually. State and federal mine regulations require RHM to grow a crop on the reclaimed prime farmland to prove that it is as productive as it was prior to mining.

RHM delivered 184 bales of Bermuda grass hay to Palmer Home. Each bale weighs around 1,100 pounds and is valued at $50 per bale — making the hay donation worth the equivalent of $9,200 alone. Additionally, the company donated $4,500 to be used for the purchase of a 4-horse trailer for the Palmer Home equestrian program.

“Instead of selling this year, we found charities we could donate our hay to. Palmer Home was one of four different groups to receive hay,” says Rebecca McGraw, Environmental Manager of Red Hills Mine. “We work with a contact nearby who is tied into several charity groups in one way or another. He found out Palmer Home needed additional hay and it was just one of those things that came together and worked out.”

Palmer Home for Children’s Columbus campus currently has 12 horses and 23 students in its horseback riding program. “The children that ride here at Palmer Home form friendships with the horses that don’t happen outside the stable,” says Pam Cunningham, riding instructor at Palmer Home. “Each child that rides is responsible for the care and feeding of one special horse. This gives them a sense a responsibility they wouldn’t experience otherwise.” The financial donation allowed Palmer Home to purchase a 4-horse trailer to help students in the program attend equestrian activities off campus.

For more information, please contact Katharine Hewlett. She can be reached at khewlett@palmerhome.org or 662-328-5704 ext. 166.

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