TPC Raises Disaster Funds
At the opening meeting of its new calendar year, the Textile Professional Club (TPC), an association of financial and legal consultants and agencies, donated $1,000 to the rescue effort in New York. The check, drawn from the club’s funds, will hopefully encourage its members to follow suit, according to Robert Prather, the club’s treasurer.
“This is a good way to try and make a statement that we’re behind the rescue workers out there,” Prather said. “Some people haven’t given simply because they don’t know how to. We wanted to give them an opportunity. We want to be an example.”
At the meeting, Prather called on the membership to donate to the rescue fund and said that the plan is to continue to collect funds at every club meeting and event.
The TPC will continue to keep its members abreast of what the rescue efforts’ needs are so that they, instead of the club, can make donations, realizing that the club is limited by its budget, according to Prather.
Vice president R. Doug Smith emphasized that in addition to simply wanting to contribute, some of TPC’s membership wanted to help out because the cause touched them on a more personal level.
“A lot of the roots of the club—the credit guys—are from New York,” he said. “Since the ’70s, that’s been the roots of the club, and even Tom [Sullivan, the club’s current president] is from New York.”
The TPC’s most recent meeting was its first event with a new group of board members. Its calendar year starts in September and ends in June, with a break over the summer.
“The club is a very good resource for new people to know the players in the industry and for friends to come together,” said Prather.
The club was established in 1958 and “still stands as a great networking opportunity for factories, CPAs, bankers, attorneys, accountants, collection agencies, insurance agencies and any other professional service that works within the apparel industry from the outside,” Smith said. —Darryl James
