fsg2 More than 300 boxes full of goods from Bermuda were shipped last week to a South Carolina town where 40 percent of children live in poverty.

And the enormous generosity of local families astounded the woman who organised the drive, local artist Joan Aspinall. "Bermudians are so generous as a nation,'' she said. "Even after the container was sealed up they kept dropping off donations. In the end we had to put an announcement on the radio so they would stop. I don't think there is another nation in the world where people are willing to give so much. I am so very proud of the Bermudian people.

"If anyone doubts kindness, love and a wonderful communication between the races, they should spend a day filling a container -- a moving experience.'' Mrs. Aspinall set up Stewardship for People in Need (SPIN) after stumbling on the "almost third world'' community during a recent winter work retreat at the nearby resort town of Pawleys Island.

"I was horrified, it just hits you in the face. It's one of the worst hit areas by poverty in the United States but although they spend their holiday less than 100 miles away, tourists very rarely see it,'' she said.

"Families live in these dilapidated, sagging wooden structures. You can't even call them houses, they look like old mules sagging down so much and offering no protection.'' She said soon after the summer death of Mrs. Annette Fairbanks Gibbons whom she greatly admired, she decided to do "something positive'' and to dedicate it to "one of the kindest, gentlest women that ever lived''.

All the goods donated are on the way to Kingstree's St. Ann's Outreach Centre -- where the poor and more than 80 children are helped each day.

The Somers Isle Shipping Company offered to send the container.

Now Mrs. Aspinall is looking to the public to donate about $800 in cash to get the container trucked from Jacksonville, Florida where it will land, to Kingstree and for a US customs broker. She said it seemed Bermudians understood the concept of giving and everyone had time, resources or talents to offer.

The congregations of the AME and Peace Lutheran Churches contributed parcels of children's clothing and merchandise.

"Right till the end parcels were still being left under the container. When I closed the doors for the last time, every square foot was filled.'' The housekeeping department at the Canadian Pacific Hamilton Princess Hotel donated more than 60 sheets, 37 pillows and many blankets.

Schools and charities also contributed "huge quantities'' of clothing and household items, but the main suppliers were families. She said Kingstree was in Williamsburg County which had roughly the same population count and racial proportions as Bermuda but the annual per capita income was just $7,000 rather than Bermuda's $47,000.