SUMTER, S.C. — Cars were lining up in Sumter all day Tuesday to shred documents for free. It helps residents dispose of sensitive information safely.
“I had a bunch of material and mail that needed to be shredded and been sitting in my shed for years,” Sumter resident Daniel Kiernan says.
Kiernan tells me he has been meaning to get rid of the pile of papers growing everyday. Then he found out about a free shredding event at Sumter County Civic Center.
“It gives you peace of mind that it's being properly done,” Kiernan shares. “You're not gonna have to worry about your money, your personal information being out there somewhere, so it helps you sleep at night.”
That’s what SAFE Federal Credit Union is hoping for, which hosted the free drive-thru with help from Shred360.
“They come out, they shred it securely and you're on your way,” Britney Singleton, the research and communications specialist for SAFE’s marketing department, explains.
Singleton says it’s common for people to hold onto documents like insurance documents, bank statements and credit card information.
“You think we live in a digital age but there's people that really have a lot of paper documents that have that sensitive information on it,” Singleton details. “And if it gets in the wrong hands, then you're looking at possible financial fraud, and we want to prevent that and help people protect themselves.”
According to the most recent report from the South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs, there were more than 400 reports of fraud in 2021 with the top two categories being financial, like opening new credit cards under someone else’s name, and government ID theft, such as tax fraud.
To help avoid that, dozens of cars lined up to get rid of their documents without even having to get out of the car.
“My wife was saying, ‘Don't lift it yourself. You're gonna hurt your back,” Kiernan smiles. “And they did it for me. So this was great.”
While the shredding was free, SAFE was accepting donations for Liberty STEAM Charter School’s backpack program, which provides backpacks full of snacks for children to take home on the weekend.
“This partnership started last year with SAFE Federal Credit Union coming in to teach financial literacy classes for an entire week, five straight lessons from the Junior Achievement curriculum to our kindergarten, first grade and second grade scholars,” Liberty Executive Director Trevor Ivey says. “And then that conversation spurred some additional discussion about ways that it could be a two way partnership. And so one of the immediate needs that we have at Liberty is meeting our scholars where they are to make sure that their basic needs are taken care of. And so we have around 70 to 80 scholars that have a verified need for food on the weekends.”
For Ivey, seeing the community support the program is “heartwarming.”
SAFE has other free shredding events planned in Columbia on Oct. 7 and Camden on Nov. 14.