William R. Toler | Daily Journal Mary Beth Watts from BB&T puts a fan in the trunk of Shirley Little’s car at the Rockingham Senior Center Thursday as Cherri Adamson, left, and Martha Gardner look on.

ROCKINGHAM — To Shirley Little, the fan giveaway was “a blessing.”

“It’s for my husband,” she said after volunteers from BB&T loaded a fan and small air conditioner into the back of her car at the Rockingham Senior Center on Thursday.

Little takes care of her husband John, who is paralyzed with feeding tube after suffering a massive stroke, in their Hamlet home.

“My air conditioning went out,” she said, adding that she tried to turn it on a few weeks ago when the temperatures started to rise and “didn’t get anything.”

“You never realize how important it is till it goes out,” she said.

Little said she found out about the giveaway from Healthkeepers, the home health aid company that assists with her husband.

“Healthkeepers have been so beautiful for me and my husband,” she said. “They’re very good — very good.”

Little was just one of many seniors to pick up a fan.

Martha Gardner, branch manager for the BB&T locations in Rockingham an Ellerbe, said the company ordered a total of 80 fans and five air conditioners with the company’s Lighthouse Project.

She said 10 fans each were sent to the Rockingham and Ellerbe branches last week.

“We knew some of our customers that we see every day needed it,” she said.

The giveaway at the senior center started a 2 p.m. with 60 fans. Within the first half-hour, there were only 27 left.

“It was packed,” said Jacqueline Welch, executive director of the center.

Welch said the center has been giving out fans — 133 last year — since before she started nine years ago.

“We usually don’t get them this early,” she said, with Gardner chiming in that the timing “really works out” because of the past week’s heat.

Usually, Welch said, the center has to “beg” for people to donate them.

“But this year, we’ve been blessed,” she said.

Gardner added, “And BB&T was glad to do it.”

The small AC units, like the one taken home by Little, were given to those with no air conditioning or breathing problems.

Gardner suggested having more next year.

The bank’s Lighthouse Project started in 2009 and associates have volunteered more than 325,000 hours, according to a statement.

“The fans are what we chose this year,” Gardner said, as there is a different project every year.

Bank tellers and senior center staffers took fans to several county residents early in the evening.

“Not everybody has transportation,” Gardner said.

On the box of every fan given out was a flier promoting an upcoming scam prevention workshop.

The workshop — sponsored by Richmond County Aging Services, the Lumber River Council of Governments, the Hamlet Senior Center and North Carolina Department of Justice — will be 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Thursday, June 18 at Cole Auditorium.

According to the flier, seniors are often targeted because of their good credit, investments and retirement savings. The workshop will contain information on current scams and how to protect one’s identity and lunch will be provided.

Anyone wishing to attend should register by June 15 by calling 910-997-4491.

Reach reporter William R. Toler at 910-817-2675 and follow him on Twitter @William_r_Toler.