MONTGOMERY — Governor Ivey hosted a ceremony on Thursday afternoon in honor of the Sylacauga Alliance for Family Enhancement (SAFE) winning the Southeast region’s Chick-fil-A True Inspiration Award.

The True Inspiration Awards’ website describes the award as targeting organizations that are “working hard to make a lasting difference in the lives of children living in their local communities.”

SAFE is the first winner from the state of Alabama. Winning the award comes with a $75,000 grant. Chick-fil-A franchisee Micah Harris of Sylacauga said that SAFE was one of 22 True Inspiration recipients for 2020 and “one of the very few at the level” that receives such a large grant.

SAFE was chosen as the Southeast region’s winner from a field of finalists that included charities in Watkinsville, GA; Miami, FL; and Jacksonville, FL.

SAFE, which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, is a nonprofit in Sylacauga that aims to strengthen the community with a focus on families.

The executive director of SAFE, Margaret Morton, told Sylacauga News that the grant will go towards the group’s Workforce Ready program. She added that the grant “will give individuals more opportunities to be trained to get into the workforce, and give people more opportunity to have more value.”

Sylacauga has only had a Chick-fil-A since 2018. In her remarks at the ceremony on Thursday, Morton told the audience to much laughter that everyone in a 60-mile radius to Sylacauga thanked God that a franchise came to their community.

“Who would have thought that in less than a year our Chick-fil-A would have spearheaded the nomination for an award,” she added.

“Thank you to Chick-fil-a for supporting SAFE,” Ivey said in her conclusion, praising “the incredible work the Sylacauga Alliance for Family Enhancement is doing in their community and within our state.”

She added, “It’s impressive.”

Henry Thornton is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can contact him by email: henry@new-yhn.local or on Twitter @HenryThornton95.