Open house brings hundreds to downtown Florence

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By: Andrew Boardwine, Moring News

FLORENCE, S.C. — Hundreds of Pee Dee residents visited downtown Florence Thursday evening to “shop, dine and unwind.”

In partnership with the Greater Florence Chamber of Commerce and many downtown businesses, the Downtown Development Corporation hosted a “Downtown Open House” that gave residents a chance to see the changes and progress in the downtown area.

Bob Sager, retail recruitment specialist with the Florence Downtown Development Corporation, said the event was a way to bring awareness of what’s going on downtown.

“We had an event similar to this a couple of years ago and it went really well,” Sager said. “We decided it was time to do it again. Back then, we had a lot of businesses opening and, since, we’ve had a lot more open. I think it’s a good thing for everybody.”

Each attendee of the event arrived at the chamber and was given a “passport” to take to each participating location. At the locations, they had their passport stamped and checked out what each store had to offer. After completing their passport, participants returned them to any restaurant to be entered to win $250 cash.

The first 100 attendees received a free Downton Florence tote bag filled with items from downtown shops and restaurants. Several attendees also won retail gift cards for downtown businesses.

Mike Miller, president of the Greater Florence Chamber of Commerce, said he expects even greater things to happen downtown in the future.

“It’s important to everybody in the community,” Miller said. “So much happens downtown. Within a week, two weeks, things change. It’s amazing what it’s going to be in six months. Some of these stores are doing quite well and people still don’t know about many of them. Any opportunity to help with the Downtown Development folks, the chamber is right on it as we would with anyone else. We’re celebrating the growth of downtown and we’re nowhere near the end.”

Sager said that he has organized groups with the downtown businesses. Through that, he said, he learned that many people are visiting downtown that haven’t been in years.

Sager said there could be plans in the near future for retail shops to stay open later one night a week.

“There are still a lot of people in Florence that haven’t been downtown,” Sager said. “We want our businesses to say that they’re meeting new customers. Events like these are really a great way to showcase what downtown has to offer. Downtown is a place you can go to shop, dine and unwind.”

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Lutheran Services helps children, families involved in foster care

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By: Andrew Boardwine, Morning News

FLORENCE, S.C. — The Pee Dee branch of Lutheran Services Carolinas joined ambassadors from the Greater Florence Chamber of Commerce Thursday morning to hold a ribbon cutting.

Lutheran Services Carolinas is a nonprofit health and human service organization and social ministry in both South and North Carolina. The organization provides foster care, as well as training and support to those transitioning out of foster care.

Michele Thomson, regional manager, said the mission of the organization is to serve children and families in South Carolina.

“We get referrals from all over the state for kids that are in need of foster care and we can’t place them,” Thomson said. “We have kids that are sitting in DSS offices overnight. They’re having to pay for hotel rooms for kids to stay in- with supervision of course- because they don’t have a foster home to go to.”

Thomson said the licensing process is tough and many kids have a hard time finding a good fit, especially as they grow older.

“It’s tough to find good matches with homes and parents that understand what this child has been through, but still are willing to give it a chance and try to help them work through those issues,” Thomson said. “We want to train and license those foster parents and help the kids.”

Though the organization is partnered with the Lutheran Church, a foster parent or volunteer does not have to be Lutheran. All foster parents are provided training with support groups and are provided 24/7 supervision with a lead clinical specialist. A recruiter will assist a family in the process to become licensed and compensation is provided at a daily rate for the child placed in a foster home.

Thomson said her passion for helping with foster kids comes from her own child.

“I have a child of my own,” Thomson said. “She’s 15 and I look at her every day and I look at her life and I compare it. When I look at these kids, I look at them having those same possibilities if we can put some things in place for them to get there. These kids are our future.”

Jean Keefe, director of transitional living, said she is designing a program for young adults exiting foster care from the ages of 18 to 21 that will start in October.

“They can stay in foster care until they’re 21,” Keefe said. “Many of them come to us as teenagers and they’ve been moved from home to home and by the time they get to us, they’re tired of it and they just want to be done. After 18, they have to sign themselves back into foster care, but some of them are so tired of it, they quit and, unfortunately, many of them end up homeless. I’ve put together a program called the ‘after care program.’ Basically, we try to find them housing, get funding for them to go to college if that’s what they want, help them find jobs. Whatever they see as a need for themselves, that’s what we try to help with.”

Keefe said that foster parents are asked to become an advocate for the child and provide a safe and nurturing living environment for them.

“I started out in DSS and back then people were just starting to think about preparing these kids for independent living when they leave foster care,” Keefe said. “I just watched kids make mistakes and it’s just a passion for me to get them off the street and to truly be able to help them.”

For more information on how to get involved or become a foster parent, contact Amy McColl at 843-487-7225 or email her at amccoll@lscarolinas.net.

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All Saints’ Episcopal Day School Young Ambassadors Club meets with the Florence Chamber

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The Greater Florence Chamber staff had the pleasure of talking to the All Saints’ Episcopal Day School Young Ambassadors Club a few weeks ago. They were a very attentive group of young individuals. Thanks for visiting the Chamber of Commerce and asking so many questions about our county.

Florence’s new soccer, basketball facilities just the start

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FLORENCE, S.C. — When it comes to recreational sports facilities, it’s all about keeping up, and even surpassing, for Florence these days.

That’s why in recent months a new soccer facility and a new basketball gym have opened, and Florence isn’t about to stop there, according to city of Florence recreation division manager Darlene Buchanan.

There is a good deal of open space out where the Dr. Eddie Floyd Florence Tennis Center is off of North Cashua Drive, and there are plans to use it for a new track and a baseball and softball complex.

It might not seem all that long ago that Freedom Florence was opened. At that time, it was state of the art, but it’s almost three decades old.

The facility still holds its own hosting baseball and softball tournaments, as well as high school cross country meets, and it had an economic impact of approximately $10 million last year, Buchanan said.

But, “Florence is competing with the Myrtle Beaches, North Myrtle Beaches, Rock Hills and Charlottes and places like that,” Buchanan said. “We have to continue to look at ways to improve our facilities.”

The newest facility to open is the basketball center at the Barnes Street Gym. The basketball center was dedicated in April and named after former Francis Marion University great and Florence native Pearl Moore.

The basketball center, located at 500 Barnes St., is roughly 31,525 square feet in size and includes three full-size basketball courts, an area for concessions and office space for staff.

The center will serve as home to the Florence Youth Basketball League, travel basketball tournaments and the Pee Dee Picklers, a local pickleball team. Buchanan said the local semi-pro basketball team, the Florence Wildcats, also will call the gym home in the future.

The city’s new $7 million soccer complex, off U.S. 76 near I-95, opened in mid-February. It contains 14 soccer fields. Eight are regulation-size fields, two are lighted championship-style fields and four are regulation practice fields.

There’s still work to be done at the facility, Buchanan said. There are plans for about a 6,000-square-foot building that will serve as a concession stand, restrooms, storage, meeting space and office staff that might be assigned to that location.

As far as development on the land at the tennis center, the track is first up, Buchanan said. A year ago, officials had to cap the track program because the athletes-to-coaches ratio was too high. But Buchanan said she thinks a new track facility will help attract more athletes and more volunteers to coach.

“We don’t want to turn any kid away,” she said. “And I think we’ll get a renewed interest from adults wanting to get involved. Everybody likes to be involved in something new.”

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