Join us on March 17th for our March lunch and learn! We will have 3 professors from the FMU School of Business that will be speaking about graduate opportunities available for Young Professionals in the area!
For more information, click here.
Register now to attend the City of Florence Spring Break Camp scheduled for April 18 – 22. Camp will take place from 8:00 am – 5:00 pm. Youth & teen camps available. $26 covers the week long camp as well as breakfast & lunch.
For more information, click here.
To help address the extremely critical need for blood donations, we have partnered with the American Red Cross of South Carolina, Victors, and the Greater Florence Chamber to host a blood drive in Downtown Florence at Victors on April 26th.
You can go ahead and sign up for your time to donate now at https://www.redcrossblood.org/give.html/drive-results….
Through an initiative made possible through the American Rescue Plan Act, HopeHealth, and TogetherSC recently launched a series of conversations with community leaders to address partnership needs and identify the critical social determinants of health conditions impacting the people they serve.
After several Zoom gatherings, more than 50 nonprofit representatives recently gathered at the Bean Market in Lake City for meaningful conversations about how we can best serve the citizens of Lower Florence and Williamsburg Counties.
To read the full story, click here.
Both bodies of the South Carolina General Assembly introduced legislation this week that penalizes Russia following last week’s invasion of Ukraine and continued military operations against the Ukrainian people. Members of both the House and Senate filed legislation that would divest the state’s public retirement funds from any assets owned or controlled by Russia and prevents the SC Retirement System from investing in any assets that are owned or controlled by Russia. Sen. Minority Leader Brad Hutto (D-Orangeburg), who also introduced a bill condemning the invasion, was quoted as saying “We can’t stand by and watch this take place without speaking up.”
The House bill also prevents the South Carolina Department of Commerce from offering or rewarding economic development incentives to any company that is at least 50% owned by an entity that is a subsidiary of the Russian Government. Members of the House also introduced legislation that would prevent retailers from selling any liquor that was manufactured or produced in Russia.
South Carolina joins a growing list of states that have taken action to divest their pension funds from Russian assets, to ban Russian alcohol and other Russian goods, and to assess other financial penalties.
Lighthouse Ministries 22nd Annual BBQ Fundraiser will be held the week of March 21st through March 25th from 11:00 am – 8:00 pm at Holt Bros BBQ in Florence. BBQ plates can be enjoyed by picking up, dining in, or driving thru at Holt Bros BBQ in Florence.
This week long event helps to raise funds to help families in Florence County who are struggling to meet their basic needs. Tickets are $10 and include BBQ, sweet potatoes, green beans, slaw, and hushpuppies.
Tickets can be purchased on our website at lighthouseflorence.org/events or at Holt Bros BBQ in Florence the week of the event.
The Greater Florence Chamber of Commerce’s 2022 Building Bridges Leadership and Diversity Summit will take place from 9:00 a.m – 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 14 at the SiMT on the campus of Florence-Darlington Technical College. Event sponsors include Assurant, Duke Energy, Florence-Darlington Technical College and Spherion Staffing. This year’s featured speaker is Kelvin Waites, Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion for the City of Myrtle Beach. The cost is $30 per person or $25 per person for groups of 5 or more, which includes continental breakfast and lunch. To attend, register here.
Applications for the 2022-2023 Junior Leadership of Florence County are available on our website at https://www.jrleadershipflorencecounty.com/. Current 9th and 10th grade public, private and home-schooled students who live in, or attend school in Florence County, are eligible to apply. The deadline is March 31st.
Downtown Florence was selected by a national group of Main Street professionals as one of eight semifinalists for the 2022 Great American Main Street Award, according to city officials.
The eight finalists have brought in more than half-a-billion dollars of investments, created more than 3,000 jobs and opened nearly 850 new businesses since their programs began, city officials said in a press release.
Florence is the first accredited Main Street community in South Carolina to be designated as a semifinalist for the award, according to Jenny Boulware, South Carolina’s Main Street coordinator.
“As the first Accredited Main Street community in South Carolina to achieve Great American Main Street Award semi-finalist designation, Florence’s remarkable 10-year downtown transformation is now celebrated on a national platform,” Boulware said in a press release. “With one of the most cooperative leadership teams in the state, this recognition reinforces Florence’s intentional and thoughtful downtown development accomplishments.”
Criteria for winning the award include strength of the Main Street program in spurring community transformation; commitment to historic preservation; innovative programming; implementation of cross-sector partnerships; community outreach and stakeholder engagement; and commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, the city’s news release said.
Winners will be announced on May 16 at the Main Street Now conference in Richmond, Va.
Everybody who files an income tax return in South Carolina — even the more than 1 million people who pay no state income tax — would get a rebate check of at least $100 in a bill being considered by the state Senate.
A subcommittee sent the rebates to the full Senate Finance Committee on Thursday. They make up about half of a $2 billion package that would also cut the top income tax rate from 7% to 5.7%.
The Senate proposal doubles the money put into tax cuts by the House, which unanimously passed its own tax package without a rebate last week.
To read the full story, click here.
