Montessori School Joins the Florence Chamber

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The Montessori School of Florence held a ribbon cutting on Tuesday, November 9th celebrating joining the Greater Florence Chamber of Commerce. Joining in the celebration were members of the school board, Chamber staff and ambassadors.  The Montessori School of Florence was established in 1976. It moved into its present location at 510 W. Palmetto St. in 1999, said Elizabeth Kahn, Director.  Kahn said it is the only totally Montessori school in Florence.  About 140 students attend the school in grades 2K through six. There are 17 teachers and assistants at the school. Kahn has been director since July.

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Crawford Capital Investments Joins the Florence Chamber

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Crawford Capital Investments, investing in homes, families and communities, held a ribbon cutting in the James Allen Plaza behind the Greater Florence Chamber of Commerce on Thursday, November 4th celebrating its membership in the Chamber.  Cutting the ribbon was owner Gia Crawford. She was surrounded by her husband, Kendric Crawford, Co-Owner; their two children; his father, Daryl Crowner of Marion; Brooke Laughridge, Team Member; and Chamber staff and ambassadors.  Crawford Capital Investments primarily invests in real estate, said Gia Crawford. She said they invest in homes and neighborhood revitalization.  The Crawfords have been in business about a year and work out of their home. They are both graduates of Francis Marion University. Gia is a native of Charleston, and Kendric is a native of Marion. They moved back to the area from Virginia to transition into the Florence market with a goal of making a difference in the community.

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Florence Rotary Club Joins Chamber and Celebrates with Ribbon Cutting

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The Florence Rotary Club cut the ribbon and joined the Chamber at the beginning of its meeting Monday, November 8th at Victors. Club members were joined by Chamber staff and ambassadors at the event.  The club, established in February 1920, and celebrated its centennial February 2020, said Ashley Christenbury, Club President.  Major projects undertaken by the club include the Beauty Trail in Florence, Christmas Shopping project, Christmas bell ringing for the Salvation Army, Forget Me Not 5K, Dictionary Project, RIDDE, and the donation of $10,000 plus to local community non-profits each year.  The club has 129 active and honorary members.

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Christina O’Malley Receives Awards from NAACP and Woman to Woman Conference

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Christina O’Malley, MUSC Health Florence Division Director of Development and Senior Manager, has won two awards.  The hospital announced Tuesday, November 2nd that O’Malley had received a community service award from the Marion County Branch of the NAACP and certificate of special appreciation from the South Carolina Woman to Woman Conference.  O’Malley said she was honored to receive the awards and added that MUSC Health is deeply committed to partner with its communities to eliminate disparities and improve access to health care.  The NAACP award was given to O’Malley for her inspiration to the people of Florence and Marion counties and for being a “truly professional, caring community leader.”  Marion County Branch President Marvin Hemingway said it was a pleasure to honor O’Malley.

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Florence-Darlington Tech Lands $3 million Grant to Help Underserved Students

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Florence-Darlington Technical College recently received $3 million in grant funding from the U.S. Department of Education to launch the Pathways to a Brighter Future Program.  The new grant-funded program will build on previous programs to improve the college’s capacity to expand services to address the needs of minority and underserved student populations.  The Pathways to a Brighter Future Program will work with other school programs — such as Upward Bound and the Dual Enrollment Program — to serve high school students to identify and recruit Pathways students.  It will also focus on helping students’ complete credentials in STEM and healthcare programs. Intensive tutoring, counseling, advising, mentoring, targeted workshops and other student and academic services will be provided as well.

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Anderson Brothers Bank on Hoffmeyer Road Joins the Chamber

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Anderson Brothers Bank held a ribbon cutting at its Hoffmeyer Road location in Florence on Thursday, November 4th celebrating its membership in the Greater Florence Chamber of Commerce.  This branch opened in November 2020, said Jamie Carsten, commercial loan officer and vice president at Anderson Brothers Bank.  “This is our third location in Florence,” he said.  The branch is at 2001 Hoffmeyer Road. Carsten said the Hoffmeyer location is temporary. Plans are to build on Evans Street between Popeye’s and Burger King.

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Kimberly Patrick Photography Opens Studio in Lamar

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A ribbon cutting was held Wednesday, November 3rd in Lamar at Kimberly Patrick Photography studio. Owner Kimberly Patrick celebrated joining the Greater Florence Chamber of Commerce and opening her new studio. Chamber staff and ambassadors joined in the celebration. The studio is at 179 Lorans Drive in Lamar.  Patrick is a family photographer who specializes in newborn, baby, children and family portraiture.  “I have been taking pictures all of my life,” Patrick said.  She said it gives her great joy celebrating and capturing special moments of growing families and the people they love through the art of photography. She has been a professional photographer since 2014.

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Project Urban Square to Move Forward

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Florence is getting ready to move forward on Project Urban Square.  On the agenda for the 2 p.m. Wednesday, November 3rd meeting of the Florence Design Review Board are the requests for certificates of appropriateness to construct the apartment building and the parking deck parts of the project.  Project Urban Square is a $60 million agreement between the city and Styx Land Development to bring an apartment building, hotel, townhomes, office space, a parking garage and a mini-park in the block bordered by West Evans, Coit, McQueen and N.B. Baroody streets.

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Unemployment Insurance Tax Rate Won’t Go Up in 2022

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South Carolina’s unemployment insurance tax rates for employers will decrease or remain unchanged for 2022. The S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce announced last week that they would not need to raise any rates after the General Assembly used COVID relief funds to replenish the state’s Unemployment Insurance (UI) Trust Fund.  The UI fund now has a balance of approximately $1.19 billion, which allowed the state to avoid federal loans and interest payments. As a result, the state will set tax year 2022 rates to raise approximately the same revenue as 2021 and 2020. The state will also not require any solvency surcharge due to the sufficiently high trust fund balance.  Tax rate notices will be mailed to businesses on Friday, November 12, but employers can log into their State Unemployment Insurance Tax System (SUITS) account beginning Nov. 5 to see their 2022 tax rate. A guide showing how to access this rate can be found here. Click here to view the 2022 tax rate chart.

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Elon Musk Offers to Fulfill David Beasley’s Request That Billionaires Do More to Prevent Hunger

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The world’s richest man has responded to World Food Program Executive Director David Beasley’s call to fight hunger.  A Darlington County native and former governor of South Carolina, Beasley was featured in a CNN article Saturday where he said the world’s richest people should do more to fight hunger. He made a very similar call as the keynote speaker at the annual Greater Florence Chamber of Commerce Membership Luncheon in September.  The headline of the article quoted Beasley as saying 2% or $6 billion of Space X founder and CEO and Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s $292 billion net worth could solve world hunger.  A screenshot of the article was tweeted by Dr. Eli David, Ph.D. with a fact check that said the World Food Program raised $8.4 billion in 2020 – roughly 43% of this funding comes from the United States – and that these funds did not solve world hunger.

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