New Ebenezer Baptist Church will be hosting their annual “Resource Day” event July 27, 2024. This event brings local businesses and organizations together to empower the community through information about: mental health, homelessness, housing, jobs, food, clothing and so much more. The event is free to the public.
To view the full flyer, click here.
The Chamber’s Emerging Leaders Class of 2024 held their Technology, Innovation and Industry session on Wednesday, July 18th.
The group heard presentations, did informative tours and visited several sites, including: HillSouth, SiMT, Vulcraft and GE Healthcare.
Their next session is scheduled for July 24th.
To see more photos from the day, click here.
MUSC Health Florence’s inaugural class of eight residents gathered for lunch and a chance to meet hospital staff — the start of a long-term plan to increase the number of practicing primary care physicians in the Pee Dee.
“We are welcoming our internal medicine residents; we started our residency program this year, said Ribal Al Aridi, MD, program director for the medical center’s internal medicine residency program. “We recruited eight residents and we got a 100% match rate. This is our first group, our inaugural class and we are welcoming them to MUSC Florence.”
“We are excited to welcome this class of internal medicine residents dedicated to pursuing medical excellence and share our commitment to serving the diverse health care needs of rural and underserved regions,” she said. “We matched with individuals who understand the profound impact they can have on improving health care access and outcomes for our community.”
To read the full story, click here.
Cars and airplanes immediately come to mind when people think about manufacturing in South Carolina. Yet, sitting in the heart of Florence is one of the world’s largest sites for designing, developing, and manufacturing Magnetic Resonance (MR) systems that are used around the world. Indeed, we are a destination for skilled workers who produce some of healthcare’s most innovative technologies, made right here in the PeeDee region.
Our SIGNA MR technologies play an important role in patient care globally. MR systems deliver high-quality medical imaging used to help diagnose, identify, and detect disease by taking detailed images of the body, including organs, bones, muscles, and blood vessels. Whether a loved one requires cancer imaging or your child with a football injury needs a scan to check for a concussion, an estimated 200 million patients around the world receive MR imaging annually.
To read the full story, click here.
Jason Faulkner, Coastal Division President, Sonya Schaffer, Coastal Sales Manager, Mike Cassady, Division Construction Manager, Christy Roth, New Home Specialist Chris Close, Area Manager, Calli Benson, Marketing Coordinator Great Southern Homes along with Chamber Ambassadors cut their ribbon opening up a new home at 1245 N. Price Road in Florence.
Great Southern Homes (GSH), a subsidiary of United Homes Group (UHG), is a publicly traded residential builder headquartered in Columbia, South Carolina. Established in 2004, GSH has constructed more than 14,000 homes and counting. The company operates and builds new-home communities located across South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia. We believe in stylish, quality-built homes for today’s growing families at affordable prices. After all, it’s not only a new home, but also an important investment for you and your family. UHG has been recognized as the 2024 Builder of the Year by BUILDER Magazine.
To read the full story, click here.
McLeod Health is pleased to announce that Beth O’Laire has been named Vice President of Human Resources Operations for McLeod Health.
O’Laire comes to McLeod from Ascension in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she served as Market Chief HR Executive. In her new role, O’Laire will be responsible for day-to-day leadership for Human Resources Operations including Compensation and Benefits Administration, Employee Relations and Retention, Human Resources Information Systems, the McLeod Child Development Center and Records Management.
South Carolina’s population is projected to increase by an additional 1 million residents by 2042, according to new data released this week by the state’s Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office (RFA). If the projections hold, South Carolina’s population will total nearly 6.4 million residents in 2042, a 19% increase from 2024 levels (over 5.3 million).
According to the projections, five counties (Horry, Berkeley, Jasper, Lancaster, and Spartanburg) will see their population increase by 49 percent or more from 2024 to 2042. Other counties that will see significant growth in pure population numbers include Greenville and York counties. It is estimated that many rural counties will likely lose residents over the next 18-year period, with a dozen counties having less than 20,000 residents by 2042.
South Carolina was the fastest-growing state in the country by percentage change in 2023, and the 5th fastest-growing state in the country by numeric change. More information on the new projections can be found here.
Last week, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) awarded over $500 million in grant funding to various tech hubs programs across the country, including $45 million for the SC Nexus for Advanced Resilient Energy (SC NEXUS). The EDA funds are designed to scale up the production of critical technologies, create jobs in innovative industries, and strengthen U.S. economic competitiveness and national security. Of the 31 EDA-designated entities eligible to apply for the funding, SC NEXUS is one of only 12 tech hubs that received part of the grant.
Of the six projects submitted by SC NEXUS for funding consideration, four received funding including:
SC NEXUS is a public and private consortium led by the S.C. Department of Commerce and comprised of over 50 universities, technical colleges, state agencies, economic development alliances, community organizations, nonprofits, and private companies, including electric utilities. More information on SC Nexus and the federal grant funding can be found here.
Tap into Downtown is BACK for its 5th year! Make your way through downtown shops and restaurants and sample a variety of craft brews.
Tap into Downtown Florence with a beer crawl like no other. Make your way through downtown businesses acting as brew pubs and sample several different craft beers. Try a few favorites or dare to delight in something a little different. This craft beer event promises to deliver a fun and unique tasting experience for all attendees.
Tickets are $25 if you purchase them ahead of time and $30 as supplies last at the door. They sold out last year before the event, so get your tickets early if you plan to attend!
To view the Facebook event page, click here.
Dr. Barry Bodie, Urologist for MUSC of Florence, was the Florence Chamber’s guest this past weekend on ChamberLink Radio talking about the importance of men’s health. We encourage you to tune-in every Sunday from 12:00-12:30pm on LIVE 95.3FM in Florence, SC.
This program is brought to you by the Greater Florence Chamber of Commerce.
