Join Pee Dee Mental Health at 145 E Cheves St. on October 25th at 8:30 AM (Eastern Time) for a day filled with hope, unity, and support. Lace up your sneakers, bring your friends and family, and let’s walk together to show our solidarity in the fight against cancer. Together, we can make a difference and bring awareness to this important cause. Let’s walk, let’s talk, and let’s make a difference. See you there!
To view the full flyer, click here.
Heritage Digital is proud to announce the return of our Feed Hope Food Drive supporting Florence-Darlington Technical College students through September 8, 2025. Last year’s inaugural drive brought together over 20 businesses and community organizations from South Carolina and North Carolina, culminating in a celebration attended by Senator Mike Reichenbach and then-Mayor Teresa Myers Ervin. The impact was immediate – daily care packages were consistently taken by 11 a.m., weekend distributions continued through December 2024, and complete Thanksgiving boxes supported student families.
This year, we’re expanding our goal to provide food security support for FDTC students throughout the entire academic year (September 2025 – May 2026). As Paula McLaughlin from the college shared, “When you can’t eat, you can’t learn.”
Click here to find out how you can help.
Last week, members of the South Carolina House of Representatives and Senate returned to Columbia to begin the 1st regular session of the 126th South Carolina General Assembly. There were 32 new faces amongst the 170 members of the House and Senate, as lawmakers in both bodies hit the ground running talking about various issues.
Notable actions taken this week include:
South Carolina Department of Commerce has a team dedicated to providing business resources in response to COVID-19. Please click here for more information.
Leadership Florence visited Locked Inn – A Live Escape Room Experience as a part of their two-day team building retreat.
The class split into four teams and participants competed in a live action adventure game where they were “locked in” a room and had to use elements of the room to solve a series of puzzles to escape.
Thank you to the Locked Inn team for hosting Leadership Florence!
Contributed Photos
On Oct. 23, the Junior Leadership Florence County class enjoyed a fabulous fall day in Lake City learning all about our history and growing our appreciation for the arts. Thanks to ARTFIELDS, Moore Farms Botanical Garden, Ron McNair Life History Center and The Bean Market for hosting. JLFC is a program modeled after the Florence Chamber’s Leadership Florence program, and is designed for public and private high school sophomores and juniors. It enables students to be able to develop leadership skills while also increasing their awareness of the community.
Junior Leadership Florence County consists of an opening retreat, followed by eight monthly sessions and seeks to provide an investment in the community’s future leadership by fostering interest in the county and inspiring students to become the leaders of tomorrow. This program is a joint effort between Florence County 4-H, The Greater Florence Chamber and Francis Marion University with support from local businesses.
By: Andrew Boardwine
Hundreds of business and community leaders gathered at the Pee Dee Realtors Association office Thursday, September 6th for an evening of networking and fellowship.
The Pee Dee Realtors Association, at 1375 Celebration Blvd., held a Business After Hours event in conjunction with the Greater Florence Chamber of Commerce.
Jennifer King, CEO of the association, said the Business After Hours gives members of the business community a chance to network.
“We are members of the chamber and we value that partnership,” King said. “This is sort of coming off the high point of buying season, so we thought this would be a perfect time to get together, mix and mingle and for all the people in the business community to come out and have a great time.”
Attendees were treated to live music, free refreshments and a chance to win some door prizes.
The association links real estate people together, provides education for those in the field and looks to support the community.
https://www.scnow.com/news/business/article_d31aeb08-b23b-11e8-ba3c-3f8f17718750.html
The Chamber’s Leadership Florence class kicks off the annual leadership retreat with training facilitated by Pivot10 Results.
By: Andrew Boardwine
Mindy Taylor of Duke Energy will serve as the chairman of the Greater Florence Chamber of Commerce board of directors for the 2018-19 term.
Taylor, the district manager for government and community relations, said the chamber of commerce is the “front door” to any community.
“One part of my job is to understand the community,” Taylor said. “The Florence Chamber of Commerce does such a great job and they’re so focused on supporting the local business community and providing relevant programs to businesses in an effort for them to be successful.
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By: Matthew Christian, Morning News
Shortly after 4 p.m. Tuesday, Dr. John Pittard cut the ribbon to mark the expansion of Fresenius Kidney Care in Florence.
Fresenius Kidney Care has expanded into a new facility that will allow more patients to be cared for individually. It had more clients than it could handle at its previous location.
The new facility is at 1453 Pamplico Highway.
Fresenius Kidney Care trains patients with end-stage kidney failure how to perform dialysis at home except for one visit per month to a kidney center. Dialysis is the process that attempts to replicate the removal of poisons from the human body that the kidneys normally perform. Fresenius Kidney Care offers patients with failed kidneys the opportunity to learn how to perform one of two types of kidney dialysis depending on their needs.
Being able to dialyze at home offers patients with end-stage kidney failure the freedom to continue to live their life.
“It’s tough,” Pittard said. “One of my favorite stories: I was coming back from Wyoming about four years ago, and I went to turn in a car at 4:30 in the morning. There’s a couple, a man and his daughter from Galveston [Texas], because of the flood problems, he has to travel 45 minutes to Houston to dialyze.”
Pittard said the man’s situation was even worse on vacation in Wyoming. In that state, near Jackson Hole, the closest place for him to go was in Idaho, an 85-mile trip across the southern end of the Teton Mountains.
“On top of it, the clinic he was supposed to go to messed up,” Pittard continued. “He didn’t have a spot. His vacation got canceled after four days. Had he been on home dialysis, there would have been no problem. He could have enjoyed his vacation.”
For more information on Fresenius Kidney Care, visit FreseniusKidneyCare.com.
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