Notes about Selling Hartsville

This week I got an inquiry from a Hartsvillian thinking about being part of the Selling Hartsville project. Hope he joins us. This is a lot of the email I sent him in response to that question -- tell me more about this Selling Hartsville initiative?

The email
The Byerly Foundation has been acting as the lead organization in the Selling Hartsville initiative (only because it is easy for us to span organizational boundaries) . Participation is wide open. While this effort was started separately, it is an integral part of the updated comprehensive plan for the city. We think the more people involved and the more projects that are identified with The Art of Good Living, the more successful will be the effort. We have some major target audiences for this ongoing effort:

The recruiting task force is working on a program that will develop a process so that people who are being offered employment in the area will have an opportunity to get a view and hear a view of living in Hartsville before they do what many have been doing, and opt for Florence. A major reason for this effort is the high number of families employed in the Hartsville area but living in other areas, particularly Florence.

A second major audience for this effort are those of us who live in what we generally refer to as the Greater Hartsville area. Many are often complaining that there is nothing to do in Hartsville, that there is no place to shop in Hartsville, that there is no opportunity in Hartsville. We have to find a way to get the word out that when it comes to interesting, dynamic small cities in the South, Hartsville is up there with the best -- but at the same time we have to keep working to improve this product that we are touting with the the theme, Hartsville -- The art of good living.

The third major audience for this selling Hartsville concept are those others who live in the Pee Dee who would really want to come over and spend some of their money. The publisher of SHE magazine has told me she has readers from all over the Pee Dee who rave about the unique shopping experiences they have in Hartsville. If you look at a weekend in Hartsville, you will see things like Little Miss South Carolina beauty pagenant and a girls's softball tournament or a horse shoe tournament or like tomorrow night a Downtown music festival -- this one for Rhythm and Blues, the last called Rock the Block. And coming up on July 4 is one of the biggest fire work events in this part of the State, a true back to the "good old days" July 4 festival at Emmanuel. We want people from around the Pee Dee coming here for things to do and to spend some money. (Where else do you get first-run films for $2.50 a ticket?

Another audience will be those who are looking for a nice place to live, a community where there is a friendly spirit, where there are things to do and where you can contribute to life and enjoy life. We want those people thinking Hartsville.

So, that is an overview and we have three major task forces working now, with more as challenges are identified. This is an effort that takes the efforts of lots of people -- one of those things where the only real boundaries are the limit of the imagination and the willingness of people to 'do it.'

The next major task force meeting is August 6 but we have not yet set a place. We generally have the meeting from four to five thirty.