Hartsville First - Do good for yourself

According to the HARTSVILLE MESSENGER, page 5A of the November 19 edition, the City Council passed a resolution on November 10 encouraging citizens to shop in Hartsville and support our local merchants. Mayor Holt noted, "When you shop here, you're supporting your community, you're supporting Hartsville. You really are selling Hartsville." It was good to read that the Council added their clout to this message because one of the key, crucial audiences for the continuing Selling Hartsville initiative is those of us who live in the area. We have to continue reminding ourselves what a treasure we have the authentic retail community that is the Hartsville downtown.

In that same issue of the newspaper, there was a report on the dwindling funds within the city and one of the sources of city revenue continues to be the business license fees. Retail merchants need our patronage to be competitive and they need our patronage to stay in business. As Hartsvillians, we need them to stay in business because a robust, central, core shopping area is one of those strengths that differentiates Hartsville from so many other communities of a similar size. Times are tough and times are going to get tougher and one way to join in easing some of the difficulty is to "Shop at Home."

This Thursday night in downtown Hartsville is the traditional Merchants' Holiday Open House, which begins at 5 p.m. This would be a great time to see what is available and "expect pleasant surprises."

The back page of this same Hartsville Messenger has a calendar showing some of the things special about Hartsville but the list is even longer than on this schedule.

** On Thanksgiving the YMCA does the Annual Turkey Trot at 8 a.m.
** On December 4 is the Christmas Shoppe at Black Creek Arts (through the sixth)
** This Sunday night, November 23 at 7:30 p.m. the Coker Chamber Singers at Coker
** December 6 is the Hartsville Christmas parade and the Good Living Marketplace

We can all participate in building community and sometimes it can be a great deal of fun, extremely convenient, and really satisfying.