Enjoyed some pleasant surprises

Sunday, I had the opportunity to speak to a few of the members of St.Bartholomew's Episcopal Church about the Selling Hartsville concept. One of the small pleasant surprises of that morning was that three guys from Hartsville High joined the group and it was apparent from a couple of comments that they are pretty tuned into their home town.

A second pleasant surprise for me was the beauty and expanse of the Church complex. While I have often been in the Sanctuary but had not walked around the building. The building is warm, functional and it felt original on the inside.

It was the second opportunity to speak about selling Hartsville to a local church group. A couple of weeks ago I was able to speak to a group of United Methodist Men at St. Luke. They had invited men from other churches and it was another unique opportunity to talk about the importance of Hartsvillians looking first to Hartsville for their purchases, for their leisure-time activities, and for a wide variety of other things that we often ignore because we take so much for granted.

While talking with the people at the Episcopal Church I also remembered that the Church had a significant investment in downtown Hartsville. They have invested in the building next to the church, turning it into the building that now houses Louchis Restaurant. I mentioned during the talk about the previously identified need of more restaurants in the Hartsville area if we are going to get full advantage of a more aggressive marketing effort. The new Italian restaurant was a tremendous addition to our downtown retail life. The fact that the Church had made that investment has become an important part of the growth of our downtown.

It was enjoyable to again be able to talk about Hartsville and why during this very questionable economy it is important that we have Selling Hartsville as a key strategy. In these times it might be characterized as a survival strategy but these times will end and this growth strategy will lead up to many more pleasant surprises.