So, what is a community to do?

The Selling Hartsville initiative is alive and well in Hartsville, SC. Jana Longfellow is the Chamber employee with the single focus of finding ways to push the concept of Hartsville - The Art of Good Living.

So, what does it mean to push the concept?
1 -- A primary audience for Selling Hartsville is those who live within the territory that when asked, they say "I'm from Hartsville." We need people who are "from Hartsville" to think of Hartsville first when buying -- when buying anything. We need the sales tax receipts in this town. We need the hospitality taxes from eating out in this town. Those who have invested in businesses in Hartsville need Hartsvillians to help them succeed by stopping by to see if they have what you need. for example, did you know that Alexanders now is a combined mens' and womens' clothing store? What is a community to do? The first thing is to look in Hartsville first and support fellow community members.

2 -- The companion slogan, logo-mark for Hartsville- The Art of Good Living is to 'Expect Pleasant Surprises.' This is being written on Saturday, February 6, 2009 and there is a Love is in the Air Good Living Marketplace that people are setting up for right this minute. Pushing the concept of Selling Hartsville is to find the trigger points that will help reach more Hartsvillians and get them to choose spending some of their free time with neighbors and friends at events like the Marketplace, like the fantastic Hartsville/Coker Community Concert held last Tuesday, like the Hartsville Community Players dinner theater, like the Black Creek Arts Council events and classes. And, so many, many more pleasant surprises.

What is a pleasant surprise?
A -- People may or may not realize that the South Carolina Governor's School for Math and Science is located in Hartsville. Today the Governor's School seniors are presenting their summer research projects in a GSSM colloquium. As it turns out, there is not another community in South Carolina that has a research colloquium of high school-age students. Surprised?

B -- What is another type of surprise? There is college basketball, both men and women at the Coker College gym this afternoon.

C -- What else? Have you visited the Hartsville YMCA. It is one of the best YMCA's that many people ever visit. It is one of the melding organizations of Hartsville.

D -- If you are Hartsvillian, I am hoping that you are already thinking of your own pleasant surprises and that you might add as a comment to this posting.

While Jana is focusing on the marketing of Hartsville - The Art of Good Living and just spent two days working with others to help enrich web sites, there is still a strong group of people working on parts of the product that need work.

Those in community building always hear that it is the quality of education in a community that draws people. The task force for Selling Hartsville heard a few days ago from Dr. Charlie Burry, principal of Hartsville High. He distributed some of the numbers that show Hartsville High competing favorably with schools around us in the Pee Dee. For some reason, many people want to spend more time telling of the bad stories they hear from the schools instead of the good stories. Teachers everywhere are working hard and making a significant difference in the lives and education of children. But, one of the things our task force is doing is working with the schools to both tell some of the positive stories and join forces to make the school programs even better.

We also know that in Hartsville we have some housing problems. One of those problems is not enough housing for younger professionals. We also have a severe problem in this community of former residences that are literally falling in on themselves. Despite the deplorable condition, the buildings remain in the neighborhoods. We hear the problem is extremely complicated to solve. The problem needs to be solved.

And, like the rest of the world, Hartsville is being affected by the failing economy. We need more jobs. We need more jobs to entice younger people back to Hartsville. We need to work on economic development and one of the ways might be to determine the types of organizations that might flourish in an area that is 15 miles away from an interstate. What types of businesses do you think would be good for our community and what type of businesses could we help with a good work force?

As always there is a lot more that could be written but this is already too long for a blog posting. What are your thoughts about building community?