The Town That Shows Up: Inside United Way of Florence County

The hedge trimmers started before nine o'clock.

By the time the sun was fully up over Florence, South Carolina, the parking lot at the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Pee Dee Area was already loud with the kind of noise that means work is getting done. City of Florence employees were on their knees in the flower beds. A team from Assurant had gone inside and started washing windows, cleaning blinds, and replacing air filters. Across town, more than thirty GE HealthCare employees were at Durant Children's Center with paintbrushes out, putting fresh color on porch columns that had needed it for a while.

This was September 19. This was the 34th annual Day of Caring, organized by United Way of Florence County. Before the day was finished, more than 300 volunteers from 31 companies had completed 85 projects across the county. They logged an estimated 1,200 hours of service. Their companies brought roughly $8,200 worth of materials so the work could actually happen.

Thirty-four years. Eighty-five projects in a single day. Those numbers belong to an organization that has been operating in Florence County since 1954, and that, under the leadership of President Cameron Campbell, has been finding new ways to do more.

United Way of Florence County funds programs. It connects people to resources. It builds the kind of behind-the-scenes infrastructure that most communities take for granted until it disappears.

In Florence County, that work is concrete. It shows up in children who arrive at kindergarten ready to learn because the programs their families relied on were there when they needed them. It shows up in a roof that no longer leaks, in a rent payment that did not bounce, in a family that got through a hard month without losing their home. It shows up in the 211 helpline, which connected more than 5,500 Florence County residents to critical local resources in the past year alone.

Last year, United Way directed $475,000 to local nonprofits through its grant-making process. It prepared 131 free tax returns for residents who could not afford to pay for them. It helped 52 people work through the Barriers to Employment program, which addresses the practical obstacles that keep people from finding and holding steady work: lack of transportation, gaps in documentation, skills that need sharpening.

None of this is automatic. Someone has to fund it, organize it, sustain it, and make the case year after year to donors and partners that it is worth continuing. In Florence County, United Way has been that someone for going on seventy years.

Back at the Day of Caring

Scott Olsen watched his team from GE HealthCare spread out across nine project sites. Olsen is the executive plant manager at GE HealthCare's Florence facility. He has a practical explanation for why the company keeps coming back.

"Day of Caring is one of the best ways for our teams to step out of their usual roles and work together in a different environment. It brings our teams closer together and boosts morale, but it also reminds us that the teamwork we practice in the workplace has just as much power to make a difference in the community. What we accomplish together outside the factory is every bit as meaningful as the work we do inside it."

— Scott Olsen, Executive Plant Manager, GE HealthCare

For Julia Fulmer, United Way's director of community impact and marketing, this was her first Day of Caring. She spent part of the morning driving from site to site.

"Everywhere I drove, I'd spot groups in matching shirts and instantly know they were part of Day of Caring. It was such a cool sight. When I came back to the office, I could hardly recognize it. Volunteers had tackled projects we'd needed to do for a long time but never had the time or staff to handle, and they finished it in just half a day."

— Julia Fulmer, Director of Community Impact and Marketing, United Way of Florence County

ADP brought the largest volunteer group of any company that day, 35 people. Otis Elevator completed the most projects, finishing 15 before the day was done. Gold sponsors Pepsi and PGBA/BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina helped make the event possible, along with silver sponsors Duke Energy and GE HealthCare, and bronze sponsors Accountable Insurance Partners, Anderson Brothers Bank, First Bank, First Reliance Bank, and SPC Credit Union.

Campbell put the day in the terms she returns to most often.

"Day of Caring is one of the most powerful examples of what happens when individuals, businesses and nonprofits unite around a shared goal: strengthening our community. We are extremely grateful to every volunteer who dedicated their time, and to our generous sponsors who make this day possible year after year."

— Cameron Campbell