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Organizers of the Franklin-Southampton Area Chamber of Commerce’s 29th annual Community Expo were delighted with how the event proceeded Thursday, Nov. 21, as it featured significant interaction between vendors and attendees and a steady crowd across most of the afternoon.

The Community Expo was held from 4-7 p.m. at Camp Community College’s Regional Workforce Development Center.

In a word, Chamber Executive Director Teresa B. Beale said chamber officials thought this year’s expo was fabulous.

“We had a lot of support,” she said. “A lot of folks came and visited. We had a real great variety of vendors to showcase everything available here in the community. We had some new folks there, new vendors.”

She noted that there were 42 vendors total, and she estimated that between 250 and 300 people attended the expo.

The Community Expo is designed to give local businesses the opportunity to showcase the many goods and services available in the Franklin-Southampton area.

“It’s probably our major event of the year,” Beale said. “And it’s always just really nice to be able to invite the whole community in, show off our businesses that are here local, and it just was a fun vibe, it really was. We just had a really good time, and I think a lot of people really enjoyed it this year. It was very relaxed.”

Before the doors of the expo were opened to the public, there was a vendor hour, allowing local business representatives the opportunity to visit and network with each other.

Beale noted that during this hour, Charles Qualls delivered a motivational and inspirational speech about the quality of the Franklin-Southampton community.

Chris Rice, who created Music Makes You Happy Entertainment, served as the emcee of the expo, providing music and also interviewing a lot of the vendors.

The theme of this year’s Community Expo was “Team FSA – Accomplish Goals for Community Gold.”

“We feel like we’re a gold medal community,” Beale said. “It’s a wonderful place to live and work, so we kind of patterned (the expo) after the Olympics to have some fun with it.”

Standing in for Team USA, the highlighted “Team FSA” stood for “Team Franklin-Southampton Area.”

“Everybody had a little game at their booth, and so that was really fun for folks to come and play all those different games, and very interactive, and people had fun with it,” Beale said.

She indicated that Bronco Federal Credit Union’s booth was notably popular, featuring an Olympic-inspired curling game, but she emphasized that all vendors proved to be draws to those in attendance.

“I really think everybody visited with every vendor, whether they talked or played a game or tried out their products,” she said.

In keeping with the Olympic theme, some vendors were awarded large medals, which were actually chocolate coins. Others received superlative plaques.

The chamber sent surveys out to vendors on Monday, Nov. 25, to obtain their feedback on the 29th Community Expo.

“We’re getting some really good comments from that,” Beale said.

She made a point to highlight the importance of the expo’s sponsors.

“Certainly we cannot put this on without our sponsors,” she said.

The event’s gold sponsors included Bon Secours – Southampton Medical Center, Dominion Energy, and RE/MAX Country to Coast.

The expo also featured six silver sponsors and eight bronze sponsors.