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Business After Hours focus is PR firm, Family Promise
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For more information about the chamber, call 912-756-3444 or visit www.rhbcchamber.org.

The Richmond Hill/Bryan County Chamber of Commerce will present its July "Business After Hours" on July 20. Family Promise of Bryan County and Lesley Francis Public Relations have partnered to co-host the event from 5:30-7 p.m. at Family Promise, 10695 Ford Ave. in Richmond Hill.

Light appetizers and drinks will be served. Roger Widener will entertain guests with music. And attendees will have the opportunity to meet Family Promise and members of the Lesley Francis PR team and learn a little more about what each organization does.

Door prizes will be raffled off, and a 50/50 raffle will be held with proceeds raised by the chamber donated to support the work of Family Promise. Guests will also enjoy tours of the Family Promise center, which was made possible thanks to a generous grant from the United Way of the Coastal Empire.

Family Promise helps homeless and low-income families become financially stable, secure long-term housing and live independently. The organization’s new day center on Ford Avenue is open weekdays from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. On site, an Interfaith Hospitality Network director and a social worker provide case-management services. Members of families who are living in temporary housing – often provided by area host churches – may utilize the center, and Family Promise helps by providing transportation to and from the facility.

Family Promise of Bryan County began in October 2013 when concerned community members assembled to discuss the possibility of establishing an affiliate of the national non-profit organization.

"We value this community deeply, and Lesley Francis and her team have supported us with our marketing efforts for a number of years and we appreciate their ongoing in kind donation of their marketing expertise," Candice Stewart-Fife, network director of Family Promise said. "It seemed natural to invite them to partner with us when we were given the opportunity to host business after hours."

Lesley Francis Public Relations is a Richmond Hill-based boutique PR and marketing agency serving the greater Coastal Empire and Lowcountry regions. Owner/CEO Lesley Francis, a British-born graduate of the University of Bristol in England, in 1998 founded hsdcommunications, an award-winning, London-based agency that she grew from a one-person operation to a UK top 25 PR firm.

Francis sold her business in 2007 to Gyro International, a global group with offices in 11 countries, before relocating to the United States, where she became a naturalized American citizen and founded LFPR in 2010. The agency specializes in local businesses and nonprofit organizations.

To learn more about Family Promise of Bryan County and how to get involved, visit www.familypromisebryancounty.org. To learn more about Lesley Francis PR, visit www.lesleyfrancispr.com.

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Record April boosts Savannah's container trade at port
GardenCityTerminal
The Port of Savannah moved 356,700 20-foot equivalent container units in April, an increase of 7.1 percent. - photo by Provided

The Georgia Ports Authority's busiest April ever pushed its fiscal year-to-date totals to more than 3.4 million 20-foot equivalent container units (TEUs), an increase of 8.8 percent, or 280,000 TEUs, compared to the first 10 months of fiscal 2017.

"We're on track to move more than 300,000 TEUs in every month of the fiscal year, which will be a first for the authority," said GPA Executive Director Griff Lynch. "We're also anticipating this to be the first fiscal year for the Port of Savannah to handle more than 4 million TEUs."

April volumes reached 356,700 20-foot equivalent container units, up 7.1 percent or 23,700 units. As the fastest growing containerport in the nation, the Port of Savannah has achieved a compound annual growth rate of more than 5 percent a year over the past decade.

"As reported in the recent economic impact study by UGA's Terry College of Business, trade through Georgia's deepwater ports translates into jobs, higher incomes and greater productivity," said GPA Board Chairman Jimmy Allgood. "In every region of Georgia, employers rely on the ports of Savannah and Brunswick to help them become more competitive on the global stage."

To strengthen the Port of Savannah's ability to support the state's future economic growth, the GPA Board approved $66 million in terminal upgrades, including $24 million for the purchase of 10 additional rubber-tired gantry cranes.  

"The authority is committed to building additional capacity ahead of demand to ensure the Port of Savannah remains a trusted link in the supply chain serving Georgia and the Southeast," Lynch said.

The crane purchase will bring the fleet at Garden City Terminal to 156 RTGs. The new cranes will support three new container rows, which the board approved in March. The additional container rows will increase annual capacity at the Port of Savannah by 150,000 TEUs.

The RTGs will work over stacks that are five containers high and six deep, with a truck lane running alongside the stacks. Capable of running on electricity, the cranes will have a lift capacity of 50 metric tons.

The cranes will arrive in two batches of five in the first and second quarters of calendar year 2019.

 Also at Monday's meeting, the GPA Board elected its officers, with Jimmy Allgood as chairman, Will McKnight taking the position of vice chairman and Joel Wooten elected as the next secretary/treasurer.

For more information, visit gaports.com, or contact GPA Senior Director of Corporate Communications Robert Morris at (912) 964-3855 or rmorris@gaports.com.

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