Tie One On Florence brings warmth to community

FLORENCE, S.C. (WBTW) – Articles of clothing are hung on trees across the City of Florence thanks to the nonprofit organization Tie One On Florence.

Member of the organization, Sam Rogers, said the nonprofit began in Florence around five years ago when his friends were walking through Wilmington during the winter.

“They saw some scarves hanging from the trees and they got curious and they posted on Facebook and some of my friends here decided to check it out,” he explained, ‘We figured it out it was a very simple and not time consuming thing to do to get people out to help.”

He said the organization hangs clothes in different parts of city from the downtown area to Timrod Park. He said its makes him happy to know the clothes are going to people in need.

“We see them get taken all the time,” said Rogers. “We can only do it every couple of weeks, and it all depends on the weather too and around here you never can tell what the weather’s going to be like, but it just so happens now it’s cold.”

Rogers said he’s had the opportunity to speak with some of the people who have taken the clothes and said they are very appreciative of the work Tie One On Florence is doing.

“It brings back some humanity to them, a little self-esteem, somebody out there cares for them” said Rogers. “It can be a dehumanizing thing to be out on the street and have people look down their noses at you and we’ve been told by them that it really means a lot.

Rogers said all of the clothes have been donated and they are for people of all ages.

“We’ve had scarves and things mailed to us from California, Maine, and Wilmington, North Carolina,” he said. “It’s all kinds of clothes, we take it all because there’s as many families as there are single people that are out here so we can incorporate it all.”

Jessica Willis has lived in Florence for 15 years and said she notices the clothes every year when she walks through Timrod Park.

“I enjoy seeing it because it makes me feel like my community is thinking about giving back to itself, I think that when you want a healthy community you have to lend a helping hand,” Willis said.

She said it warms her heart to know she’s warming someone else’s during cold winter months in the Pee Dee.

“When it gets cold down here you’re not always prepared, we don’t have cold weather very often and especially for someone who’s living very leanly, you can’t take a lot of things with you,” Willis said as she hung clothes on a nearby tree, “They may have gotten rid of their extra, warm articles of clothing since the last time there was a cold snap so it’s a real comfort to know that there are people out their thinking about people in need for them.”

Rogers said the goal is to warm people through the day, and especially, in the cold temperatures at night.

Drop off locations for clothes to donate to Tie One On Florence can be found at: