To celebrate both National Travel & Tourism Week and Small Business Week (May 4-10), the Tourism Promotion Committee of the Elizabethtown – White Lake Area Chamber of Commerce invites interested parties to learn more about tourism and outdoor recreation in Mother Nature’s Playground on Wednesday, May 7.
The Taste of Blade Tourism Tour is a full day immersion into one of the county’s economic engines. Visitors spent approximately $56 million in Bladen County in 2023, which supported jobs in the accommodations, food services, retail, recreation, and transportation sectors. The average citizen saw savings of $144 on their taxes based on revenues from tourism-related activities.
The full-day tour will highlight the diversity of things to do in the area by travelling to numerous sites downtown Elizabethtown, Browns Creek Bike Park, Lu Mil Vineyard, Cape Fear Winery & Distillery, Jones Lake State Park, Goldston’s Beach, Camp Clearwater and Tory Hole Park. Organizers hope to make this an annual event and highlight other sites in the future. Anyone interested in attending the tour should contact the Elizabethtown – White Lake Area Chamber of Commerce at 910-862-4368 or register on the website.
The event is sponsored by the Elizabethtown-White Lake area Chamber of Commerce and the Small Business Center at Bladen Community College.
At center, Chancellor Darrell T. Allison and Juanette Council, Ed.D., vice chancellor for student affairs, cut the ribbon to celebrate the grand reopening of Fayetteville State University's newly renovated Spaulding Building, joined by campus leaders
FCEDC has officially moved its staff and operations to 611 W. Russell St. The 35,800- square-foot center was previously home to Homemakers Furniture and Interiors. Renovations began in the fall of 2025 and are expected to be completed in the next six to eight months. Currently, FCEDC staff are working within an open 7,500-square-foot floor plan as initial improvements progress.
Inset: Systel’s first corporate headquarters was a small rental house turned office on Fort Bragg Road in Fayetteville in 1981. Large photo: The company’s new corporate headquarters reflects years of growth into a multi-million dollar company that pr
