IRMO, S.C. — The Irmo Future Growth Corporation is helping many businesses that struggled during the pandemic.
Irmo councilman Bill Danielson spearheaded the organization that is giving back directly to its community.
“We can’t help everybody, but this is a sign that we can desperately help people that are in desperate situations," Danielson tells Street Squad, "[We are] doing grants to small businesses that were negatively impacted in the town of Irmo.”
The group is called the Irmo Growth Foundation and it has already given out over $100,000 in grants to Irmo businesses. The town funded $250,000 from its budget and Danielson hopes to eventually receive more.
One of the businesses that applied and received a grant is Anchor Lanes on Lake Murray Blvd. Owner Lee Zavakos tells Street Squad, “they’re trying to put the dollars into the hands of businesses that – like mine. We’ve supported Irmo whether it's through hiring people or paying our taxes and our licensing fees and everything else for years and years.”
Anchor Lanes has been a staple in the community for many years. And since they were a business with an Irmo business license before 2020 and showed hardship through the pandemic, they received a grant.
“And it was really awesome, quite frankly, that we have a local government that actually seemed like they cared and that they wanted to try to do things to help us out," Zavakos adds.
Danielson explains, “what people may not understand is the bulk of our revenue comes from town business licenses. And if we can’t keep the businesses, we can’t help them stay in play, then the town ultimately will have a problem.”
Danielson tells us they are in phase one of the program and hope to work with community partners and get more funds to continue helping their community.
To find out more about this program and how you can apply visit their website here.