b'Government, including the economic development departments of Charleston, Dorchester and Berkeley counties, had to startA SPIRIT OF COOPERATION AND working with the private sector to bring newCOLLABORATION CAUGHT FIRE business and industries into the community.AND SPREADVery quickly each group got involved in their own role and began supporting each other.Trident Technical College has been a godsend for us as weve Facing the possibility of devastation andbrought in new businesses and industries. Part of our wake-up call, we realized our educational system was not producing the technical instead of protecting our home bases, weskill sets we needed. No one has worked harder with us than realized our combined efforts could createTrident. If we found a company that wanted to come to the region, Mary Thornley, TTC president, would allow the company to bring so much more activity and bring more thingsinstructors in to work for Trident to have students ready for the jobs and better solutions to the regionthingsthat were coming. When we lost a culinary art school, Trident started their own and has been successful. When we didnt have enough we werent even used to considering. Thenurses coming in, they started their own nursing school. That team Chamber brought businesses to the table toeffort is something we really didnt share 40 years ago; today we do. talk to people we were recruiting, to testifyWe all win when we pull together.to their successes accomplishing their goals within the tri-county area in partnership with the Chamber, business community and government.It takes everyone at the table to look at what kinds of jobs are coming, the value of those jobs in the community, what long-term approach will foster growth, what kinds of incentives need to be there if they grow. The tax portion of this comes from local government. The business side of benefits come from the local business sector.41 A CHAMBER OF COMMERCE DAY'