Post and Courier19%
For 30 years, Lighthouse Ministries has helped Florence families find a way home 16%
By Maya Alston10%
7/31/2026, 2:00:00 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 23 faulty reasoning types, including Hasty Generalization, Availability Heuristic, and Framing Effect, with Anecdotal as the most egregious example at 13% saturation with 152 hits. Analysis detected 961 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,173 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 24.7% and a BS Rank of 16% (25,697 of 30,584 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 84.00% of the article peer group.
FLORENCE — For three decades, Lighthouse Ministries has been a place Florence County families can turn when they don't know where else to go.
The local nonprofit marked 30 years of helping families stay safely and stably housed with a celebration at the Francis Marion Stephen F.
Gately Gallery.
As Florence continues to grow, Executive Director Cecilia Meggs said the need for affordable housing and community support remains.
The celebration was a chance to look back at how far the organization has come — from its beginnings with a small group of volunteers to an organization that now helps thousands of families through its programs and services.
"It was really great to go through all of the past, and remember the people, and the places and what we've been able to accomplish," Meggs said.
The celebration was intentionally simple.
There was no fundraising pitch or formal agenda.
The event, held at the downtown gallery, was made free to the community with financial support from a Lighthouse Ministries supporter.
A slideshow took guests through the organization's history, showing where Lighthouse Ministries began, where it is today and where it hopes to go next.
For Meggs, the presentation brought back memories of the people who have shaped the organization over three decades.
"It really brought back a lot of memories, but also told the story," she said.
That story began with local churches that saw a need in the community and came together to address it.
Lighthouse Ministries' primary mission remains much the same today: helping families in Florence County avoid eviction and homelessness.
The organization helps with rent, utilities and deposits, working to keep families in their homes during times of crisis.
But over the years, the nonprofit has grown to offer more than emergency housing assistance.
Many of the families Lighthouse Ministries serves are mothers with young children, leading the organization to develop programs focused on parenting and family support.
Those include the Working Mothers Education Support Program, Strengthening Families and Positive Parenting.
The organization also operates a ramp program for income-eligible families who need a safer way to enter and exit their homes and through First Friday Services Connect, Lighthouse Ministries helps connect people with multiple agencies and resources in the community.
The programs are different, but they share a common goal: preventing a crisis from becoming something worse.
Meggs, who has been the organization’s executive director since 2010, has seen how quickly that can happen.
She recalled speaking with a man who had been working for a company that closed without paying him.
He eventually found another job, but by then he had fallen behind on his rent.
He was working again, but he couldn't catch up.
So he asked for help.
"People don't come to us proudly," Meggs said.
"They come to us because they need help."
That is one of the things Meggs wishes more people understood about the families who come through Lighthouse Ministries' doors.
Behind every request for assistance is a story.
Sometimes, that story is about losing a job, a family trying to find a safe place to live or sometimes it's about a sudden expense that leaves someone unable to make the next rent payment.
For Meggs, listening to those stories is part of what makes the organization's work so meaningful.
That’s where Lighthouse Ministries volunteers come in.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Lighthouse Ministries had about 50 active volunteers.
Today, about 38 volunteers regularly help with the organization's work.
Meggs said volunteers are an essential part of the organization's ability to serve families.
The staff helps run the organization and supports its programs, but the volunteers are the ones who sit with families, listen to their stories and help them navigate difficult moments.
"The more volunteers we have, the more people we can serve," she said.
Meggs said the volunteers have become something of a family themselves.
"They're doing it because they love to be here," she said.
That willingness to simply sit and listen can be just as important as any financial assistance.
Mary Wallace, who has been a volunteer since 2012, describes Lighthouse Ministries as, “a community helping our community.”
Wallace’s role, like many volunteers, includes conducting interviews and check-ins.
“This is special because you're one on one, and people are in stressful situations, and so it's really good to be able to help them.
Like this couple today, I'm going to be able to pay their whole electric bill.
It gives me a lot of satisfaction that I can help them, and I'm in this community too.
It's our community helping our community.
That's what I love.”
That same couple described the help they received from Lighthouse Ministries as, “A blessing.
They are willing to help in a time where even family wasn’t willing or able to.”
Since Meggs first joined the organization in 2005, Florence has changed for the better and the worst.
The community has grown in population and prosperity, but Meggs said the need has grown, too as the cost of housing has continued to create challenges for families who cannot afford to buy a home or find an affordable place to rent.
Meggs said she can drive through Florence and see new houses being built, yet still hear from families who cannot find housing they can afford.
Some families are forced to move when a rental property is sold or becomes unlivable.
Others may find themselves living in extended-stay hotels because they cannot find or afford another option.
Even when affordable housing is available, it may not be close to a family's job, children's school or child care.
The housing crisis, she said, cannot be solved by simply building more homes.
"It's very complex based on the family dynamic and based on transportation and childcare," Meggs said.
"I mean, just all rolls in together."
Her hope for the next 30 years is that Florence and communities across South Carolina will continue to find ways to help families live in safe, stable environments.
For Lighthouse Ministries, that work starts with reaching more people.
The organization is focused on recruiting additional volunteers so it can serve more families when they find themselves in a crisis.
The 30th anniversary will also be incorporated into Lighthouse Ministries' annual Good Neighbor Gala in September.
Families who have received assistance from the organization will share their stories, and a community member will be recognized for being a good neighbor.
For Meggs, the anniversary is a moment of pride — not just for the organization, but for the community that has supported it.
"I'm proud of Lighthouse Ministries and proud of the community," Meggs said.
After 30 years, the organization continues to hold onto the same belief that inspired its beginnings: Sometimes, helping a family stay in their home can be the difference between a temporary crisis and a life-changing one.
And sometimes, the first step toward helping someone through that crisis is simply giving them a place to tell their story.
Speakers
2speakers32%attributed speech798writer words
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64%flagged-word coverageCecilia Meggs
279 attributed words74% of attributed speech62% writer coverage
Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.
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