 What a beautiful day here in the city of Columbia. It is such a joy to be the mistress of ceremonies today for this grand opening. I am so proud of the team that put in the work. I'd like to especially thank Krista Williams. She does the work. They started, at least in this building in February. They've been doing their soft opening since April 25th of this week. And there's lots of support when you go out into the community. And you actually ask the community members what they need. And then you work to provide it. So thank you for allowing me to be here today to witness this momentous occasion. We would like to thank DJ Gitlow, a veteran and member of our community. We would like to thank Darius Johnson from Noel Catering for providing refreshments and the Curiosity Coffee Shop for providing our coffee refreshments this morning. This is what small businesses are about. This is what supporting your community is about. And without further ado, I'll bring up the woman behind the dream and behind the vision, Krista Williams. I'm going to be very quick because we said two minutes on the comments. I didn't prepare a speech because I've been so busy this week. Thanks to all the support from the community members that stopped by. I'll start a little bit about the history with Uncle Willie's. 37 years ago, I was a small baby that was born in a hospital to a mother that was too young to bring me home. And who showed up to pick me up, none other than Uncle Willie and his wife right here, my great aunt and uncle. So I owe them a lot of everything in all of my successes and goals, achievements. I owe them because I could have been anywhere. Uncle Willie was a farmer in Santee, South Carolina. He was also a volunteer firefighter. That's why we have the logos on the window to represent and remember him regarding his service to that. But he provided fresh produce, vegetables, fruits to the community in rural Santee, South Carolina. Many community members would stop by the house. We actually lived right next door to a grocery store, which was so ironic. But being in a small town, people want fresh produce, fresh fruit, and he provided that for many people. So when I ran for city council on last year, and I heard so many concerns in the community about needing a grocery store, I started putting in the work and started doing the research. And here we are today. But when it came time to name the business, I thought about Uncle Willie and all of the sacrifices that he made from the day that he didn't know what was going to happen, but picking up that little baby from the hospital to providing a service to the community by being a volunteer firefighter, by providing fresh fruit and fresh vegetables. I thought about him as that person that provided service and decided to name the establishment after him. Once again, I would like to thank everybody that's been a big support. I see Carolina Pameralma is out here, Ms. Nata, all of the food service, Noel Catering, original bakery, always original bakery. And my employees, where are my two, I have two employees that are here. That's one of them, Mem. He sticks by my side when I'm here late doing inventory. CC is my other employee right here. They're both awesome and great, very trustworthy. And Mr. Searight has been a volunteer at the store. He's a veteran as well. So I just appreciate all the support from everybody, the city of Columbia. I hadn't been able to cash that check yet, but thank you all so much for your support, Mayor Rickamon. We really appreciate you, Ms. Melissa Lender. She grilled me, actually, and I'm gonna stop here. When we had the, I had to present my business plan on Zoom and she was tough. But after I got finished talking, she was like, I think you got it. And I think we did too, because we're here today enjoying this story playing out. Thank you all so much. We will have a word of prayer from Ms. Tanya Caesar. Is she here? Hello. And we have Lily Aiken. Good morning. Let us bow our head, please. Oh, gracious and heavily father, we come to you today, God. Lord, we say thank you, God, for everything that you have done, what you're going to do, and, God, what you're doing right now. We thank you, God, for a day that we've never seen before. God, we thank you, Lord, for this grand opening. We thank you, God, for each and every participant, for everyone that has come together to make this vision possible. God, we ask that you continue to cover us today, that you will shield us and protect us, oh, God. Lord, in the name of Jesus, we ask you, God, that you will bless the sales, bless the people as they come in and out. God, we forever give your name, the glory and all the praise. It is in Jesus' name that we pray, amen. Well, hallelujah this morning. Thank you so much. I forgot to introduce myself when I came up here. My name is Native Rutherford, and I'm the Richland County Coroner. And the reason that this store is such an amazing thing is because we see so much hypertensive in our therosclerotic heart disease as a cause of death in our community. And having access to fresh fruits and vegetables is very important in that prevention step of healthcare. So without any further ado, let's please have our newly elected mayor, Mayor Rickumann, come on up. We appreciate you for being here. Good to see you, good to see you as all over here. It's tough act to follow these beautiful women that are here today, but what a great opportunity, open Columbia. Every day that I get to go to a business that's opening up is a great day in the city of Columbia. And I have to tell you, it makes me so excited for this because this is one of the things during the campaign and in the talks in the neighborhood we've talked about is filling a void. I think the difference here is, is that this was built with love, which means it will succeed, number one. Tenacity, somebody who doesn't give up at all. Ms. Williams had a dream and an opportunity that she wanted to pursue, and she followed through with it. What's really great for me is when I look out here and see all the people that are here. Got Representative Rutherford here, Tina Herbert, council member for district one, representing this area here to support all the community folks because when I opened my first business in 1994, the community's why we were successful. Columbia supports its local businesses. I, young Rutherford over here was a law student that I used to feed when he was struggling over there studying back in the day. But what I've always told people is, is that if you're a small business and you make an investment in Columbia, the community will support you. And I'm so happy to see everybody here today excited about Uncle Willie, especially since I know the story behind Uncle Willie even more is exciting in all the small businesses you're bringing together. And I saw you had Troy's, Troyer's smoked sausage in there, which I have a weakness for, so thank you. But we're really excited to have you here and we hope all the success for you will pray for your success and just know if there's anything we can do to continue to help you, we're here for you. Thank you very much for your investment. Thank you so much to the mayor for giving us a few words this morning. Miss Lily Aiken, please come on up. You're welcome, you're welcome. We thank you for coming to the grand opening of Willie's grocery store. And I want to just say this right here. This day, today is the same tomorrow that we prayed and hoped and wished for on yesterday, and God has brought it to pass. And we thank God for the story we thank at the time that I've been in here for a few days. Everyone is excited, they're happy, and I thank God for blessing with the store. And by the way, I am Mrs. Willie Aiken. And we were married for 51 years. We met on Valentine night and we got married on Halloween nights. So there was always a trick or treat. And yeah, he was a great gardener and people would come by like the early sugar peas in the early part of the year. What they would do, they would put in their orders for the next year. And he would write it down who all wants such and such a thing. But the oracles was the main thing. I still go to the post office and ask to me, you wasn't playing the oracles? I said, no, not this year, he's not a year now. But I just thank God for him and how God blessed us with three daughters. And I just thank God to be able to be a witness here and let's just keep each other in prayer because prayer fix everything. I'm a firm believer of that, I know prayer works. So I just ask y'all to keep the business in prayer and I'll be in and out helping her as much as I can. God bless you. We all hope to have a trick and a treat in our life. Ms. Tina Herbert, city councilwoman for district one, come on up. Thank you so much. I'm really excited to be here today because Ms. Williams, you've helped us with the vision for this corridor. And in so many different ways, people are always wondering, well, what is the city doing? What is the city doing? Well, there's a lot of room and there are a lot of places and pieces of the puzzle that everyone can play. And Ms. Williams has decided to be a solution to the problem but she needed funding and so that is what the city did. So people are always like, well, what did the city do? What did we contribute? And that's why I'm glad to see Brett and his team, our Office of Business Opportunities is here to fund small minority women-owned businesses. And so this is what I have to say every time I come to an opening and it's a small minority women-owned business, is number one, we have to support this business. She will not last if we don't come in support. She cannot do it by herself. Number two, keep the faith, Krista. Because starting a business is hard for anybody, not just Krista, for anybody. But keep the faith, ask for help. There's so many people here, there's so many people at the city who will give you the help that you need. And then the third thing is make sure you see and join NCBA. I think there may be some other members out here, but it's a really good group of businesses along this corridor that can help you. So that's my shout out to the NCBA, but thank you so much for helping us address. I didn't forget. But no, but thank you for addressing several issues. And the last thing I'll say is Mayor Rickerman and I, we were in a retreat this week and we talked about filling the vacant storefronts. And we agreed on that one. And it was a good moment. And so you're helping us achieve that goal. So thank you so much. Congratulations to you today. Thank you, Nathan. Now we will have Eva Moore with the South Carolina Department of Agriculture. Welcome Eva. All right. I am so honored to be here today on behalf of Commissioner Hugh Weathers and the South Carolina Department of Agriculture. We know that when people buy locally grown food, they're keeping more of their money in their community, pointing it right back to their neighbors and to the small businesses like this business, like the food producers that are in our community. So thank you for shopping here and keeping more of your food dollars in South Carolina. Yeah. We also know that locally grown food is traveling fewer miles to get to the person who's eating it, which means it's fresher, it's often healthier, it has less of an environmental impact. So thank you for that as well. Farmers in South Carolina, small farmers, and I'll say that farmers of color are likely to be small farmers. They need partners like Uncle Willie's and like what you're doing here. So thank you for that. And I'll just say on behalf of the department, we are very excited to be your partners in this. We look forward to being a resource in the future and thank you for having us. Bye. Jim Johnson with the Small Business Association. Thank you very much. Of course, I'm Jim Johnson with the Small Business Development Center, which is a resource partner with the Small Business Administration. And coincidentally, next week is National Small Business Week, right? So this is kind of appropriate because this is wonderful. Like Eva mentioned, bringing together all these different businesses, food related businesses right back here and supporting those businesses. And I have a special place in my heart for food businesses as farmers. And looked around at some of the great local items, like your blueberries from Kusall Farms. You had rice, Charleston gold from a farmer in Georgetown. So you're bringing South Carolina right here to Columbia. This is amazing. And you're connecting rural back with urban, which is an interesting concept. I think there needs to be more of that. But I think what you're doing here is wonderful. I know there are many food access issues in areas of the state. And this is a problem. And what do entrepreneurs do? They solve problems. And so you're able to come in here with the support of many great people, including the city of Columbia, and solve the problem of a food desert in this area. Giving access to folks in these neighborhoods here who so desperately need it. And so I'm just so proud to be able to be here and speak on the behalf of the SBA. And like was mentioned before, there's so many support systems out there to put around yourself, to build your team, and to help you be successful into the future. So we offer you all the support and blessings and congratulations. Now the moment we've all been waiting for, Christa Williams, I just wanna say congratulations to you again. You are truly an example of we can do hard things together. So thank you everyone for being here. Now let's cut this ribbon.