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Birdwatching Means Tourism for SC Town

In South Carolina, tourism is big business and many municipalities outside of the normal tourist zones in our state are looking for ways grab a piece of the action.  Because of its proximity to the National Audubon Society's Francis Beidler Forest, our next guest’s town has decided to make birdwatching its tourism focus.

Mike Switzer interviews Colin Martin, administrator for the Town of Summerville, SC.

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After almost 20 years, Mike Switzer retired from Wells Fargo Securities in 2001 as Senior Vice President/Investment Officer and Certified Portfolio Manager. In 1999, he and his wife, Maggie, purchased and operated for eight years the Baskin Robbins ice cream store on Forest Drive in Columbia. They grew the store from a bottom-tier operation in the Baskin Robbins franchise system to one in the top 5% nationwide within three years, tripling sales along the way. While operating the ice cream store, Mike and Maggie received patents for a portable ice cream sink and fold-down sneezeguard they invented and in 2002 started Magnolia Carts, an ice cream cart manufacturing company, which they sold in 2013.