Marlboro County School District will return to a virtual learning platform according to an announcement signed by the district’s Superintendent Dr. Gregory McCord on Thursday (Dec. 10).

Downtown Bennettsville was steady with shoppers on Small Business Saturday.
Emmie Beck, the owner of The Ivy Shop, said it was a steady day for her business.
“It has been good so far,” she said.
She felt Small Business Saturday was steady for her.
“It was good to see people downtown,” Beck said. “It was a good way to support downtown.”
The Marlboro Chamber of Commerce and Main Street Bennettsville have partnered to help citizens to shop local and support the small business community. Shoppers received a “Small Business Saturday” tote bag filled with freebies. 
Shannon Burroughs, executive director of the Marlboro Chamber, said it went very well with 100 bags given out. 

The county had two COVID-19 deaths during the week of Thanksgiving.
Both persons were middle-aged.
There have been 16 deaths in Marlboro County.
As of press time, there are 57 new cases of COVID-19.
South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control reported, there were 127 active cases. The active cases can be found in the following zip codes: 29512 (Bennettsville), 76; 29516 (Blenheim), 3; 29525 (Clio), 7; 29570 (McColl), 29; 29594 (Tatum), 1; 29596 (Wallace), 7; and 4, unknown.
The county has 1,303 overall cases.
In the state, there have been 206,653 confirmed cases and 4,126 deaths.
Nationally, there were four million new cases of COVID-19 during November. There are 13.9 million confirmed cases and 273,000 deaths. 

Five years ago, Jalaya Liles Dunn started the Neighborhood Christmas Tree Lightings with three trees.
But now, she will decorate 10 trees with a possibility of two more in neighborhoods throughout Bennettsville.
“I am amazed that we have come to this level of this work,” said Dunn, who is the owner of House of J and coordinator of the event. “I knew it was going to be great because everyone has a good heart and was giving their best. This was a void we needed to fill.”
Kick-off for the tree lightings was held Tuesday evening at the City of Bennettsville Visitor’s Center.
City of Bennettsville  Tourism, Parks and Recreation partnered with Dunn.
Dunn said it has been a crazy year but it didn’t stop them from coming together.
The 2020 Neighborhood Christmas Tree Lightings has a theme of “Christmas Together.”

An altercation between a couple resulted in the death of the boyfriend.
According to Lt. Larry Turner of the Bennettsville Police Department, detectives were called to the scene of an apartment on South Parsonage Street in Bennettsville on November 27.
Detectives were advised by the patrol division that a deceased male, Steven Breeden, was found inside the apartment. 
Turner said upon investigation, detectives were able to determine that a physical altercation recently occurred between Breeden and his girlfriend, which ultimately led to Breeden being stabbed multiple times. 
EMS was dispatched to the scene but Breeden succumbed to his injuries. 
Turner said Denise Ingram Graham was charged with murder.
Graham is currently incarcerated at the Marlboro County Detention Center awaiting a bond hearing which will be set at a later date by a Circuit Court Judge.