Star Profile Maria Frank markets Still Hopes
By John Temple Ligon
Temple@TheColumbiaStar.com

Maria Frank

There is only one Episcopal home for senior citizens in the Midlands of South Carolina. There is another in the Lowcountry and none in the Upstate.

The South Carolina Episcopal Home at Still Hopes is just off Knox Abbott Drive between State Street and Ninth Street. It has recently expanded with accommodations for more than 400 residents under various levels of care. Still Hopes has more than 200 employees. It's Maria Franks' job to manage the marketing of Still Hopes.

Frank was born in Lexington, Ky., While in grammar school, she began helping her parents with their volunteer work assisting homeless people. While at Doss High School, Frank represented Kentucky at an international institute in Fiech, Switzerland.

Her brother Paul is five years younger than she. Her sister Mary Beth, six years younger, lives in South Carolina and works as a human resources director for a state agency.

Frank worked part-time at Hallmark as an executive assistant and contracted as a wedding planner while enrolled at Mid- America College in Kansas City. Her business-major studies focused on marketing and administration.

Her parents moved to Columbia for her father's position with General Electric. He later shifted into banking and retired from First Citizens Bank. Her mother was an administrative assistant with Honeywell.

Out of college, Frank visited her parents in Columbia in 1980 and took a position here as the state director for a home health care company.

Frank brought up her two sons in Columbia. Blake, 24, is an Army intelligence training officer in South Korea. Benjamin, 20, is on scholarship at Newberry College.

Frank worked for Colonial Life in the 90s with Frank Staton and Gayle Averyt. She left Colonial for Still Hopes in 2002.

Setting up shop at Still Hopes, Frank initially worked with an outsourced contractor, Spectrum Marketing of Gastonia, N. C. A new logo and marketing materials were among the results. Her early orientation at Still Hopes shared some advantages of her hometown experience as a teenage volunteer in nursing homes in Kentucky.

Among the total count of more than 400 residents at Still Hopes, about 200 are classified as tenants in independent living, which means half the population needs no assistance. On the other hand, the independents have made major decisions for the rest of their lives. They intend to stay at Still Hopes, and even if their financial plans fall apart, which is rare, Still Hopes manages an endowment to help. No one has to leave.

The acreage and the main mansion at Still Hopes were donated by Dr. Jane Bruce Guignard and her family. The Still Hopes campus is composed of 48 acres and now a new wellness center. For the first time in a few years, there is no major construction on the campus. The place is quiet, orderly, attractive, and meticulously maintained.

Still Hopes is a not- for- profit operation tightly intertwined with the Episcopal Church. It is a ministry first and foremost. And for that characteristic and others sensed in the spirit of the site, people move to Still Hopes from profit- oriented facilities, places as far away as Arizona and Florida, for example.

When she is not on the job, Frank unwinds with music, and when she travels, performance and concert tickets are always part of the reservations taken ahead of departure.

There are plans for Still Hopes Frank can't talk about. But the site is always under scrutiny, always visited by senior citizens and their families making life-long decisions, and so Still Hopes is always under continuous improvement.