ELIZABETHTOWN — It’s 4,563 miles from Elizabethtown to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, but those miles won’t keep Hunt Cole and his Image Design company from being represented at the 2016 Summer Olympics in August.
Image Design, which has been in business along U.S. 701 South for 25-plus years, designs and manufactures signs, awnings and other items, which are then marketed and sold wholesale to other companies.
In some cases, a company that has a specific contract for items Image Design manufactures will call on Cole to fill that need — which is exactly what happened recently with a company contracted to supply signage for the men’s and women’s golf competitions in Rio.
“I don’t really want to say what company or give too many details about the signage we did, but this kind of thing is the norm for us,” said Cole, who is the owner and president of Image Design.
Other examples of similar agreements between Image Design and contracted companies include signage provided for Hilton Head Island, S.C., golf courses and furniture supplied to Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md.
“We have really good customers that allow us to do jobs like this,” Cole said.
The golf competitions at the Summer Olympics will be divided into men’s and women’s segments, each four days long. Some of the best men golfers in the world will compete Aug. 11-14, and some of the elite women will compete Aug. 17-20.
For Hunt, who said he didn’t even know the Olympics included golf until this job came his way, added that he is looking forward to watching the competitions.
“I’m pretty excited,” he said. “I plan to watch the Olympic golf for the first time — because part of this company will be there.”
Since there will be a piece of Elizabethtown talent and labor scattered across the Olympic golf course, it’s a safe bet many of Bladen County’s golfers will also be watching.
W. Curt Vincent can be reached by calling 910-862-4163.