march 2015 blair area chamber of commerce chamber...
TRANSCRIPT
Chamber
Happenings
Blair Area Chamber of Commerce
UPCOMING EVENTS:
April 1: Chamber Ambassador’s Meeting : Bring your own lunch @ Meetings at Grant Square 231 S 9th St
April 2: Ladies Day Out
April 4: Spring Fling @ Master’s Hand
April 7: Community Health Fair at YMCA
April 9: WCHAT @ Train Depot Lion’s Park
April 16: Blair Rent-It Center Grand Open-ing/Ribbon Cutting (Family Friendly!)
April 23rd: Hold Your Horses/ Generation Hope Ribbon Cutting/ Grand Opening 4:30 pm
April 24th: WCYP Town Hall
May 6: Chamber Ambassador Meeting at Our Specialtea
May 8: Chamber Golf Outing Fundraiser and Chamber After Hours (River Wilds & Woodhouse)
May 14: Chamber After Hours: Husker Siding, Roofing & Windows, Our Specialtea and Meetings at Grant Square
May 20: Washington County Job Fair spon-sored by BACC, Nebraska Dept. of Labor and Meetings at Grant Square
May 29-30: Blair City Wide Garage Sales sponsored by BACC and KBLR 97.3
June 11-14: Gateway to the West Days
June 20th: WC Mobile Food Pantry
June 27: Sidewalk Sale
* If you have an event that you would like on the Community or Chamber calendar, please get the information to the Chamber! We are looking for Service Group events, Businesses, Churches, etc*
What’s new at the Blair Area Chamber of Commerce
Wow, it is the end of March, where did the last month go? Things have been very busy at the
Chamber, but busy is good! I have been working away on the Annual Chamber Golf Outing Fund-
raiser, Gateway to the West Days, getting some classes and “Lunch and Learns” scheduled and
After Hours events and much more! The Social Media class in March was well attended and I re-
ceived quite a bit of positive feedback. I am working on getting another similar class on the calen-
dar. I am very interested in getting out to the businesses in the area when time allows. I want to
learn more about what the different businesses do and offer, and then with this, I would like to
help the Chamber Members work together more.
I would like to hear from you as well, the business owners and operators….what is it that the Blair
Area Chamber of Commerce can do better for you? Are you looking for more networking events?
Are there particular contacts that you are needing and not sure where to find them? What infor-
mation could we add to our website or newsletter that would be beneficial to you and to the com-
munity as a whole? No matter how small or large your business is, I am here to help, Any ques-
tions, concerns, ideas– I welcome it all!
The Chamber is working a new “Membership Handbook” that contains information about who
the Board of Directors are, the Chamber Ambassadors, Membership Levels and Benefits as well as
a full list of Chamber Members. All this information can be found on our website, however I feel it
will be a great tool to have available at your business should the need come up. Did you know
that one of the benefits of your Chamber Membership is the ability to place a banner ad on our
website? You get your member portal included with your membership fee, but for a small addi-
tional fee, you can place an add on any page! Your logo, or any info that you would like to be in-
cluded on it, for 3 months, 6 months or a year, and it will link directly to your website!
Are you a member of a local service organization? If so, I want to hear from you! We are working
on getting a current list of Service Organizations in Washington County with contact information
and what their “mission” is. This can then be available on our website and in our “Welcome”
packet for people that have relocated to the area. Lion’s Club, Optimist , Rotary, Kiwanis, Cosmo-
politan Club, what else is out there…? I have gotten some requests lately from people that would
like to get involved in the community, but they don’t know where to find the correct information.
If you or your employees are looking for volunteer opportunities, where do you turn? Another
project I am working on is getting together a list of organizations or businesses that need volun-
teers (what ages, hours, jobs are available) so that we can help match up the appropriate people.
Yes that sounds like a lot going on in the office here but that just means good things are happen-
ing! If you haven’t had the chance to come in and introduce yourself to me or Shannon, please do
so. I have thoroughly enjoyed my first month as Executive Director, I appreciate those of you that
have come in to say hi and look forward to all the great things that are yet to come!!
Jordan Rishel
March 2015
**Office Space for Rent!**: The Blair Area Chamber of Commerce has an office space available for rent. Quiet office in the back of the Chamber building. It currently has a large desk and credenza as well as a small table with four chairs. Utilities are included. Please stop in to the Chamber office or call for more information. 402-533-4455
Thank you to the Chamber Members that attended the Coffee and Contacts hosted by Home Instead Senior Care on Tuesday March 24th. We had a lovely turn out and some great new contacts were made. Thank you to Home Instead for Hosting this event!
Some of the Chamber Member businesses
that were at the Chocolade & Kaffe Fund-
raiser for the Blair Community Schools
Foundation. Clockwise from Left: Master’s
Hand Candle Co & Serendipity Chocolate;
Sam & Louie’s; Cargill; Butch’s Deli; Our
Specialtea.
Social Media Class offered to Chamber Members
on Tuesday March 17th. Thank you to everyone
that attended and all the wonderful information
that was shared. A Huge THANK YOU to Tara
Cowley from Great Plains Communications for
giving us a great presentation. The Chamber will
be offering more of this type of class in the future
based on feedback– watch for details!
New Administrative Assistant, Shannon Smithson
Shannon Smithson grew up in the Quad Cities, Davenport, Iowa. Moving to the Oma-
ha area in 1999 and then to Blair two years ago. Shannon and her husband of seven
years have a five year old daughter, Jadyn. Since moving to an acreage just north of
Blair they plant a rather large garden every year and tend to a variety of animals in-
cluding cows, chickens, ducks, turkeys, a horse and a dog. Jadyn keeps the family
busy as well with several activities including preschool, soccer, swim lessons, gymnastics and violin.
Shannon is an ambassador/volunteer for the Omaha Performing arts as well as with Eastern Nebraska Office on
Aging. She also does annual fundraising for the Alzheimer’s Association and helps with the Washington County
Mobile Food Pantry.
Shannon is a graduate of Iowa Western Community College with and A.A. as well as B.A in Marketing Manage-
ment from Bellevue University. Shannon has 10+ years of experience in print production and folding cartons.
Since moving to Blair she has held part time positions with Blair Public Schools and Taher Food Service. She also
continues a regular morning shift at the Blair YMCA. Shannon is very excited about her new role with the cham-
ber and the opportunity to meet more people within the community and be a contributor to the future of Blair.
Through some preliminary individual discussions among the four of us and a small group meeting including some additional people within the Blair business community, we feel that all of Washington County would benefit through the organization of the Washington County Young Professionals Organization. You may find yourself asking, “What is a Young Professionals group?” Our mission statement at this point is, “to retain and attract young professionals to the area through engagement opportunities to connect, share and grow.” On the forefront, our purpose for this group is fairly simple, to connect. The rea-sons for connecting may be for business development, community development, social networking or a combination of the three. Our goal is to provide you with a platform to do that. Further, the only requirement of the group is that you either live or work in Washington County, not both. Feel free to take the brief survey listed below if you haven’t done so already, or contact any of us with questions! Sincerely, Jordan Rishel [email protected] Sean Johnson [email protected] Brian Brown [email protected] Doug Anderson [email protected]
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CBYNWH8
Thank you to everyone that attended the WCYP Launch event on Fri.
March 27th. Next event is a Town Hall Fri. April 24th – details to come!
Our Specialtea is a lovely tea room and gift boutique located at 1630 Washington Street. It is owned and operated by Blair resident, Jean
Beckman. She is originally from Fremont but has lived in Blair for eleven years now. She has two children and five Grandchildren! Jean
has been in business for two and a half years in April. She serves up a great lunch from 11:00 am—3:00 pm Wednesday through Friday,
Saturdays she is open 11:00 am –2:00 pm by reservation only. Her boutique and gift shop has unique and “one-of-a-kind” items that are
just perfect for any occasion: weddings, birthdays, teachers, mother’s day, etc.
Jean offers catering for your special event as well, whether it is for 10 people or 200, just let her know what you need! If you have a busi-
ness meeting, or after hours, a wedding, bridal or baby shower, family holiday celebration, Jean can help you create the perfect menu
from start to finish. Jean really specializes in “Special Events.” She has held so many fun and different activities at her business. She has
done a Mommy, Daughter & Dolly Tea; last fall she held a Witches Tea where all the participants dressed up in different types of witches
attire; she also held a Duck Dynasty Tea and a Downton Abby Fashion Show & High Tea. Each party has decorations, food and drink to go
along with her theme,. Her most recent (and very popular!) event, was a Frozen Tea Party. She had Queen Elsa and Princess Anna attend
the party where lots of little princes came in their dresses. The Tea Room was decorated from ceiling to floor, the attendees felt like they
were a part of the movie!
Jean is proud to work with other Chamber Businesses and charities to promote the interests of our community. She held the Little Black
Dress tea event recently and encouraged the participants to bring in their Business attire that they no longer wear to donate it to Clothed
To Succeed. She enjoys being a part of the Soup Supper at the Sugarplum Festival, She has done the Scarecrow contest and she will be
one of the participants at A Taste of Blair during Gateway weekend! She is currently working on ideas for a “Bark-Mitzfah” that will hope-
fully draw in dog lovers for a fun event and donations for the Animal Shelter, and also a Teddy
Bear Tea to draw awareness to domestic abuse and provide teddy bears to the Police and Sher-
riff to hand out when they get a domestic abuse call.
For more information, please check out Our Specialtea on the Chamber website or on her Face-
book page!
BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT :
OUR SPECIALTEA - TEA ROOM AND GIFT BOUTIQUE
Blair Area Chamber of Commerce
1646 Washington St. Blair, NE 68008 402-533-4455 [email protected] www.BlairChamber.org
Sunday April 12 @ 1:00 pm:
Cinderella Ball
Check out Our Specialtea
On Facebook for more
Details!
March 2015
Blair Area Chamber of Commerce
1646 Washington St. Blair, NE 68008 402-533-4455 [email protected] www.BlairChamber.org
“Nothing Great was ever achieved without Enthusiasm.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson