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| I move like a swan ... |
Logan County Chamber of Commerce
ryancraig@loganchamber.com
There was great food, great decorations, great music, great awards and, honestly some great dancing by yours truly during the little soiree you might heard about from last week. Let's just say that awesome wouldn't begin to describe the Chamber's Annual Dinner last Thursday night — as well as my dancing — and we will have a full report this week, but first we all need to make sure we are attending the ribbon cutting Tuesday, so we will start with that bit of news.
LOFT RIBBON CUTTING
The Loft, Russellville's newest event venue — the logo says Urban/Rustic Environment for Entertainment — will be having a Chamber-hosted ribbon-cutting Tuesday (March 24) starting at noon. The facility is located at 280 E. 4th St. in Russellville. Lisa Haley-Miller — who also owns Creative Canvas by You and was responsible for the marvelous main decorations at the Annual Dinner — is the owner. Let's all come out and support Lisa and The Loft. Basically, be there or be a plane figure with four equal straight sides and four right angles!
There was great food, great decorations, great music, great awards and, honestly some great dancing by yours truly during the little soiree you might heard about from last week. Let's just say that awesome wouldn't begin to describe the Chamber's Annual Dinner last Thursday night — as well as my dancing — and we will have a full report this week, but first we all need to make sure we are attending the ribbon cutting Tuesday, so we will start with that bit of news.
LOFT RIBBON CUTTING
The Loft, Russellville's newest event venue — the logo says Urban/Rustic Environment for Entertainment — will be having a Chamber-hosted ribbon-cutting Tuesday (March 24) starting at noon. The facility is located at 280 E. 4th St. in Russellville. Lisa Haley-Miller — who also owns Creative Canvas by You and was responsible for the marvelous main decorations at the Annual Dinner — is the owner. Let's all come out and support Lisa and The Loft. Basically, be there or be a plane figure with four equal straight sides and four right angles!
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| The Annual Dinner Planning Committee |
ANNUAL DINNER
What can I say that hasn't been said about the Annual Dinner? Well, lots actually, but we have photographic evidence and those forthcoming pictures by Kristi Sweetsir Photography will be worth a couple thousand words, easy. Many thanks to the numerous sponsors, especially our Bourbon Street Sponsor Logan Aluminum; French Quarter Sponsor Carr, Riggs & Ingram; and our Garden District Sponsors BB&T, Therapeutic Pain Management and Creative Canvas by You/The Loft. Thanks to those who came out and decorated tables. Those who went with our Mardi Gras theme and ran with it. Also, and many have said this, Shane Hayes and Brent Summers should take their act on the road. There was great music by "Hear" who made me feel like I was in a New Orleans Jazz club. The food, by The Colonial Inn, was Gumbo-licious! I was able to speak with and meet a great number of the membership and the air of fellowship was tremendous. Thanks to Lisa Haley-Miller for the decorations and to the Russellville Rural Fire Department for helping us out with the parking. Also, to the crew who helped set up the room and the crew who helped take it all down, you guys are awesome.
In case you weren't there, here are the winners of the awards:
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| Lisa Browning with Brent Summers. |
• Logan United Award: Logan County Good Samaritan.
• Teacher of the Year: Ann Seidler (Kay W. Wilkins Preschool at Stevenson Elementary School).
• Farm Family of the Year: Richard and Valarie Hughes Family.
• Small Business of the Year: Bouldin Roofing Company.
• Corporate Recognition: Gerald Printing.
• Milestone Award: Moore Insurance, Jesse Riley and Sons and the News-Democrat & Leader.
• A special award was given to former Executive Director Lisa Browning for her 23 years of service to the Logan County Chamber.
• Also honored were Maria Dickerson and Brian White, who were outgoing 2014 Board of Directors.
• 2014 Tobacco and Heritage Festival Chairman Sandra Kinser and Co-Chair Paige Dockins were also honored.
Here is what one out-of-town member who goes to other chamber annual dinners in two states had to say about our little shindig:
Just wanted to drop you a note telling you what a joy it was
attending the Logan Chamber event last night. We are members of Chambers
in several counties and they could all take lessons from your folks on how to
make the annual dinner memorable. Thanks again.
Look for a tremendous amount of photos on the Logan Chamber Facebook page this week. The Facebook page is located at https://www.facebook.com/logan.chamber.7
105TH BIRTHDAY PARTY
Have you ever thought what would you want for your 105th birthday? Well, even if you have never wondered that, you can ask Ms. Nel, who will be celebrating five score and five years on Wednesday (March 25) at Hometown Manor assisted living community. The festivities will start around 10:30 a.m. and go through the lunch hour. Drop by if you have time and witness one of the oldest people in Kentucky (and probably one of the oldest in the USA) celebrate her big day. Hometown Manor is located on 108 Boyles Drive in Russellville right next to Creekwood Nursing Home.MISSION STATEMENT
In the last meeting of the Chamber Board of Directors, we streamlined the Mission Statement of the Chamber as one of the first steps of the upcoming Strategic Plan. So here is the new Mission Statement for the Chamber:
Mission Statement: The mission of the Logan County Chamber of Commerce is to promote and develop strong businesses, and foster a more vibrant economy through leadership, education, governmental affairs, and community development, resulting in a better quality of life for all Logan Countians.
DAYMAR COLLEGE JOB FAIR
Daymar College will be hosting a job fair this Thursday (March 26) from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. This will be an opportunity for those looking for work to network with local employers. For more information, I included the Daymar Job Fair flyer on a previous post on the blog. If you want to help Daymar with the job fair, call 270-726-8311.
WKU CAREER & DEVELOPMENT
WKU CAREER & DEVELOPMENT
Leslie Witty, with WKU Career & Workforce Development, sent me a very nice letter recently and sent more information about the program, noting its "specialty is in
soft-skill training — we offer trainings in areas like interpersonal
communication, teambuilding, leadership, customer service and much more.
One course that’s been generating a lot of interest is our DiSC course in which
people take self-assessments, learn about their behavior preferences (as well
as the behavior styles of their co-workers) and then incorporate these into
their specific workplaces. We offer courses as short as a few hours up to
programs that run throughout the course of a year." For more information, look below this post for more information from Leslie Witty and WKU's Career & Workforce Development.
RETAIL RETENTION/RECRUITMENT PROGRAM
Finally, we had a wonderful meeting last Friday with Melissa Halsell, the program manager for TVA Economic Development. Melissa was a fount of knowledge and was able to give us a good snapshot of the retail reality for Logan County. We are working with Melissa on the best approaches to gaining more retail for Logan County. For instance, Logan County "leaks" out Food and Drink dollars that surpass $13 million each year. That means Logan Countians spend that much money at places, restaurants in particular, that are not in Logan County. It is our job to see about getting Logan County in a position to get some of that money back and being spent inside our borders. Stay tuned for more announcements about our retail program!
That is all for now; don't forget about our ribbon-cutting, birthday and job fair events this week! Hope to see you there!
Ryan
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