March 2007
Chamber 101 Newsletter
I believe that Spring has finally
Sprung!! It’s nice to see some green grass and robins in the area!!
I would like to announce some
exciting news at the Chamber Office, we have hired a new employee, we
would like to WELCOME Lucinda McMahon!! She will be working in the office
part-time; It is so nice to have an extra set of hands in the office!!
She has excellent knowledge of Big Stone Lake Area and is ready for the
Challenge!!
We also have another addition to the
Chamber Family, The EDA has moved up to our office as well. It’s a good
fit to have the Chamber and the EDA working together in the same office.
I went from a lone ranger to an office full of women; it is working out
really great.
New BSLA Chamber Members
We are so happy to announce our newest
members in 2007……….They are
Bud’s Bait
West-Con
Studio 210 Salon
The Bird Feeder
River Street Brewing
Joan Hasslen
Welcome & Thank you for becoming a
Chamber Member…We appreciate all of our Chamber Members. The Board of
Directors has decided to lower the price on individual dues; we are now
charging $25.00 for an individual membership. If you would like to be a
member of our Chamber please call our office today at 320-839-3284 and we
will get you set up!!
Ribbon Cuttings
We have been busy, busy at the Chamber
office…In January we had 2 ribbon cuttings!!
Village Crafts and Gift Shoppe
located on Main Street in Ortonville had a Ribbon Cutting on January 19th.
We had an excellent turnout and we wish Peg and her creative personality
lots of luck!! Peg has beautiful items in her store and she has different
crafty classes all the time.
Pro-Image Partners had a ribbon
cutting on January 24th!! They are located in the professional
building on Main Street. They also had a ton of people!! Dan, Brenda and
Linda are so creative, go in with an idea and come out inspired!!
Congrats and Best Wishes to Both of
these new Businesses!!
Annual Meeting
The Annual Membership meeting was held
in February. Thank you so much to all of our members who came to support
the Chamber. We had a Mexican Fiesta theme this year; we enjoyed an
excellent Mexican meal prepared by the Matador. Thank you for all of the
business that donated items for the Silent Auction. We had a very fun
and successful evening!! At our business meeting that evening we have
added 2 more board members to our Board of Directors!! I now have 11
bosses instead of 9! Congrats to Brandon Finck, Chad Hansen, Steve
Roggenbuck, Jim Gregory, Brenda McMahon, Karen Oakes, Mary Ann Ulrich,
Renee Athey, Artie Arndt, Kim Sykora, and Sue Kaercher-Blake these 11
people represent you the members of the community!! Also, Thank you to
LaVerne Kaye for you past years and dedication to the Chamber!! Let these
Board members know your comments or suggestions !!!
Winter fest
We had another fun Winter fest
celebration!! The medallion was found a little bit easier this year, but
the weather conditions affect this hunt every year. I believe that it was
the coldest week of the year but Carrisa Kampen and Mary Anderson roughed
it and found the medallion on the 4th day they won $130.00 in
chamber bucks!! Thank you to KDIO for announcing the clues and to the
individuals who wrote the clues and did the hiding, it was found under a
big evergreen tree by the lower parking lot…those hiders are very tricky.
Also, thank you to the snowmobile club for another successful Ice Lemans /
Radar run. They had to move to the peninsula but they always draw a crowd
to the lake!!
Sports & Leisure Show
What a Show!! This show has been
around for 14 years and it seems to be growing every year. I was so
pleased to see the all the people. Thank you for coming to support the
Sports & Leisure Show!! Also, Thank you to all of the people who put on
seminars and entertained us over the weekend. It was so fun to have the
Waffle Feed to kick off our Sports & Leisure Show, the Kiwanis did an
excellent job of feeding us breakfast. We would like to Thank Village
Crafts for all the Craft Seminars, The MN Extension office for the Farm
seminars, the Sheriffs department for the boat Safety seminar, the Bramble
Park Zoo for the Show, The Swing Time Band for your wonderful gift of
music and of course those cute little girls that always do a wonderful job
of dancing!! We would also like to Thank all the vendors for taking the
time to commit to our show, it’s a lot of work!! We also appreciate the
Sportsman Pride, who do a bang up job in the auditorium!! Thank you to
Renee, Mel, Lucinda and everyone else who helps in anyway to make our show
so spectacular.
Fishing Opener
Remember the opener is a week earlier
this year than in past years!! April 21st is the date that you
can get your boat and fishing gear all tuned up for another season!! Good
luck to all the anglers in the area!! It’s always exciting to see the
boats roll in to town and the support we see on Big Stone Lake. Every
little bit helps our community!!
Border Walleye Challenge
The Chamber is so excited to announce
the 1st ever Border Walleye Challenge, the Big Stone Walleye
Club is hosting this event. This fishing tournament is the battle on the
border Minnesota vs. South Dakota with a traveling trophy!! What a great
idea! The date is April 28th for the tournament, if you would
like more information about this event you can look on our website
www.bigstonelake.com
Great Job Walleye Club!!
BSLA Business Association
We are a BUSY group of concerned
business people!! It seems that we always have an event that we are
planning and promoting to make our business strive to be the best!! We
meet on the 2nd Thursday of each month and our agenda’s are
always full of exciting ideas, we are always looking for more individuals
please come join us!!
Our latest fundraiser just kicked off
at the Sports & Leisure Show!! We are selling discount cards, the cost is
1 for $12.00 or 2 for $20.00!! They are good for 1 year and the savings
are awesome!! We are selling them in some of the businesses and also up
at the Chamber office. We are using the funds that we make to make the
community spruce up,!! We will be purchasing whiskey barrels for flowers
for the streets and hopefully if we sell enough we can do some other
projects for our community!! Thank you to all those who purchased and
also the volunteers that sold them for us at Sports & Leisure!!
69th Annual
Cornfest
We are in full swing of Cornfest
planning, the donation letters are out and we are busy planning an action
packed weekend. Kim Sykora, Joan Lein, and myself are getting the
entertainment lined up and it’s sure to be a great Cornfest!! More
details will be out soon and if you would like to volunteer please contact
the Chamber office. It takes so many hands to make an event like Cornfest
work we appreciate all the help we can get!!
Farmer’s Market
We would like to announce that our
Farmer’s Market will be back!! They will start selling on Saturday June 9th!!
That isn’t far off---The vendors will be selling on Tuesday and Saturday
mornings again this year. If you are interested in selling homegrown
produce please call the chamber and we will get you set up!! This year we
have set and alternate spot, Lakeside Park in case of in climate weather.
I hope that you will support vendors, they take great pride in their
produce!!
Calendar Of Events
April
11th Board of
Directors 12:00 Chamber Office
12th Business
Association 12:00 Mac Daddy’s
21st Big Stone Lake
Opener
28th Border Walleye
Challenge
May
9th Board of
Directors 12:00 Chamber Office
10th Business
Association
12th Minnesota Fishing
Opener
June
2-3
Bonanza Quilt
Show
5-6
MTT Fishing
Tournament
13th Board of
Directors 12:00 Chamber Office
14th Business
Association
14-17
Highway 12
Treasure Hunt
In closing, I had a lot to say in a
short time, I think that is great it means that we are moving and shaking
in BSLA!!! We have a lot to be proud of in our communities and the
support that the gets proves that we are proud!! Happy Spring and Happy
Easter from the Big Stone Lake Area Chamber!!
Thank you,
Donnette Herberg
