Stephanie Barnette
Special to the Minden Press-Herald
Summer arrived in full force and has made sure we aren’t forgetting what season it is. (Phew, it’s hot!) While most everyone else is planning to squeeze in that last bit of summer fun, inside the Chamber office we have Fall and Winter on the brain! Planning has already begun for our many events and activities that take place in the coming months. Just thinking about those events has us excited for cooler weather! With that in mind, I’d like to share with you some of our upcoming events.
To kick things off, we will host a New Teacher Breakfast for our Glenbrook and Webster Parish new teachers during their respective orientation sessions. The Webster Parish Breakfast will be July 31st and Glenbrook’s is August 6th. Our Presenting Sponsor for this event is Citizens National Bank. Along with Citizens and a host of Banner Sponsors, we can provide breakfast and treats to welcome them in their new roles.
The 4th Annual First Responder Appreciation Night presented by Town & Country Health and Rehab will be happening soon. On the evening of September 11th, multiple businesses and members of the community will join once again to show our appreciation for our local heroes. You can expect another night of fun, food, fellowship and fireworks along with a few new additions. We hope you will make plans to join us!
We are currently accepting nominations for the 8th Annual 15 Under 40 Awards Gala presented by TG Companies, LLC. Nomination forms can be found on our website – www.greatermindenchamber.com or you can call us at the office and we will email you one. The deadline for nominations is 4:00PM on August 3rd. Please reach out if you have any questions or need more information. The 15 Under 40 Gala will take place in October at the Minden Civic Center.
The Chamber will present a candidate forum in the near future leading up to the November elections. It is our desire to educate our members and the community on issues important to the business community while informing you on candidates’ views on important topics. We will be reaching out to the community for input on questions that you feel are important and need answered by the candidates. Stay tuned for more information.
We will close out the year with some Community Tailgating Events at our local football games, Farm City Prayer Breakfast, Small Business Saturday and the Christmas Parade and Festival.
You may also hear us “quacking” in the near future about a new event we’re planning…. We’re currently getting our “ducks in a row” before we make the big announcement!
Speaking to events, the Greater Minden Chamber website has a Community Calendar section that we try to encourage everyone to upload their events to. It is a simple form you can fill out that will let the community know what events you or your organization are hosting. We want to help you spread the word!
As some of you may know, the Greater Minden Chamber of Commerce building shares space with Webster Parish Tourism. We’d like to take this time to publicly welcome Serena Gray on board as their new Executive Director. Serena is going to do a great job at promoting all the exciting events and beautiful scenery of our parish. Over the past year and a half, we’ve built a great working relationship with their interim Johnnye Kennon, and are excited to keep a continued partnership going to make the Greater Minden and Webster Parish area the best it can be! Congratulations again, Serena!
I’d like to give a special shout out to our 2018 Chamber Champion on a successful conversion over the weekend to b1BANK. Customers will now have access to additional products, services, technological enhancements, and more banking locations through b1BANK. We appreciate them for continually striving to meet the banking needs of this community.
The mission of the Greater Minden Chamber is to create the best business climate in Louisiana. We must constantly endeavor to find new ways to meet the needs of our local business community. We encourage you to follow us on social media and subscribe to our e-newsletter to keep up with us and our local businesses. If you have any ideas that would help businesses or if you ever want to chat, my door is always open or I’d love to come meet with you. We still stand behind our slogan #TakingYourBusinessPersonally. Let us help you grow! In the meantime, have a great summer!
Stephanie Barnette is president/CEO of the Greater Minden Chamber.