 The Big Brownsville Bash has come and gone, and thanks to our wonderful sponsors and our great community, it was another hit!
We are still working hard to make the Bash the best it can be, and we currently have plans to involve several other folks to help us make it even better in the future. Stay connected to find out how you might have a part to play with us! We are excited to welcome some new members to the Chamber, including Garage Force of Southern KY, Arts of Southern KY (SKYPac), Edmonson County Health Department, Warnell's Family Pharmacy and Soda Shoppe, and Dad's BBQ and Catering...Welcome all to the Chamber! Some of you may have received emails about your expired membership. Don't worry, you can easily renew by paying your dues right here on this site. We don't want to lose any of our members, so please make sure your dues are updated. We're also excited about some upcoming events that you'll want to attend. First, we have a couple of ribbon cuttings scheduled and we are happy to welcome them to our family of members. Warnell's Family Pharmacy and Soda Shoppe will celebrate their grand opening on Monday, July 31st at 12PM at their new location on 675 S. Main St in Brownsville. We'll also host a ceremony for the Edmonson County Health Department, located at 221 Mammoth Cave Road in Brownsville on Thursday, August 10th at 12PM. The Health Department will have activities beginning at 11AM with the ribbon cutting set for noon. Finally, make plans to attend our first event of our new workshop series: Marketing 101, hosted by yours truly! I'll have a presentation with some very simple tips to help you market your business or organization with little or no cost, as well as some easy pointers for getting the most out of your social media. Many of you have great businesses but just a little help with simple marketing can have a big impact to make it even better! One final thought (really, this is the end): We want to welcome our newest board member, Mrs. Sherrell Thompson! She brings lots of experience to the board as she's been involved with a ton of local programs and organizations over the last several years. She's added so much since she was appointed and we are proud to serve with her. That's all for now and we hope to see you at our upcoming events. Thank you for your membership and continued support, Darren Doyle Chamber President
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Hello Chamber members,
We are putting the final pieces in place for this weekend's second annual Big Brownsville Bash! This year looks to be even bigger than last, with many more signing up for some of our events. First, we'd like to once again thank our members that have graciously sponsored this year's Bash, which includes: Rafferty's, Patton Funeral Home, A Plus Family Healthcare, Hidden Homestead/Scott Skaggs Photography, Alford's Pharmacy, Edmonson County Tourism, and Bank of Edmonson County. All are partner-level members and we couldn't do it without them! Some of last year's events are returning, such as the Big Bash Baby Show, Miss Brownsville Pageant, Car Show on the Square, Arts/Crafts/Vendor Fair, 5K Run/1M Walk, Canoe/Kayak Challenge, and the Cornhole Tournament--PLUS, some new additions to the this year's event. Those include a Tractor Show on the square, 4-H Rally Days and the Edmonson County Arts Guild display at the Heritage Centre, and we're focusing everything to the Courthouse Square area! Also included in the Bash will be FREE inflatables and games for the kids on Saturday, Food Truck Alley, featuring many unique food items, face painting, and of course, the FREE Fireworks Finale on Saturday night! It's going to be a great weekend of fun for your family so come on out and be part of your community! Thanks to all our wonderful members who have shown much support to our new approach to the Chamber and we are planning multiple events throughout the remainder of the year that include business workshops, luncheons, and more engaging activities. Thanks again, and we hope to see you at the Bash! Darren Doyle, Chamber President Thanks to everyone that attended our December Banquet and Award Dinner, and we'd like to once again congratulate this year's winners, Business of the Year Chalybeate Food Mart and Citizen of the Year Hoppy Decker. Both are extremely deserving and our community is very fortunate to have them both.
We've had a few new members join in recent months as well as some that have upgraded their memberships. We are honored to welcome new members Nolin Lake Dumpsters, Premier Heating and Cooling, Rocky Hill Inn, Zach's E-Z Dump, Watt About This Boutique, Edmonson County Hall of Distinguished Alumni, and Cats' Corner School Store at ECHS! Also, we'd like to thank A Plus Family Healthcare for upgrading to a Gold Partnership Level and an additional Gold Level Partner, Mammoth Cave Cabin Rentals for their support. We'd also like to thank Lake Forest Recruiting for upgrading from a Bronze Partner to a Silver Partner. Jay Holland of LFR has been very supportive of Chamber activities and events since they became part of the Chamber last year. Finally, we want to send a big shout out to Classic Concrete Service, owned by Roger Hawks in Chalybeate, who actually joined as a Bronze Member today! Thank you, Roger, and we look forward to serving you. Edmonson County Hall of Distinguished Alumni: We had a wonderful time last night at the inaugural Edmonson County Hall of Distinguished Alumni (HODA) ceremony in Chalybeate as seven inductees were honored. Dr. Kevin Clemmons, MSgt Larry Hawks, Jeanne Alexander Patton, Jerry Patton, Johnny Pete Vincent, the Late David Webb, and Johnny Webb were all honored as members of the very first class of the HODA. The Chamber was able to attend and host a ribbon cutting at the event, and it was great to see so many members in attendance, along with what will hopefully be future members! The acceptance speeches from the inductees were inspirational, uplifting, and humble--and all with an overwhelming sense of community pride. We'll leave you with this: Patrick Merritt has recently stepped down as a Chamber Board member so that he can focus on some new things for the community as CEO of A Plus Family Healthcare. We wish Patrick the best and still expect to see him often around the community. In the meantime, we must appoint a new member to fill his term and there have been a couple of names that have already been discussed. Hopefully, we'll be making an announcement after our next board meeting in February. As always, call Kayla at our office number at 270-597-4715, email her at edmonsoncountychamber@gmail.com, or visit edmonsonchamber.com for anything Chamber related. We are happy to see the new year and we're already looking forward for the planning of Big Brownsville Bash '24! Sincerely, Darren Doyle, Board President What a year it's been! Several changes, challenges, and opportunities, but your Chamber Board has worked hard to see that the Edmonson County Chamber of Commerce is moving in the right direction, and I certainly believe that it is.
We had the most successful Chamber Golf Scramble to date, due much in part by this year's corporate sponsor, Lake Forest Recruiting, owned by Jay Holland. We were able to give away over $2000 in cash and prizes and the best part was, we were able to get a new bronze partner for 2023! More details on that later. Kayla Childress, our new coordinator, has hit the ground running and has been a wonderful asset to the Chamber. Be sure to email or call her at her mobile office for any of your Chamber needs. We are proud to partner with Patton Funeral Home and the DAV Auxiliary to host the annual Veterans Day Luncheon at the Heritage Centre this Friday, November 11th. This lunch is a wonderful catered turkey & dressing meal with all the extras plus desserts and drinks. Free to not only all our veterans and their families, but for the community, too. Just come on out and help us thank our veterans. We will serve from 11AM to 1PM, or while supplies last. We're also working to schedule a couple of ribbon cuttings for some new members, so stay tuned for that. Also, be sure to purchase your annual Chamber Banquet and Awards Dinner tickets! They are only $25 each and includes a delicious catered meal with drinks and desserts. We will also present our Business of the Year and Citizen of the Year awards during the event while giving a recap on this year and looking into next year. The event is scheduled for Thursday, December 8, 2022 at the Hidden Homestead in Chalybeate. Thanks for everyone for a great year so far and we look forward to more! Stay connected to our Facebook Page, this website, and check your email for updates from the Edmonson County Chamber of Commerce. Thank you, Darren Doyle, Board President  Mrs. Kayla Childress, newly hired Edmonson County Chamber of Commerce Coordinator. The Edmonson County Chamber of Commerce is pleased to announce the hiring of our brand new Chamber Coordinator, Mrs. Kayla Childress. We welcome Kayla, an ECHS graduate, who is looking to take a bigger role in her community involvement here in Edmonson County. She and her family reside in Brownsville and Kayla attended her first board meeting today, jumping right into action. She will be helping plan and facilitate the remainder of the Chamber events and activities on the calendar for the rest of the year while gearing up for next year's events. We also had a great time last week at Honeybee Baked Goods, located at the Byrd Center in Chalybeate. Owner Angie Wingfield was shocked at the crowd size at her ribbon cutting. She probably sold as many sweet treats to us board members as she did anyone else! The Chamber is looking forward to three upcoming events, the first of which is our Fall Cookout on the Square. No frills, no big deal, just free burgers, hot dogs, and drinks on the square. That's right--just stop by, grab some food and enjoy! It's just one way we can say 'thank you' to our community for all your support throughout 2022. We'll be serving food on Saturday, September 24th from 11AM until 1PM, while supplies last, limit one meal per person. Then, on Thursday, October 13th, we'll host another luncheon at the Heritage Centre, sponsored by the board members of Santa's Helping Hands, INC. This local charity makes a huge impact on needy families, mainly around the holidays, but of course, they work all year long to make sure Edmonson County families get extra support where it's needed. They'll tell us all the things they're working on as their annual auction is being planned. Our Chamber Golf Scramble will be coming up just a few days after, on Saturday, October 15th. This event is sponsored by Lake Forest Recruiting Firm, one of our newest Bronze Partner members. We'll be offering $1000 in cash prizes, plus Perma Chill Coolers, gift cards, and gift certificates to some of your favorite restaurants and retailers. Contact us today if you would like to become a hole sponsor for only $100. All our board members are working hard to make sure your Chamber is doing what it's supposed to do--strengthening our local business community. Please say hello to Kayla if you see her out and about our community or at one of our local events. As always, stay connected to our Facebook Page and website and please let us know about the happenings in your businesses...help us to help you! Thank you, Darren Doyle, Board President We have finally begun the process of hiring a new Chamber Coordinator, now that the Big Brownsville Bash is behind us! Please click on the ad on our homepage for the job description. If you've got a bright and outgoing personality and are looking for a unique job for only a few hours per week, then please contact us!
It's also time for us to get back to the regular work of the Chamber, part of which is organizing and hosting events that are beneficial to our business community. So we are excited to announce our next Chamber Luncheon, which will be sponsored by the Barren River Area Development District and will be held on Thursday, July 21st at the Heritage Centre on Washington Street at 11:30AM. The event is free to the community and will be catered by Rafferty's. BRADD representatives will speak briefly on the organization’s Loan Relief Program; its primary goal is to provide financial assistance/gap funding to businesses who may not be able to otherwise get traditional loans, assist with COVID-19 impacted business, and support job creation/retention efforts in our region. We have also updated our calendar events--just look for "CLICK HERE FOR UPDATED CALENDAR OF EVENTS" on our homepage. We've got another luncheon soon after this, our annual golf scramble, and some brand new events TBA that we feel will strengthen the business climate in our community. As always, stay connected to our Facebook Page and this website for all the latest Chamber happenings. And don't forget--let us know what you have going on in your businesses so we can help you promote them! Thank you all for being Chamber members. Darren Doyle, Board President The first-ever Big Brownsville Bash has come and gone, and holy cow what a weekend, especially Saturday!
When the new board was faced with the task of making sure the Bash was successful, needless to say, we were nervous...Thankfully, with the hard work of our board, our Bash Committee (myself, Mark Wardlow, Josh Casey, & Daniel Bolton), the many volunteers and Chamber members who offered assistance, and our amazing corporate sponsors, we did it! The Big Bash Car Show on the Square brought more people into Brownsville than we have seen in many years. Providing opportunities for folks to do business with you, our members, is one of our main objectives moving forward. And not only the car show, but so many of the other events and activities were big hits. Thanks to the sponsors, which include Rafferty's, Patton Funeral Home, Bank of Edmonson County, Edmonson County Tourism, A Plus Family Healthcare, and Alford's Pharmacy, we were able to strengthen the Chamber's resources, which we are going to invest back into our members. In years past, the Edmonson County Chamber has been fully supported by the members, but haven't been able to provide much support in return. This is backwards and we want to see that changed. You already pay an annual membership, so it's our job to see that you are receiving the support that we are supposed to provide. So instead of having a crowded calendar of events that are ineffective, we are going to continue focusing on events and resources that are meaningful and that bring value to our members. Some of these items are going to be discussed at our June board meeting. We've got some great ideas that hopefully we'll share with you soon. So again, we are humbled by the support you showed by attending the 2022 Big Brownsville Bash. We are taking your feedback, using what we've learned, and are already making plans for next year. Click here to read the full recap with lots of fun photos! Like we said..."it's the next BIG thing!" Thank you for your continued support, Darren Doyle, Board President As we recently moved our clocks one hour forward to welcome the spring season, your Edmonson County Chamber of Commerce is also working hard to do much of the same: welcoming new businesses and keeping things moving forward.
Several changes have been made within the Chamber since the new year and your Chamber board hit the ground running with some very simple ideas that we feel will make some positive change in our business community. We've been listening to you, our members, and we hear you. A good friend of mine once told me "There are plenty of problem identifiers in life but very few problem solvers." I'd never given that much thought until he elaborated. Most everyone can see when a problem exists, which oftentimes follows with a "well, what needs to be done is..." but then there are those that can not only identify the problem, they also have the desire to help solve the problem. Your Chamber board is working right now to be problem solvers and the biggest problem we hear from you is hindered growth in our business community. We're trying to trim the fat on the Chamber's focus so that we can bring more benefit to you, our members. How do we do that? We work on bringing more people, events, and activities into Edmonson County so that they'll do business with you. It would be inaccurate if I told you the Chamber had all sorts of new ideas and plans headed your way for 2022. In fact, we're cutting back in some areas where the bang-for-the-buck has been lacking. What we ARE doing, is hyper-focusing on things we believe that will WORK, and work for you. One of those things is bringing a new festival that we hope becomes an annual event, called The Big Brownsville Bash. We're still working on the event list, but it's coming June 2nd, 3rd, and 4th of this year. It's a new event that will be centered around the heart of Brownsville: the square, the river, and the surrounding area. It will feature a carnival, a car show, food events, and so much more. Stay connected to this page and our Facebook Page to find out more as we get closer to the event. Greg Hudson, who stepped down as our director last week in order to focus on his local political campaign, laid much of the groundwork for the "Bash" and we wish him the very best as he moves forward with his endeavors. We also want to thank two board members for their service that have also recently stepped down--Tina Walden of Walden's BBQ, and Jeff Jacobs of Jacob's Home Furnishings. Both will be missed from our board of directors and we wish both of them the best as they focus on their businesses and families. I'm still brand new to this, so I'm learning as I go. While we hate to see our former board members and director step down, it's great to see the remaining board members continue to work together to keep the Chamber moving in a positive direction. Stay connected as we make plans for hiring a new director and we'll certainly see you at the Brownsville Bash! Thank you for your support of the Chamber, Darren Doyle, Board President |
