Chamber Mixer hosted by KMUD
09/24/2014


Please join KMUD and the Garberville Redway Area Chamber of Commerce at the Garberville Chamber Mixer on Wednesday September 24th at 6pm at the Garberville Vets Hall on Conger St.
There will be beverages, small plates, music and great people, we hope to see you there!

 

Wow!  This month marks 1 year that I have been in this office!  I have learned a lot.  I honestly did not know how much work was involved with this job, and although I do get a little overwhelmed at times, I truly enjoy it and appreciate the opportunity you all have given me.  
Talking with locals and tourists can be very interesting, and sometimes time consuming.  I love being proactive for a better community.  People are always coming in with suggestions and/or complaints.  I have had the most interesting requests here- "Can you get me a building permit?  Do I pay my property taxes here?  I need to make a land payment, can I do that here?  The city of Garberville needs to..."  I find myself continually saying, "I am the director of a non profit organization, we are not a government entity or a bank..."  Then I get them pointed in the right direction and off they go.  
 I love helping people decide what to do and see on their vacations, as well as which route to take!  I have found that personally knowing different parts of Northern California is a huge help in this office. A man came in not too long ago that was looking for a place somewhere in California that his friend told him about offering enzyme baths in cedar chips.  I knew exactly what he was looking for!  It was a place called Osmosis in rural Sonoma county, down the road from where I grew up.  I was able to direct him to our options of local fine eateries and other places of interest to visit before sending him on his way.  He was so pleased to have a clear vision of where he was heading!  It made both of our days.

Now that I have my own clear picture of what my job looks like, I have some goals for the coming year that I hope you all enjoy.  The first is to get this newsletter out more towards the beginning of each month!  I also would like to have more Chamber Mixers this year.  We will be kicking that goal off with one this Wednesday at 6pm in the Vets Hall.  It is being sponsored by KMUD.  I have several members in line to host more, so I hope you all enjoy getting to know other Chamber Members!  I have also had requests for more Arts Alive events and I would like to help organize some sort of regular Saturday Sidewalk Sales in town when the weather is nice.  I have some ideas for brochures/information that I wouldlike to put together and be able to hand out to people.  

It has been great networking with the other Chamber Directors in Humboldt and Del Norte.  I find myself saying, let's stop by the Chamber of Commerce or Visitor Center when we go places, of course my boys roll their eyes...  But it has certainly opened mine to the posibilites for this office.

It has been an interesting year, I look forward to the next with hopefully more rain!

Have a great day!
 

The Merchants Guild continues to work hard.  Rick can be seen in Redway and Garberville and everywhere in betweeen picking up trash and such.  We are so grateful to have him working with us!  As fall approaches, we are preparing for the onslought of leaves on the sidewalks.  We will do our best to keep up.  We would love to pressure wash the sidewalks, but feel that it is inappropriate due to our current drought conditions, let's hope for good rain this year!  We appreciate everyone's contributions to this project!  If you have an area that needs more attention, call or email the Chamber office.

Our efforts towards more law enforcemtent is Southern Humboldt are ongoing. Sheriff Downey has done some scheduling adjustments that will allow extra officers in rural Humboldt county on a random rotation, as you may have read about in the Redwood Times article last week.  The Sheriff's office has been working with the Department of Fish and Game recently, in the river bar and streams recently and will continue with other agencies to help with some of the problems we are having.  The Chamber will continue to persue more law enforcement coverage.

We also wanted to remind our members about the value of motion sensor lighting around your business or home.  It is a simple way to deter criminal activity and unwanted tresspassers on your property.  It is a topic that continues to come up in conversations and research about how we can make this a better place.  Our local hardware stores, Redway True Value and Southern Humboldt Builders Ace Hardware, have access to a variety of options to fit your needs.

 

Humboldt Restaurant Week

In light of all the fires burning in California, with still more fire season to go, I wanted to pass along some links to the Red Cross chapters around Northern California.  They are always there when a community needs them for so many different reasons.  I know that when I was a kid growing up on the Russian River and it would flood, we were always grateful for their services.  They would bring hot food, blankets, clothes, whatever people needed to get through the disaster at hand.  I will never forget watching locals line up at the semi truck full of laundry detergent, Simple Green, 409, and bleach that the Red Cross brought for the community so that they could start to clean up their houses and return home.  Maybe that doesn't sound so important if you have never had your home or your whole neighborhood under water, then left full of mud.  But it is important and something that truly enables people to start moving forward after a disaster.  

Here are a links to the chapters around Northern California if you feel the need to donate or help out!
 

American Red Cross Humboldt-Del Norte

 

Red Cross of Sonoma, Mendocino & Lake Counties

 

American Red Cross of Northeastern California

 

American Red Cross Capital Region

 

Don't forget to check our calendar of events at www.garberville.org.  It is growing all the time.  Fall is nonstop with shows at the Mateel Community Center and at the Garberville Theater.  It is also a busy time for our local schools as they kick off their fundraising for the year.  It is easy to submit your event on our website, if you need help, email cahmber@garberville.org!

There are many great benefits of being a member in the GRACOC!  One is all the great features in Chamber Nation.  If you have not checked this out, simply login to see what you are missing!  If you need me to resend your login information, just email a request to chamber@garberville.org.
 Art of the Burl Redwood Gallery recently set up a website for their business through the benfits of membership with us.