Executive Director Message

Clark H. Caras

Spanish Fork and Salem have always been the home to winners and in the past month we’ve seen that tradition repeated several times in sports, including rodeo along with baseball and softball, in business with ribbon cuttings and storefront openings, and in civic pride with a golf tournament providing more than 20 high school seniors with scholarships, and the official kickoff of the Chamber sponsored 2015 Play UnPlugged program, along with the voting by thousands from our communities and around the nation that sees State Farm awarding $25,000 ensuring Chamber involvement with the movement for years to come!
And for myself the importance of all this is not so much the “winning”, but the involvement and pride of entire communities and population. For with that has come proof of the unity of “community”, which for me is what the chamber is all about. Unity of pride and the progress that comes with pulling together, whether for the cheering on of three boys baseball teams and a girls softball champion; or the excitement of getting neighbor and friends involved in voting on Facebook every day in the hope of bringing the guarantee of a proven youth program to 101 business doors for more years to come and Brag Tags galore.

With the smell of first crop hay in the air even on Main Street and on the shores of Salem Pond my message this month is congratulations to the Spanish Fork High School Baseball team and its State Championship, congratulations to Salem and Maple Mountain High Schools who literally and figuratively were right there with them; congratulations to the Spanish Fork High School Girls Softball Team and its State Championship, congratulations to the 20+ high school seniors from all four high schools in our Chamber reach who have been awarded a $1,500 scholarship from our Chamber and the Spanish Fork Rotary Club made possible by the efforts of more than 30 golf teams who braved thunder and lightning at Spanish Oaks and represented some of our finest businesses and businessmen and women in the area.

Congratulations and a shout out goes to the Diamond Fork Riding Club and Spanish Fork’s Parks and Recreation Department for seeing the second year of a sellout at the new Spanish Fork Rodeo Arena as the community welcomed the nation’s top cowboys and cowgirls in the Justin Boot sponsored Champion’s Challenge. And thanks to CBS Sports the entire nation was introduced to the beauty and excitement of what surrounds these neighborhoods and businesses as well as the unity of a community as it cheered on many of its homegrown talent in the world championship rodeo.

Yes, in the past 30 days we’ve seen ribbons cut in front of three Spanish Fork Main Street store fronts; that in their own way are champions for taking the chance and opening new doors in the promise of the building of unity among clients and customers served.
And last, but definitely not least; most definitely not. We have seen the efforts of Colt Sampson and his team at State Farm; unite a community and its people in an effort to take advantage of the great program a stand out national company such as State Farm does in sharing dollars made, $25,000 to be exact, but only if they are earned. And earned indeed they were; by 10 votes a day on Facebook by folks from north Main to the top of Elk Ridge and beyond.