This year’s Chillin’ with the Chamber provided great fun, food and music for all of our party-goers. While it wasn’t exactly “chilly”, it was still a fantastic event and enjoyed by all. Mrs. Frances Chauvin, our “Secret Weapon” told us that she “really enjoyed herself” which is a great compliment to the chamber. Our big winners were Mike and Emily Williams and yes, they walked away with $10,000! We also raffled off four box suite tickets to a Saints game in the Jani-King suite with his & hers $200 gift card to Ruby in downtown Hammond. Johnny Alfonso of Coldwell Banker was the lucky winner and will be headed to the Saints game in style. Thank you to J.J. O’Neil of Jani-King and Laura Lea Reid of Ruby, for donating the raffle prizes.
July and August are busy months for the Hammond Chamber of Commerce. We are involved in Membership 101, where new members meet each other; learn about member benefits and chamber projects and services. It’s an opportune time to meet new members and learn about individuals and their businesses. This networking and learning opportunity is held in the chamber conference room on Wednesday, July 15th at 8:00am and generally lasts only about an hour. It’s an hour filled with information, fun and usually we have a small breakfast for our participants. Join us and meet our new members!
We also have our Joint After Hours coming up on Thursday, July 16th at Gabriel’s Building Supply in Ponchatoula, Louisiana. For those who have not attended in the past, this is one of our most attended After Hours. Gabriel’s always has an enormous amount of food and a great band to top off the event. It’s always fun to be there and see the people of Hammond and Ponchatoula interacting with each other.
August brings the students back to Southeastern Louisiana University and with them a wave of activities. Our annual Southeastern Pep Rally will be held on Thursday, August 27th at Twelve Oaks on Southeastern’s Campus. Every year the Hammond Chamber of Commerce has a Southeastern Pep Rally as one of our General Meetings. We will have Roomie, the Southeastern Mascot, Southeastern’s Cheerleaders and Coaching Staff will be on hand to talk with everyone about Southeastern Athletics. Dr. Crain will be our keynote speaker and deliver the “State of our University” information. We, in Tangipahoa Parish, are particularly interested in learning how the state budget cuts will affect Southeastern and Dr. Crain will be there to answer any questions.
In September, the Hammond Chamber of Commerce and Southeastern Louisiana Business Development Center will host our Community & Business Expo. The event will be held on Thursday, September 17th at the University Center on Southeastern’s campus. We are signing up Expo vendors and we are currently offering an “Early Bird’ special. If you sign up for a booth before July 15th, you will save $100! We already have great sponsors for this event and would like to go ahead and thank North Oaks Health System, Nu-Lite Electrical Wholesalers, Express Employment Professionals and Entergy. We are bringing back the luncheon and speaker as well as informative break-out sessions. Our speaker this year is a young and energetic entrepreneur and will speak on “seeing opportunity and running with it”. Can’t tell you who it is just yet, we are saving that surprise! For more information about the Community & Business Expo, call us at the Hammond Chamber of Commerce, 985-345-4457.
The Hammond Chamber of Commerce continues to enjoy a successful year and while the economy continues to waiver our members have not wavered in their support of the chamber. We wish to thank all of our members for their support; we couldn’t be the vital and active Chamber of Commerce without you.
For more information on our benefits and services or to join the Hammond Chamber of Commerce, please call us at 985-345-4457 or email at members@hammondchamber.org. We are here for our members and please remember, we are the voice of commerce!