Chamber Corner: September 19, 2011

Magical Christmas in Glenwood Planning Begins This Week!

By Scott Formo

            Fall means a lot of different things to a lot of people. As the weather becomes cooler (as we saw last week), some begin looking forward to winter, while others are already dreaming of the return of spring or to getting the “heck” out of Minnesota soon before the snow flies! Others start counting down the days to Halloween (43 days from today), Thanksgiving (67 days from today), Christmas (98 days from today), and New Years celebrations (105 days from today). Yes, it’s just around the corner.

            During this time of year, the Chamber usually begins to gear up for things to slow down, but not this year! This year, we will begin to plan for the 2^nd Annual MAGICAL CHRISTMAS IN GLENWOOD and the 2^nd Annual POPE COUNTY COMMUNITY EXPO, which is scheduled at this time for Saturday, March 31, 2012. Along with these two events, we will begin to plan our Salute to Business & Industry luncheon, our Battle of the Businesses Bowling event, and Santa Day at Minnewaska Area Elementary School. While we would have liked to have already begun the planning for these events, we are still earlier than we were last year when the ideas came to life.

            If you recall, our MAGICAL CHRISTMAS IN GLENWOOD included such family events as the Free Community Supper &  Horsedrawn Trolley rides (Sponsored by Glenwood State Bank), Free Childrens Movies (Sponsored by Central Square), Free Cookie Decorating (Sponsored by Tom’s Food Pride), Letters to Santa Drop Box (Sponsored by Eagle Bank), Food Shelf Donation Drop Location (Soo Line Credit Union), Free Coloring Contest for the Kids (Sponsored by Pamida), Free Christmas Present Wrapping (Sponsored by the Chamber), Free Picture Frame and Crafts (Sponsored by Trumm Drug),  a Free Living Nativity, a Lighted Christmas Parade, and many, many more FREE activities all focused on the family and holiday season. The business and home lighting contest, along with the outdoor music throughout the downtown area all added to the festiveness of the holiday season!

            We will be planning many of the activities that will be held this year during the holiday season and as we did last year, please watch the Pope County Tribune beginning around Thanksgiving for our full-page weekly advertisements of the week’s MAGICAL CHRISTMAS IN GLENWOOD activities! We encourage you to participate in the activities that our local area businesses and organizations are working to put forth and also encourage you to REMEMBER to SHOP LOCALLY and get more chances to win CASH (Minnewaska Dollars) during the holiday shopping season. It proves to be another fun and MAGICAL CHRISTMAS IN GLENWOOD this holiday season. The first planning meeting will be held at the Chamber office this week, Wednesday, September 21 beginning at 5:30. If you have ideas that you would like to share or see come to life during the upcoming season or are willing to volunteer to help with an activity in the area, please contact Scott at the Chamber office (320) 634-3636 or by email at scott.formo@GlenwoodLakesArea.org and we would love to have you participate in the planning session and help to make this year’s MAGICAL CHRISTMAS IN GLENWOOD even bigger and better than last year! The following week, we will begin planning for our spring POPE COUNTY COMMUNITY EXPO and will be sharing details of that event very soon also.

            As we near the end of the year, fall is a good time for me to look back and wonder… “What happened to the summer?” As I think to my younger years, I sometimes become sentimental. I start to look at pictures of my childhood, my son growing up, and everything that has happened in the community since I started to get more involved in the day to day happenings around the area. Volunteering and getting involved in something (even if it’s participating in an event with the family) brings such a good feeling to know that you are making a difference and helping to build life-long memories for yourself, your children, families, and friends. Don’t take for granted what we have right here in Pope County! It’s great to see that one positive effect of today’s economy is that more people are finding things to do close to home, which provides a great opportunity to do things like we did, as my son would say, “In the day….” Family and community building memories will last a lifetime! Thanks for all that you do and we look forward to the all of the excitement in the coming months! Until next week….