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Melrose
Area Chamber of Commerce Melrose, Minnesota |
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Area Chamber of Commerce Newsletter 1st Quarter 2009 Chamber@meltel.net 320-256-7174
"Things happen because people who care make them happen." 2009 Home, Health and Family Expo Saturday April 4th 9am-2pm The planning for the 2009 Home, Family & Health Expo is in process. We look forward to another great year of educational and entertaining booths. Here is your opportunity to showcase your products and services to over 500 people for just $75. As far as advertising dollars go, that price is hard to beat! Features this year will include free pictures with the Easter Bunny from 10-11 and balloon art and clown magic from 12:30-1:30. We also encourage people to bring their gardening questions and "ask a Master Gardener" at the Stearns County Master Gardeners booth. If you business doesn't lend itself to the expo, but would like to support another organization to be there, Great River Regional Library is looking for a booth sponsor. Please let the chamber know if you would like to sponsor them. Please take time to view the application today. Click Here to view Application. Please call the chamber with any questions you may have about this event!
Mark your calendars for June 25-27! See the tentative schedule below for all the family fun you can have at the Melrose Riverfest Celebration. A few things to note: Please consider being a sponsor of the event. Sponsorship information went out the week of February 16 via email, fax and mail. Please call the chamber if you did not receive one and would like to be a sponsor. Any amount that you could donate would help defray the cost of this very large and costly event. We will be once again asking members to help sell the Duck Race Raffle tickets. Due to no gate fee again this year, we ask our members to help out selling these to recoup this lost income. Our next Melrose Riverfest Meeting will be on Thursday March 19 at 11am at John Dough's Pizza (just prior to our general membership meeting.) Please contact the chamber office if you have any questions ideas or concerns with the upcoming celebration. Tentative schedule for the weekend: Thursday 7:30pm Miss Melrose Pageant Friday 6pm Bean Bag Tournament 6-Midnight Carnival Rides by "Cody Rides" 6- Dusk- Craft & Flea Market 7pm Riverfest Idol Contest 9:30 pm Kodiak Great Food at the Food Court all Evening! Saturday 8am 5K Run/Walk 8:30am Kids Fun Run/Walk 8am Little League Tournament Legion Baseball Tournament 11 am Melrose Riverfest Parade by the Melrose Area Women of Today 1-Dusk Craft & Flea Market 1-Midnight Carnival Rides by "Cody Rides" 1-5pm BINGO 2pm Melrose Fireman's Kickball Tournament 1:30-2:30 George Servatious Old Time Music 2:30- 3:30 Comedy Magic presented by Stuck in a Trunk 3:30-4:30 George Servatious Old Time Music Duck Race 5pm St Mary's Catholic Church Mass 7pm Solid night of music by Shaketown and The Buck Band Fireworks at Dusk Great Food at the Food Court all Day! Melrose Beautification Project
This is the time of year we begin to think about planting our seeds for our summer gardens, planters and window boxes. Here at the chamber we are beginning to think about the flower pots that line the streets of Melrose every summer. These pots beautify our city and make it look welcoming for both residents and visitors. We get many comments about how wonderful our flowers look the whole summer long. Once again this year we are asking businesses to sponsor a flower pot (s) for $25 each to help defray the cost of preparing, planting and maintaining the flowers for the season. Pledge forms were emailed and mailed on Wednesday February 25th. We plant 111 pots so please take a moment and review the forms and consider a donation, as this is one of the programs we do that really makes our city shine. Misplaced the form? Download the form here 2009 Miss Melrose Pageant
(Photo by ALee Photography) We will once again be looking for high school junior and senior girls that would like to run for the Miss Melrose Pageant. Sign up will begin at 8 am on March 23 with Carol at the Melrose Area High School Office. Please encourage young women you know to participate.
End of Year Scrip Money and Rosy Buck Report 2008 was a great year for the Chamber sponsored Scrip Money and Rosy Buck Programs. Rosy Bucks are designed to be the "hometown" gift certificate. Rosy Bucks are pink in color and come in $5 bills. They are purchased by businesses and individuals at the chamber office. They can be spent at local chamber members for products or services. The chamber members then bring the Rosy Bucks to their banking establishment to deposit into their account. Total purchases for 2008 was $28,125. Thank you to all who support this program including Jennie-O Turkey Store our largest purchaser. Scrip Money is a customer loyalty program designed to benefit the local non profit organizations. Individuals purchase the Scrip Money at their Melrose banking establishment and use it to purchase goods and services. They indicate what organization they would like a percentage of their purchase to go towards on the Scrip Money. The business then cashes the Scrip Money in at either Freeport State Bank or Central Minnesota Federal Credit Union. The Scrip Money is then returned to the chamber office to be tracked. Quarterly, the participating businesses are billed the predetermined percentage of the scrip money returned and checks are written out to the local non profit organization. Current organizations participating in the Scrip Money program are: Melrose Girl Scouts, Melrose Area Historical Society, Melrose Area PTA, St. John's and St. Andrew's School and St. Mary's School. Total purchases for 2008 was $29,600 in our local businesses and total donations to the organizations were $890. If your business or organization would like to participate in the scrip money program, please contact the chamber office for more information. 2009 Membership If you have not yet renewed your membership in the Melrose Area Chamber of Commerce, please do so today. Only with support of the Melrose businesses can this office continue to: field relocation and visitors information requests, answer questions about and give contacts for local businesses, administer the Rosy Buck and Scrip Money Programs, plan and execute events that bring potential customers to town (Home Health and Family Expo, Melrose Riverfest, Crazy Days, Holiday Kick-Off) and many more valuable service. Please call the Chamber if you have any questions about your membership today. Chamber Benefits Does your business offer special benefits to chamber members? Would you like to? Some of the current special offers are free advertising, discounted advertising, preferred placement in advertising, and more. Please let the chamber know what special offer you would like to offer to chamber members and we will pass that information along in the next newsletter as well as other information. Thank you! Ink Cartridges Recycled Here Remember that the chamber is a source to recycle your used laser and ink jet cartridges. We recycle them through "Funding Factory" and use the rewards to buy office products. Drop them off at the chamber office anytime, or call and we will come pick them up. Thank you for participating!
Upcoming Events March 19 Melrose Riverfest Meeting John Dough's Pizza 11am March 19 General Membership Meeting John Dough's Pizza Noon April 4 Home Health and Family Expo April 16 General membership Meeting El Portal Restaurant Noon May 21 General Membership Meeting John Dough's Pizza Noon June 26-27 2009 Melrose Riverfest Celebration July 13 Culpepper Merriweather Circus Shows 5pm and 7:30pm July 17 Farm/ City Crazy Days
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