Happy May! The chamber has been, and continues to be, busily involved with a number of activities, including working with our regional partners and legislators to expand broadband access and improve cell coverage, meeting with state officials to lobby for access to stimulus funding for local and regional projects, and continuing to work with both the Tri-Town and Dover Economic Development committees as they progress and mature into entities capable of better impacting our local economy.

We’ve also been hard at work developing cooperative relationships with other Southern Vermont Chambers, particularly in Bennington and Brattleboro, to see if collectively we can better advocate for Southern Vermont.

Thanks to a number of dedicated volunteers, we’ve also been very busy working on our upcoming summer activities including both of our Top 10 food festivals: the Second Annual Blueberry Festival and the Second annual Vermont Life Wine & Harvest Festival.

We’re still looking for Blueberry Festival Events from the community. We’re also happy to announce we’re putting on a parade in Dover, Saturday, August 8 at 11 am with the help of Dover economic development funding. Details on the festival or the parade can be found on our newly launched Blueberry Festival Web site www.VermontBlueberry.com.

Vendor spaces for the Vermont Life Wine & Harvest Festival are almost sold out – we do have a few specialty food and food service vendor spaces left. Many of our attendees as well as our vendors and sponsors come from a distance to the event, and we’re looking for your weekend lodging promotions for visitors and also looking for establishments that will offer special lodging rates to vendors and sponsors.

We have two important chamber events coming up - our first membership open house on Tuesday May 12 at the Hermitage from 5-7 pm. We’ve combined this with our May chamber social and are looking forward to a good turnout from both members and nonmembers. Without the support of our members, their would be no chamber. Special rates will be available for new friends of the chamber, sole proprietors, and business members joining through the rest of this year. There is no cost to attend, some great door prizes, tasty refreshments and a cash bar, and it’s at the Hermitage, you should definitely attend!

We also have our 11th annual Chamber Golf Tournament coming up on June 18 at Mount Snow - this is one of two events we do every year to raise funds for the chamber to offset our operation expenses, and we hope you’ll come out for the festivities and to support the chamber! 11:30-12:30 Registration 1 pm shotgun start. 6 pm cocktails, barbecue, raffle, and auction. $5,000 Hole-in-one and Sink a putt contests, silent auction, and more. Cost: $99 per person ($396/team) singles welcome - we’ll match you up! Raffle, auction, and barbecue only: $25 per person

Many thanks to our generous event sponsors Mount Snow, Honora Winery, and Mountain Insurance.

Congratulations to TPW Property Management on being voted one of the best companies to work for in Vermont! The valley also earned a number of spots in Yankee Magazine’s Best of New England Summer Issue: Best Family Hike: Haystack Mountain; Not Your Daily Grind: Old Red Mill; Top 20 Vermont Events: Great Duck Race May 24th, Deerfield Valley Farmer’s Day Fair: August 27-30.

On a personal note, I’d like to note the loss to our community, and our chamber, with the deaths of Steve Wrathall and Cindy “Jess” Weisner last month. Cindy was a great cheerleader for both of the chamber’s public arts events, frequently sending notes of encouragement and clippings with great ideas to me from her winter home in Florida. Steve was incredibly generous and gracious in his support of the Vermont Life Wine & Harvest Festival, meeting repeatedly with state and local officials and festival volunteers, helping us with setup, offering invaluable advice and, I’m sure, hard-learned lessons from his experience with the Garlic Festival. Thanks Cindy, thanks Steve, and thanks to all who work to make this a better place to live and do business.