“The morning heat had already soaked through the walls, rising up from the floor like a ghost of summers past.” – Erik Tomblin
As you can tell, I am not a big summer fan. The long days are great, but I am no real fan of the heat. And August is just the placeholder while we wait for fall. But August is always busy with the end of summer, kids going back to school or off to college, or businesses catching up from all the summer vacations and getting ready for the holiday season.
The chamber used July to work on projects that will be happening in the last part of the year. We had planning meetings on Stuart Spooktacular, the Apple Dumpling Festival 5K, and a new event, Breakfast with Leaders. This ticketed meeting will bring together state, federal and local elected officials and leaders to give a roundtable update of all the projects and events going on in Patrick County. Ticket information is coming soon for the October 5 breakfast meeting.
Downtown Stuart was busy all month with Hill Studio representatives being in town to kick off the Downtown Revitalization grant. This grant will help with facade improvements, economic impact of the community, branding options, and a vision for what the downtown area could look like.
The chamber was also busy all month with multiple meetings regarding the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. This program mails books to children every month who are in the age category of one month to five years old. It is a great way to get kids reading early and helps to promote literacy and education for a lifetime. We are working with a group of committed partners to get this program up and running for all of Patrick County in 2023. While free to the program participants, we will need to fundraise to make this happen.
Final proofs and edits for the Patrick County Magazine were done this month, and we expect the fall issue to arrive back home mid-September. We know the magazine is award winning but was not eligible for the Friends of Southwest Virginia Tourism awards that were presented in August. Patrick County was fortunate to win five awards for four separate entities. Patrick County Tourism won two awards for best print ad and marketing video, Front Porch Fest won for best multi day event, Pickle & Ash won for best new tourism destination and the Chamber won for Partner in Tourism award. This is a pretty good turnout when we were up against competition from Bristol, Pulaski County and across Southwest Virginia.
Upcoming Chamber events: Scarecrows coming back October 1-31, Business with Leaders on October 5, Apple Dumpling Festival 5K on October 22, partner for Stuart Spooktacular on October 31.
Welcome New Member: Batts Blooming Blessings Farm, Critz.
(Adcock is the Executive Director of the Patrick County Chamber of Commerce)