“Gratitude makes optimism sustainable. If you’re grateful for the opportunities you have, for what you’ve been given to do workwise, for the opportunities that exist, you’re optimistic. If you can just find those moments, I always feel that if you flip the coin 100 times, you’re going to come up heads 51.”
― Michael J. Fox
Michael J. Fox was born June 9th, so we are going with this quote for the month!
June might not have been filled with chamber events, but it was filled with plenty of meetings and office work. The chamber hosted a ribbon cutting to help celebrate the new home office of Rural Services on June 1st in Claudville. The chamber opened public voting of nominated businesses and nonprofits for the 2023 Chamber of Commerce Awards to be announced in the fall edition of the Patrick County Magazine. The chamber also sponsored the Canva and Social Media workshops at the end of June. These were taught in partnership with the Longwood Small Business Development Center. Longwood Small Business Development Center is a key partner of the Chamber’s, and we work with them to assist new and current businesses in growing.
The Dolly Parton Imagination Library is finally seeing some return with the first mailing of the books. The chamber is proud to be a key organization that brought this program to Patrick County, along with One Family Productions, Rotary Club of Stuart, and Step, Inc. We have now opened the online registration, and the link is available on the Chamber’s website: (www.patrickchamber.com).
June was also the month of finalizing articles, photos and finishing up on ad reservations for the fall edition of Patrick County Magazine. Everyone has been so complementary of the magazine and impressed with the quality and information we provide in the magazine. We have entered the magazine for the Southwest Virginia Tourism Awards and hope that we will find out by the end of July if we win. On behalf of Patrick County Tourism and SilverLining Design, we are thankful for the continued support for the magazine from our advertisers. We are also thankful to the Patrick County residents who enjoy reading it and sharing it with friends and relatives. It is a lot of work, but we enjoy seeing positive responses from the magazine as well as sharing little pieces of the county with everyone.
The chamber closed out June with two major site visits. One was with several members of the Fish and Wildlife Department on the dams located along the Mayo River throughout the town of Stuart. As we work to attract more tourism and take advantage of our natural resources, removal of some dams for better fish habitat are key parts of that. Along with fishing, check out our newest member, Daniel Chandler, owner of Blue Hollow Fly Company. He is a local fishing guide for our area. The other site visit was the Lovers Leap project. This road project is one of the largest construction jobs in the state, and it’s happening in Patrick County. We all have different emotions about it, and sometimes those emotions change daily. The frustration and headache of currently dealing with delays is a daily occurrence. I respectfully ask for patience with this project. Residents have talked for years about the need for better safety on the road while traveling up and down the mountain. We are going to get that, but it will take time.
As we move into the second half of the year, plenty of investment is happening across the county, and we are excited to see it all. Fall events are right around the corner and the chamber is busy working on our Breakfast with Community Leaders, Stuart Spooktacular and Hometown Christmas. The Patrick County Young Professionals will be hosting the Voter Ed Forum this year on October 10th. And, of course, it all kicks off in September with the Patrick County Agricultural Fair, slated for September 12 through September 17.
The chamber will be hosting two ribbon cuttings in Woolwine on Thursday, June 27. First up will be the ribbon cutting at Woolwine Early Learning Center at 1 p.m. This much needed service is a new business in Patrick County. The second ribbon cutting will be at Backyard Cow at 2 p.m. Come and enjoy some ice cream after this ribbon cutting.
New businesses: Branch Civil, Blue Hollow Fly Company, fly fishing guide.
(Adcock is the executive director of the Patrick County Chamber of Commerce.)
