By Rebecca Adcock, Director
Patrick County Chamber of Commerce
“The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.” — Coretta Scott King
Where did January go??? I blinked and then it was gone. The snow hung around longer than the month did. The Chamber has been busy since finishing out the year. We closed down the Crossroads: Change in Rural America exhibit, packed it up and shipped it out. Seeing so many from our community interact with the exhibit was the inspiration behind the Chamber leaning into our “Community is our Business” tagline for all of 2022. We will be focusing on our community — from grants, to spotlighting our businesses, to our local non-profit and civic groups, all that work hard to make where we call home even better.
While the office may have been quiet from foot traffic with the exhibit gone, there was still plenty of noise happening with membership renewals and the Patrick County Magazine promotion. We mailed out our 2022 membership packet in the middle of January. Included in the packet was information about the new Patrick County Magazine, which we are partnering with Patrick County Tourism for production. This is going to be a great marketing tool highlighting our community for everyone inside and outside of Patrick County. We are launching the Spring edition in March with a follow up issue in September 2022. The Chamber is assisting in selling the ad spaces and creating content.
The Chamber was also busy with over fifteen meetings, from deciding on which community style grants to apply, how to work with our local entrepreneurs, workforce training and much more. We will continue our monthly lunch and learn sessions mainly via zoom.
With so many newly retired and new residents, we are going to spotlight a different civic or non-profit organization each month. In January, we promoted the Stuart Rotary Club. While some of their more known events have been postponed due to COVID, they have still been very active with trail building around the county, assisting the Blue Ridge Elementary School with its backpack feeding program and many others. They meet every Monday at 6:30 p.m. at the Hooker Memorial Building. If you want to be involved and help your community, check them out on Facebook.
Our February community partner is Caring Hearts Free Clinic of Patrick County.
New Chamber members who joined in January are Buffalo Mountain Ziplines, Crossroads Cafe, Good Samaritan Hospice, Martinsville Smiles Dentistry, Peace Production, and Providence United Methodist Church.
Upcoming Events include a community Meet and Greet with our new local leaders, scheduled for Wednesday, February 23, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Patrick County Chamber of Commerce, 334 Patrick Avenue, Stuart, Virginia. If you would like to attend the Meet and Greet, please RSVP the Chamber of Commerce at (276) 694-6012 or email patcchamber@embarqmail.com