New!…Certified Sweet Program »
As 2021 comes to a close, I would like to personally thank each and every one of our board members, our many volunteers and all of our chamber members for making our chamber so successful. Our volunteers contribute countless hours of their time and energy to ensure that our chamber is successful for everyone in our community. They are passionate about serving the community in this capacity. I would like to thank our sponsors who support us financially so that we can provide and meet the needs of our growing chamber. I would like to thank our Executive Director, Jessica Willis, for her hard work, dedication and time that she spends coordinating all of our events and for being the face of our chamber in the business community.
We had a very productive year, and generated lots of innovative new ideas and we were able to put all of these ideas into action!
In April, we held our 1st Annual Guns N Hoses first responders beach volleyball competition at Sugar Beach. We invited everyone in the community to attend and show their support for our first responders. The Youngsville Sports Complex staff was so gracious to us and helped us tremendously. We appreciate our sponsors who set up their tents for networking, as well as everyone who sponsored teams. We certainly enjoyed all the smack talk from both the YPD and YFD leading up to the tournament! Thank you YPD and YFD for being our first responder rock stars at our event. Congratulations to the Youngsville Fire Department for taking the win!
At our June Monthly Luncheon, we unveiled our Certified Sweet Program. Certified Sweet is a program designed for small businesses to showcase their products specifically made locally in Youngsville, LA 70592. The chamber wants to provide a platform to help launch these local businesses into thriving, growing businesses in the community. We proudly introduced our new branding for the program including a logo, shirts, clings, labels, and signs and we look forward to seeing businesses in the future identify themselves as part of our Certified Sweet program. #YoungsvilleProud
Our Education Chair, La Sonja Dunbar and our board awarded our Annual Chamber Scholarship to Sophia Spadoni. Congratulations Sophia!
Our Economic Development Committee has started meeting again and are in discussions about their ideas regarding business and economic expansion within the city.
In November, we held our 1st Annual Golf Tournament, Swingin Fore the Sweet Life and had 36 teams sign up to play.
Throughout the year, we hosted Sweet Life After 5 events and enjoyed visiting and networking after hours with everyone. We also had many ribbon cuttings and grand openings this year. We absolutely love celebrating these exciting and memorable events with our businesses!
Our Leadership Youngsville program held its second class this year and we are excited to have 19 graduates in this year’s program. They are all exemplary leaders and ambassadors for our city. I would like to thank Mayor Ken Ritter and all of the day chairs and program pioneers who coordinated all of our sessions. This wonderful program continues to provide a unique “hands on” approach to learn all about the challenges and growth in the city of Youngsville. Monica Meyers, our Leadership Youngsville Chair did a great job working with everyone to coordinate all of the planning for this year’s class. We will begin accepting applications for Leadership Youngsville Class III January 11th.
We kicked off the holiday season in Youngsville with Shop the Sweet Life and held our 2nd Annual Jingle Bell Knock door decorating contest. We worked hard to promote shopping local, eating local and reminded everyone how important it is to support our local business community.
In closing, we are proud to have a very active and engaged chamber! We all share the same passion and commitment for our businesses and for our community, and we are determined to continue to fulfill our mission in supporting our business community and sustaining a great quality of life for all. #Teamwork
Thank you all for your continued support! It has been an honor to serve you! I look forward to serving alongside the new board of directors in my role as Past President and wish everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous new year!
Angie Eckman
2021 Youngsville Chamber President