Chamber Corner: WOW events and a new Chamber President

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother’s Day. The weather sure was perfect. Personally, I am blessed with the mother’s I have in my life. I saw a funny quote on a meme the other day that said the definition of a mom is a person who does the work of 20 people, for free. That couldn’t be more true.

Thank you to all who attended the Cash Mob event at Avanti Foods on May 6th. This was an event planned by the Retail & Dining Committee from the Working on Walnut Group. Yes, Working on Walnut is trying to plan for the future and attract new businesses. But, we also want to support what we have. The Cash Mob event encourages shopping local. Everyone that attended committed to spending $20 or more in the store that day. Avanti Foods did a great job hosting, providing free samples and great customer service. Look out for more Cash Mobs in the future if you couldn’t make this one.

The Working on Walnut Group has a lot of exciting things coming up:

On Saturday, May 27th from 10 a.m. to noon there will be a Nerf War for all ages at the “W” Field (old football field) on Main Street. Cost is $5 to participate and all proceeds will go to The Rock, a multi-purpose community center being planned by Walnut Community Bible Church.

On Sunday, June 11th, there will be a ribbon cutting and dedication ceremony of two Little Free Library’s. This will be for the current little library on Main Street and a new one dedicated by the Starved Rock Foundation on Depot Street. More information coming but it will be a great event for kids with various activities planned.

Finally, on Monday, June 12th will be the Town Meeting. This will be an event that the entire village is invited to, hosted by the Working on Walnut Group. The event will take place at Walnut Community Bible Church. From 5:30-7:00 p.m. that night there will be free entertainment and a free cookout for those attending. At 7 p.m. we will start our meeting. All six committees that formed out of Working on Walnut will have a presentation and booths will be set up showing what we are working on and what our goals are. We encourage everyone to attend and you may find a committee you are interested in joining.

I couldn’t end this column without mentioning our Chamber meeting from this past week. It was a great meeting overall and it’s an exciting time to be a part of the Chamber. We held our election of officers that evening and we now have a new President. Chris Von Holten is now taking over as the President of the Chamber and he will do a great job. I want to thank Brian Smith for his service as President these past few years. He has done so much for the Chamber, a lot of it goes unnoticed by the public. He has been an excellent mentor to me since I’ve been on the Chamber. Fortunately, he will still be a part of our board. Thank you, Brian.

That’s it for now. Lots going on in town. Pretty soon the pool will be open and there will be baseball games going on at the Park District every evening. As Brian as always says, buy a building and shop Walnut whenever you can.