Chamber of commerce makes 100 visits to members to celebrate 100 years

Jul. 10—The Lebanon-Wilson County Chamber of Commerce is spending 2024 celebrating its 100th Anniversary, and as part of that celebration, it made a goal to complete 100 visits to chamber members — one for every year that the chamber has been active in the community.

"As a chamber, it's thrilling to us to know that businesses want to have us come out to their business," Lebanon-Wilson County Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Melanie Minter said. "This has been a huge social media push for us. It's certainly something that we are excited about because we wanted businesses to know how much we appreciate them."

The reaction to the 100 chamber member visits has been positive from businesses in the area, and Minter said it won't stop there. More events are planned for the rest of the year, and more member visits too.

"We've been to industry," Minter said. "We've been to small businesses. Anybody that's a chamber member had that opportunity (to have a visit)."

When the chamber began working on a timeline for events last year, Minter said the idea was to have something planned for the 100-year celebration every month.

"We thought that a great way for us to highlight our 100 years, was for us to start with the 100-year visits," Minter said. "Obviously that will continue, but it's been really exciting for us to have that many businesses."

Some businesses planned their visits to the Lebanon-Wilson County Chamber of Commerce, while Minter said that the Chamber just happened to drop by and see others.

"There was no plan to (who) the 100th visit (would be)," Minter said. "It landed on the Friends of Cedars of Lebanon State Park.

Sara Perry, who does marketing and communications for the chamber of commerce, has been an active part in the member visits.

"I definitely think it's been exciting to see our members' reactions and it's been exciting to see not only the different industries, but also the different ages of the businesses," Perry said. "We've met with new businesses that not only were new to the community but also new to our chamber, as well as businesses that have been members for over 60 years."

Because the member visits were a part of the celebration, Minter said that the chamber created a traveling cake for members to take photos with.

"What better way to celebrate than with a birthday cake?" Perry said.

Minter said bubbles were another element that was added to the chamber visits.

"We're just celebrating with the bubbles and the cake," Minter said. "There are just a lot of smiles on peoples' faces. They were happy and we want to be here for our businesses and our community. To see different smiles and reactions, it's been a whole lot of fun for us."