Evergreen Chamber of Commerce Guide - 22

EVERGREEN

STRONGER AND
BETTER THAN EVER
As the calendar changed from 2019 to 2020,
your Evergreen Area Chamber of Commerce
had big plans. After all, 2020 was the Chamber's 50th anniversary so there was much to
celebrate. In early March, we began with our
Annual Honoree Celebration which honors
nonprofits and volunteers for the invaluable
service they provide to our community. Area
restaurants partnered to help thank and celebrate all the work accomplished by the nonprofits and the Chamber partnered with Leadership Evergreen to highlight one specific
leader who rose above all others.
A few short weeks later, all events came to
a screeching halt and the Chamber quickly
adjusted to act as a resource for information to our community and a resource for area
businesses to help them stay open. In April,
the Chamber launched a campaign allowing anyone in the community to purchase gift
cards to area businesses in $25 increments
from the Chamber website. Businesses that
had to shut down for six weeks turned to the
Chamber to sell gift cards that they could
honor once their doors reopened. The Chamber kept a listing on our website of all the
businesses in the community, updating who
was open and what their hours were. Over
45 local businesses participated and over
$10,000 was spent, $25 per purchase.
At the same time, the Chamber launched
a community-wide program called " Take Out
and Take Over " encouraging all in Evergreen
to order take-out from local area restaurants to help keep them open and their staff
employed. The Chamber personnel could
even be seen helping restaurants serve their
customers as they drove up to the door by
running the food out to the cars! All Chamber social media platforms were utilized to
encourage everyone to continue to take their
favorite meals, and favorite cocktails, home
to enjoy. This led to a " Virtual Taste of Evergreen " whereby residents posted pictures
on social media of the take-out they had purchased. The restaurants encouraged their
take-out customers to post pictures and the
establishments who had the most postings
received extra marketing resources.
Once businesses reopened in May, the
Evergreen Chamber partnered with the Conifer Chamber for a " Fox Scavenger Hunt. "
Local businesses placed a small cut-out fox in
their businesses and shoppers had to hunt to

find the fox. The whole goal was to encourage
shoppers to revisit their favorite stores and to
visit a few new ones as well.
Once the summer rolled around and it was
clear that the Chamber would not be able to
host the big community celebration it had
planned, a pivot was initiated and the Chamber used the funds we had set aside to help
our area businesses. The Chamber purchased
$50 gift cards to many businesses in and
around Evergreen. A Chamber photographer
went to those businesses to photograph what
someone could purchase for $50. From there
a social media campaign ensued encouraging anyone in our community to email us a
copy of a receipt showing they had spent
$50 at an area business and then they were
entered into a daily drawing to win one of the
$50 gift cards the Chamber had purchased.
It was so nice to see so many smiling faces at
the Chamber office for a socially distanced
photograph.
While so many events were cancelled in
2020, including our Women of Evergreen
Business celebration, our Taste of Evergreen
evening, our Annual Sparkle and Shine awards
night, and our Santa Breakfast, we were most
sad that we had to cancel the Skate the Lake
celebration for New Year's Eve. One of the
main benefits of Skate the Lake is to provide
an alcohol-free, family celebration for people
of all ages. It is one of the best nights in Evergreen all year long.
Once again, a pivot to the rescue! We were
excited to be able to design a program for the
holiday season that not only could people of

Evergreen Area Chamber of Commerce 1970-2021 | 51 Years Proudly Serving Evergreen!

all ages in our community enjoy together, but
also on their own schedule and with just their
household members. Fortunately, Santa Claus
was able to stop into the Chamber offices
to read some of our favorite Christmas classics by our fireplace while some elves nearby
videotaped him. That allowed us to release
the storytelling segments virtually across the
Chamber website and social media, allowing parents and their kids to enjoy them from
home when convenient to them. Then we
partnered with award-winning ice sculptors
to create magical sculptures of characters or
scenes from these books all around the community. Once again, families could visit the
sculptures on their schedule and record some
family time with some fun photos.
It's true; 2020 was not what we had
planned. But as Ben Franklin said, " Out of
adversity comes opportunity. " We appreciated the opportunity to act as a champion,
convener and catalyst for the businesses of
our community in 2020 and feel privileged to
be able to continue for 2021!

2020 HONOREE CELEBRATION

WILD HONEY PHOTO & FILM

by Penny Randell

Evergreen Chamber of Commerce Guide

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