Weekly Village Update 5.30.19

Chamber News

New Business is Booming!

We are honored to host Ribbon Cuttings for the following new businesses that we are welcoming to town with much excitement! June 12th at 4 pm: Grilled Cheese Cafe in SouthMarke! Not only offering fancy, delicious grilled cheeses, but also delivers downtown! This ribbon cutting will offer wine & appetizers! June 14th at 3 pm: El Rincon at 870 Main Street in Blowing Rock. Additionally, El Rincon opens for business today! Leticia Ruiz worked alongside Betty at Southern Comforts for many years, and has invested her life savings into opening her own restaurant in that space. She will be serving Mexican & American food. See the menu here. We are honored to support her! June 19th at 9:30 am: Village Thrift at 8332 Valley Blvd, Blowing Rock. This wonderful addition to our community will benefit the Blowing Rock Women's Club's scholarship program. Save money, find great treasures, and give back! June 23rd at 3 pm: Horton Hotel & Rooftop Bar at 611 W King Street in Boone with Boone Chamber. Will offer a memorable rooftop champagne toast to the first 50 registrants to sign up to attend! June 24th at 4 pm: Funky Tulip at 1127 Main Street (previously Sister Act) in Blowing Rock. Owned by Lisa Ireland of Tazmaraz! More details to follow with each event.

Pictured above: Gaines, Susan & Laurel Kiker, Zak Ammar, Hailey, Sheryl & Tom Gocke, Robert Smith Pictured above: Winners Laurel Kiker and Haley Gocke

8th Grade Students Receive Funding for their Start-Up Businesses! This year the Blowing Rock Chamber of Commerce partnered with Blowing Rock School to offer an “Intro to Entrepreneurship” class to 8th grade students. Students spent the year coming up with a business plan, a budget, marketing their business, and pitching their idea to a panel of “sharks” that would ultimately decide which student businesses would receive real funding to actually start their business. Precision Printing donated business cards to all of the entrepreneurship students. Hailey Gocke and Laurel Kiker received funding for their new businesses. Hailey's business, “Rose’s Art Boxes” will go to hospitals and nursing home patients as a way to entertain and pass the time during those often long and arduous hospital stays. Hailey is going to begin building art boxes to distribute to hospital patients and hopefully develop it further as a non-profit. Laurel's business, “Iced Up” will focus on baking cupcakes and other baked goods, available for delivery locally. Laurel spent the entire school year experimenting at home with her icing, to the benefit and sometimes not, of her family's tastebuds.  The class was spearheaded by Zak Ammar, Blowing Rock Chamber Board Member and owner of Vixster Waste Services. Zak is a graduate of App State’s MBA program and was the winner of the 2016 Business Pitch Day hosted by the Center for Entrepreneurship, making him a great leader for the class. Zak co-led the class with Blowing Rock School’s Digital Learning Coach, Robert Smith. Special thanks to not only Zak and Robert, but also to App State's Erik Schlenker, Blowing Rock's Chamber of Commerce's Tim Hilton, Jim McDowell, Loni Miller, and Charles Hardin for guidance.

New Member: High Country Happenings! High Country Happenings is a service committed to bringing people together in the high country through exciting, unique and exclusive events. Signing up for a monthly membership skips the hassle of dating apps and matchmaking sites. Come meet new friends, or something more, in a no pressure environment.  Learn more

Member Events & News

Round Up for the Middle Fork Greenway! A message from Wendy Patoprsty The Middle Fork Greenway is a legacy community project that will benefit the High Country for generations to come. Please join the growing number of businesses (135 and counting) supporting this community asset during the 2019 Round Up for the Greenway. Thank you to the 111 local businesses that raised $113,000 during the last year’s Round Up! Those funds leveraged over $1 million in grants for the next two phases of construction: ·     0.75 miles, from Tweetsie Railroad to Niley Cook Road, will begin in 2019 ·     1.2 miles, from Shoppes on the Parkway to the Foley Center, will begin in 2020 You can help keep the momentum going and demonstrate your commitment to our High Country community by participating in the 2019 Round Up for the Greenway in July. There are many ways to participate, including asking customers to round up their bill, adding a small donation to transactions, giving a one-time donation, adding a fee to online sales, the way you donate can be custom to fit your business!  By participating in the Round Up for the Greenway your business will receive personalized social media advertising, as well as acknowledgement on the Middle Fork Greenway website, in the Blue Ridge Conservancy annual report, and on promotional materials for the Round Up. Thanks to support from Precision Printing, promotional materials will be provided to you.  Please contact Wendy Patoprsty before June 14th to explore ways your business can be a part of this campaign and ensure that your business gets listed as a Middle Fork Greenway partner this summer. (828) 264-2511 or wendy@blueridgeconservancy.org.

Land Trust Day, June 1st June 1 is Land Trust Day at the Mast Store where you can visit with volunteers and representatives from the Blue Ridge Conservancy (Valle Crucis locations) and the New River Conservancy (Boone). They will be ready to share news about their recent work -- like the progress on the Middle Fork Greenway and the additions to the New River State Park -- and how you can help. At the end of the day, Mast Store is donating 20% of the day's sales to support their efforts to benefit all of us.

All money raised goes to scholarships to benefit local students.

Scholarship Rummage Sale Blowing Rock Women's Club will have a rummage sale at the American Legion Building on Wallingford Street. Sale dates and times: ·     Thurs, May 30th: 2 -5 pm ·     Fri, May 31st: 8 am - 4 pm ·     Sat, June 1st: 8 am - 2 pm Great variety of items offered - clothing, home goods, sporting equipment, books, decor, and more!

·     Download the poster

Casting Bread's 4th Annual Ducky Regatta, June 1st Food, games and fun - all to benefit Casting Bread Ministries’ efforts to eradicate food insecurity and poverty in the High Country.  Free Admission, Race ducks for $5 each 5 ducks for $20 if purchased before June 1st event. Purchase at the event or online at www.castingbreadministries.org. 194 Aho Road, Blowing Rock Share on Facebook

Sculpture Walk on Chetola Lake The installation of the large-scale kinetic sculpture by renowned sculptor,Mike Roig will occur on June 3rd at 11:00-12:30 on Main Street at Chetola. This marks the beginning of the inaugural cultural event, The Sculpture Walk on Chetola Lake August 9-11 from 10am-10pm. More information Mike Roig: http://www.mikeroig.com Chetola Resort: https://chetola.com/sculpture-walk/

Blowing Rock Woodworks & Alair Homes High Country to Host Open House on Saturday, June 8th Blowing Rock Woodworks and Alair Homes High Country are hosting an open house event on Saturday, June 8th, 12 - 5pm. It is a free event and open to the public, free food and light refreshments. Food trucks and local beer vendors will also be present. More info

More events can be found on our online calendar. To submit your news to our weekly newsletter, email Loni@BlowingRock.com by Wednesday. Our newsletter reaches over 1,000 member contacts each Thursday!

Chamber Information and Meetings

·     Chamber Board Meeting: Tuesday, June 11 at 8 am ·     Art in the Park: May 25, June 15, July 13, Aug 10, Sept 7, Oct 5 All meetings are held in the Chamber Boardroom unless otherwise noted.