February 4, 2013

The first Business After 5 for the year will be Tuesday February 12th at Woman to Woman Clinic at 619 2nd Avenue North. It will be jointly hosted by the Estherville Lincoln Central School District. Invitations have been sent via email and please be sure to extend the invitation to your staff and colleagues. 

There are a few free months left so please get in touch if you are interested in hosting a BA5 this year.

Avera Holy Family Hospital would like to invite Chamber members to an open house to welcome new Physician's Assistant Chelsea Richardson. The Open House will take place on Thursday, February 7th in the clinic waiting room from 5.30-7pm. Chelsea will begin seeing patients on February 4th.

Is your business planning anything special for Valentine's Day? If so please let us know so we can help publicize! We're looking for any special sale items/deals or events you may be running. Please send them by the end of this week to echamberdirector@gmail.com. 

The Estherville Blood Drive returns on February 14th at the Duhigg Center (902 Central Avenue) in Estherville from 12.30-6.30pm. For an appointment, please call Donna on 712 209 0922. This drive is sponsored by NorthStar Bank and Agency.

Don't forget to check out our community calendar for what's happening in the Estherville area, and please submit your events!

ELC Basketball vs Hull Western Christian
02/05/2013

Coffee Tasting
02/09/2013

Wild Game Feed
02/09/2013

Business After 5
02/12/2013

Coffee House
02/12/2013

Estherville Blood Drive
02/14/2013

Singing Valentines
02/14/2013

Valentine's Day at Little Swan Lake Winery
02/15/2013

Improve your web presence
02/21/2013

Estherville Fire Chili Cook-Off & Spaghetti Feed
02/23/2013

Soup Lunch Fundraiser
02/24/2013

Estherville Farm and Home Show
03/01/2013- 03/02/2013

Legislative Town Meetings
03/02/2013

We still have some booth spaces left for the 2013 Farm and Home Show so please get in touch if you are interested. The Farm and Home Show will be held on March 1-2 at the Regional Wellness Center - hours are Friday 4-8pm and Saturday 9am-2pm.

Last year we had 1000 people attend so this is a wonderful opportunity to show your products and services to new (and existing) customers.

Registration Form
Event info
Map 

We're pleased to announce we're pairing up with Morphew Studios to offer a free seminar all about how you can have better web presence!

On February 21 from 7-9pm at the Estherville Public Library, we'll discuss what you should consider doing for your business to make the most of the digital age. From better websites to social media, we'll discuss options and answer questions to help guide you and your business. Please save the date and we will send a more detailed update very soon!

The Chamber will again sponsor Legislative Town Meetings with state legislators from our area. The first meeting will be Saturday March 2 at the Regional Wellness Center (alongside the Farm and Home Show) at 10am. Representative Ted Gassman, Senator Dennis Guth and Congressman Steve King will all be present to update the public about what's going on at the Capital, and this is your chance to ask questions or bring up concerns.

The Chamber's new website has the ability for classified ads and we'd love to get this up and running. The classified ads are located here. If you have a job opening, please feel free to list it on this site and we will link to this page in our chamber updates. The public can also submit ads for a number of items, including garage sales, household items, cars and more. We hope to get the classified ads to be a great resource for the area.

Excel! Estherville has partnered with KILR to run a contest asking locals why they love Estherville! We encourage you all to enter - all you need to do is send an email to kilrradio@hotmail.com and tell us the reasons you love living in Estherville. The Excel! brand committee will choose the best entry, and the winner gets $100 in Estherville Bucks. The contest runs all throughout February. 

Local artists are encouraged to consider being part of the Neighborhood Artist Review. Sponsored by the Excel! Estherville Arts & Culture Committee, Neighborhood Artist Review is an art showcase featuring a different local/regional artist each month. Please click HERE for the application - for more infor please call the Chamber on 362 3541.

The Chamber is involved in meetings to discuss the child care situation in Emmet County. If you know of anyone who is considering opening up childcare in their home or a day care center, please call the Chamber office. In addition, the group is on the lookout for appropriate spaces for centers - if you have any ideas please let us know. 

We encourage all members to look at their listing on the membership directory - do you want to add a photo or logo? Are you happy with your category? Click HERE for the membership directory - there are several search options, and when you click on "view all" the businesses are listed randomly, but you can also click for them to be listed alphabetically. If you have any suggestions or concerns please let us know.