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| Chamber
Profile Harwood Heights Chamber of Commerce By Randall G. Mielke |
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| The Harwood
Heights Chamber of Commerce is experiencing a lot of “firsts,” which
is understandable considering that the Chamber has been in existence
for only three years. The Chamber will hold its first Golf Outing, which is a fundraiser for the organization, on July 28 at Tam O’Shanter Golf Course in Niles. Earlier in July the group will participate in the Norridge Park District’s annual “Island in the City” Festival, held at Norridge Community Park. “The Harwood Heights Chamber is in charge of the business expo side of it,” said Chamber president Anthony Pinello.” We will have 21 booths for businesses.” Participating in Norridge events is typical for the Harwood Heights Chamber. The Village of Norridge does not have its own Chamber and many village businesses joined the Harwood Heights Chamber after it was formed in 2004. “It is my understanding that there was nowhere for business people to get together and have a voice with the village,” said Pinello of the Chamber’s beginnings. “The Norridge businesses came on after the Harwood Heights Chamber was established.” The Chamber has members from Harwod Heights, Norridge and Chicago. Even though the Chamber is experiencing things for the first time, Pinello was not the first Chamber president. The first president was Elmwood Park resident Elsa Volpe, who founded the Chamber with Harwood Heights Trustee, Mark Dobrzycki .
“Elsa stepped down and I filled in as
acting president for the rest of 2005 and then was elected in 2006
and re-elected in 2007,” Pinello said. |
Like many
similar organizations, Harwood Heights Chamber holds After Hours
events for chamber members at local
businesses. These usually consist of a chamber meeting and then a
social gathering. Other social/networking activities for the Chamber
include annual events, like going to Arlington Park Race Track. With only 73 members, the Chamber has not experienced exponential growth, but according to Pinello, it has grown steadily over the past three years. He attributes the growth to the Chamber getting more organized as time goes by as well as to the Community Guide the Chamber has published the last two years. The Community Guide is a great tool for the membership drive,” he said. “It has Chamber info, village info, letters from the mayors, an application to join the Chamber, school information and a Chamber member list, among other things. About 19,000 copies of the Community Guide are distributed to Harwood Heights and Norridge residents. We started it in 2006 and had it in 2007 and we have started plans for having one in 2008.” Currently the Harwood Heights Chamber does not have an executive director, but Pinello hopes that will change in the future. “We would like to get an executive director,” he said, “that is one of our long-term goals. Right now, everyone involved with the Chamber is on Volunteer time. They have businesses, or families, or they are village trustees, or all three.”
Even though the Chamber in Harwood
Heights is in its early stages, it shares the ideals of bigger, more
established chambers in terms of why businesses should join. |
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