UNITY ‑‑ Although 2021 was a quieter year for the Unity and District Chamber of Commerce – and the departure of Carey Baker, the Town of Unity’s former economic development officer, was definitely noticed – there was progress on some projects, and COVID-related changes to others.
Celebrate Unity was celebrated virtually, with a focus on new businesses and those celebrating milestone anniversaries. Videos were created highlighting each of those businesses and they can still be seen on the Chamber page of the Town of Unity website. They were highlighted on Facebook last spring.
Canada Day celebrations went ahead in person, organized by the Unity and District Heritage Museum, and co-sponsored by the Chamber and the Town. Museum tours, live entertainment on the museum grounds and fireworks in the evening were back as per pre-pandemic tradition, but no birthday cake was served.
The Unity Chamber, with the help of sponsors Altex Energy and North West Terminal, hosted Santa Day. Children were happy to meet Santa Claus and receive treat bags, but they were not able to sit on Santa’s knee.
A new format was tried for the annual Christmas local shopping promotion – “Put a Grand in Your Hand.” The Grand in Your Hand draw bucket travelled from business to business, with participating businesses having draws of their own and/or special deals for customers on the day they had the draw bucket on their premises. Congratulations to Kayla Caswell who was the lucky winner of the $1,000 in gift certificates.
In the past, participating businesses have each had a Grand in Your Hand draw bucket for the entire promotion period of three to four weeks. Feedback from the community on the old versus new format would be appreciated. Please talk to any executive member of the Chamber – Helena Long, Carolyn Kopp, Marcella Adams or past president Gerald Hauta – to share your thoughts.
One joint Town/Chamber project initiated by Baker was finalized late last year by Chamber volunteers. After many years of flying Canadian provincial flags on the downtown light posts through the summer months, it has been decided to go with new messaging and a banner system. Hardware to mount the banners was received late last year and the first set of banners is expected to arrive this month. Town staff will look after the installation in the spring.
Chamber meetings will continue to be held via Zoom for the foreseeable future, and are held the fourth Wednesday of each month at noon. If you have not been receiving the online invites, please let the president know: helena@helenalong.com or 306-228-8780.
