Hello, and welcome to summer!

As this is being written we are putting the final touches on our annual Independence Day Parade, a free concert by the Syracuse Symphony and fantastic fireworks display! The Parade is brought to you by the Chamber and a great team of staff and volunteers that plan the entire event. Thank you to our Events Coordinator, Danielle Hayden; Committee Chairperson, Deana Masuicca of the Oswego YMCA; LuAnn Ketcham from the Oswego YMCA; Carol Dillabough from Novelis; Ellen Wahl, SUNY Oswego-RSVP; Marta Santiago, SUNY Oswego and Gail Goebricher from the Chamber of Commerce. Without all of their hard work the Parade would not be possible. The Symphony concert is sponsored by Assemblyman Will Barclay in conjunction with National Grid. Of course, we would not be able to host them were it not for the cooperation of Paul Lear, Executive Director at Historic Fort Ontario, the Friends of Fort Ontario and the New York State Department of Parks and Historic Preservation. Finally, thank you to the City of Oswego who generously sponsors the fireworks that evening. Our community and region are so lucky to have so many individuals, officials and public entities willing to sponsor and provide such wonderful, quality of life entertainment.

We just finished our first June as the sponsor of Tunes in June. This great noon hour event was started by Jeff Hodge when he was with the Community Development Office in Fulton and they carried on the event the last couple of years when Jeff left to pursue other avenues. Last year we co-sponsored with them and this year it was all ours. These four fabulous weeks of music would not be possible without the great efforts of Jan Rebeor who coordinated the event for us along with our Events Coordinator, Danielle Hayden. Each week brought tremendous music from Kimo Cortini and Friends and delectable food by four different Fulton restaurants. Of course our sponsors were the biggest contributors to the success; Fulton Savings Bank, Pathfinder Bank, Windstream, Pinnacle Dental and Canalview Travel. We also saw the attendance grow each week! While the weekly event at the Fulton Gazebo is over for now, we are putting the final touches on the Rock the Block event which will feature all four of the Tunes in June restaurants and the Cortini Bros. with Tommy Ciappa and Joanna Jewett. That event will be held on Wednesday, August 13th from 5-8 at the Fulton Gazebo. You have to make sure you join us it is too much fun to miss!

As you all know we have so many hard working committees that are a part of the Chamber. We have now added a new one – the Greater Fulton Business Committee. They have had two meetings already and will continue to meet on the first Tuesday of every month. The chair of this committee is Jamie Persse from Eastern Shore in Fulton. It is fantastic that Jamie has decided to fill this very important volunteer role. He will do a great job. Next month we will have a spot inside the newsletter for this committee to further introduce themselves. If you have any questions about the committee please feel free to call the Chamber for information.

Our next stop on the Business Committee development tour will be Phoenix. To all of our members in Phoenix, start planning you! We will be mailing out letters of invitation to an initial meeting on Friday, August 15th at noon. Please do some preliminary planning now and plan on joining us that day.

You know the year is half over. That is always a good time to stop and assess how goals are going. I want to let you know that the Chamber is doing a great job achieving all that it set out to do for our membership this year. To keep moving forward our Government and Community Affairs Committee will be starting to move forward again. In the next couple of months you will see articles in the newsletter about their progress as well.

We continue to make sure that we are doing the best job possible for our members and bringing you the benefits you want and need. The good thing is…we know we are because so many of you take time out of your busy schedules every day to tell us how great a job we are doing. So thank you!!!

Next month we will have more great information for you and all the necessary details for Taste of Oswego and Pumpkin Fest. Please keep your eye out for press information on those as well. I hope to see you out and about at our great Farmers’ Markets in Fulton and Oswego or at any of our other many member and community events. But if not I’ll talk to you next month, at the end of August. Time does pass much too quickly be sure to enjoy every minute!