Day 12 of 30: I Love My Town
I love my town. I've lived here all 35 years of my life so it would be hard to imagine living somewhere else. It wasn't until last year that I really started to get involved in the community. During the spring of last year, I joined our Chamber of Commerce to see how I could help and looking back I have to say that was one of the best things that's ever happened to me.
Let me explain a little bit. The Chamber had a Director position open. I saw the opening in our local newspaper and decided to apply for the job. I saw a need for my generation to get involved in the community and the Chamber board felt the same way. I was hired and my title involved a lot of different tasks: treasurer, social media manager, web designer, marketer, among other things.
So in the past year, I've managed the Walnut, Illinois Facebook page daily which has doubled in followers. I self-trained myself how to work on the walnutillinois.com website. I've met a lot business people along the way that I knew beforehand but have gotten to know better by working alongside them. I have done all the accounting for the Chamber. I helped create a Fall Festival in Walnut and marketed that event, which we were all very proud of. But, the best part is I work with an outstanding Chamber board that are fun to be around and are motivated to make positive changes to Walnut.
If you think the work I do with the Chamber sounds familiar to what I am currently doing with my own business, you would be right. I've said before in this blog that the combination of my sales experience in retail and my work with the Chamber has brought me to this point. I thank God for giving me those opportunities. Although I would have liked to be doing my own business years prior, His timing was right.
This past spring, the Chamber invested in bringing a MAPPING program to Walnut to build a strategic plan for the community. Born from this was a group called WOW or Working on Walnut. The picture above is from an event yesterday hosted by WOW that included a petting zoo, children's book readings, hayrack rides, and the revealing of a second Little Free Library in town. Our girls had a great time. It's events like yesterday's that WOW wants to have frequently throughout the year, making Walnut a special place to live.
The WOW committees are committed to improving Walnut in multiple ways. Tonight we have a Town Meeting and I am speaking at the event. I hope we have a good turnout and can continue the great momentum that we have.
As far as Jamison Media Services, I have a busy week already planned as well, including an important meeting with a potential client tomorrow. Keep following the blog for updates. Have a great week.
