| Issue No. 255 Serving the Entire Business Community November 2005 | ||
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The Christmas Basket Promotion Program Our Holiday Season promotion is now a Chamber tradition, anticipated by our community with great delight. We want to thank each of you for your past participation and we want to extend this invitation to all members, present and new, to participate this year. The Christmas Basket promotion continues to be a very successful community effort and terrific exposure for our membership. Thousands of customer entries are received each year through our participating member businesses.A Gift Baskets filled with products and services either sold or produced here in Plymouth is given away, one each week, during the four weeks before Christmas. Retailers may want to contribute specialty items they would like to promote. And, every year, the Retail Merchants Committee extends an invitation to our Industrial members to feature products manufactured here, for example, Del Monte Foods Corporation ketchup or Dean Pickle, now Bay Valley Foods, products. Highlighting these products will raise public awareness of items sold and produced in our community. This promotion brings customers into your store each week to sign up for these four drawings. Each week the participating business is to bring that week's sign up slips to the Chamber office by the following Monday. Customers must sign up each week. Each drawing is made from that batch of sign up slips gathered the preceding week. For a Chamber member business to participate, please call us at 936-2323 to let us know to expect your participation, as a gift giver and as a registration site. Then, bring your four like items, the goods or services you want to donate from your store or business, to the Chamber before 4:00 P.M. on Friday, November 18. Remember to make sure your business is identified (business name and location) on each product item. And remember too, your own in-house gift certificates, will bring the recipients back into your store. We will give you the sign-up slips, bucket, and posters. We prepare the gift baskets and display the contents of one basket in our front window along with the lists of participating businesses and their gifts beginning the week of Thanksgiving. The first drawing will be Monday, November 28th. December 5th, 12th and 19th will be the final three drawings. Chamber Staff note: Our Chamber members are the gift givers. They benefit from the influx of customers during this promotion. Your Chamber Staff works the promotion for you and reaps the most delightful benefit-presenting the baskets to the winners. Just wanted all to know that the grateful recipients over the years have tugged our heart strings and made this a very 'giving' promotion! Thanks for your help in this promotion! We wish everyone a prosperous holiday season! 
 The Farmers' Market "Build it and they will come" . . . They did! The tents are folded and the G & G parking lot is naked and quiet once again. That wasn't the case for 22 Saturday mornings since June 4, 2005. 
A small group committed to opening a farmers' market in Plymouth ìbuilt itî and they came - by the hundreds. They came in wheelchairs and walkers, on bikes and motorcycles, by foot and in cars!The group began meeting last January and those seeds grew into a highly successful Plymouth Farmers' Market - and a Plymouth destination. There were decisions on rules, where to have it, who would manage it and, most importantly, how to fulfill and maintain the mission of 'A Healthy Community through Fresh Locally Grown Food.' Help came from the City of Plymouth as well as Carl Stockberger who filled the gaping holes in the lot and Josh Wakeland of IE Signs who donated signage. On opening day, Helen Glaub never hesitated to agree to the use of the G & G parking lot. 'Chuck would have loved this,' she said as she cut the ribbon. She was, of course, referring to the former Mayor, Charles O. Glaub, her husband. WTCA sent Tony Ross to do a live remote - free. The Plymouth Area Chamber of Commerce sponsored and backed the venture all the way. Early on, not knowing what to expect, there were hopes for as many as ten vendors. Those with great faith in this venture were not surprised, when each week, the Chamber staff, who fielded calls from potential vendors, added to the growing list. 'First Saturday' was instituted as a draw. Shoppers listened to Jim Vinall's music as they interacted with clowns, greyhounds, alpacas and a juggler. Children had their faces painted and participated in a variety of contests - watermelon seed spitting, corn shucking and shelling and pumpkin painting. The 'Balloon Man' created helium-filled wonders and the VFW's '40 + 8' attracted the curious. And they came. Vendors came and went based on available produce. Many never left but changed offerings. Bouquets of cut gladiolas became summer sunflowers and then cockscomb. Mounds of zucchini, cucumbers and lettuce early on went away to be replaced by offerings of gourds, apples, a variety of squash and pumpkins when the market closed October 29. Some Saturdays, there were as many as 30 vendors. The weather guru was kind most days. Two mornings of rain with some hot, humid summer days and still they came and the Market did become the hoped for destination place- the launching place for visitors to explore other Plymouth shops. For many, it was an opportunity to simply sit on the bench in the shade of the historic tree and visit with friends over a cup of coffee. They came, they stayed and they shopped. Opening day for 2006 hasn't been determined but the footprint's been made -and they will come - again. Mr & Mrs. Santa Claus Return Visit to Plymouth Santa and Mrs. Claus will be back in Plymouth this November and December. Their visit last year was so well received and put such joy in their wonderful elfin hearts, that they quickly responded to our invitation to again open our community's holiday season with our annual Christmas tree lighting celebration. 
This year the annual Christmas tree lighting will take place Friday, November 25th. Girls and boys of all ages will again line Michigan Street in anticipation of Santa's arrival. The Marshall County Sheriff's Reserve have been invited to lead the Plymouth Fire Truck from Adams Street to the corner of LaPorte and Michigan Streets. The Plymouth Fire Truck will carry Mr. and Mrs. Claus, dropping them off to participate in the community's traditional Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony. There will be holiday music and song with inspirational words ringing through the air sending human hearts souring creating a joyful spirit to the festivities. Mayor Cook will engage the switch that will bring full color to the city's Christmas tree. The evening will be completed with the walk back to the Plymouth Fire Station for hot chocolate, cookies and a visit with Old Saint Nick and Mrs. Claus.Mark your calendar for Plymouth's traditional event to welcome in the Holiday Season: Friday, November 25th at 6:00 PM. P.S. Santa and Mrs. Claus have promised to visit again in December - the dates are December 10 and 17. More details will follow in the December NewsMonth. New Members
November 2005
November Inserts
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