For the Fremont Chamber, 2006 involved growing pains.  The Board took care, as did our office staff, of a lot of the paper pushing kind of work that doesn’t necessarily lead anywhere but must always get done in order to build, and strengthen, an organization.

It took nearly a whole year of discussion, preparation and searching for the Board hiring committee to finally find our new Executive Director.  In October, Michael Jerrett took on the title, and in the little time left him in the year, he proved that the Board spent their time very, very well.

We made good efforts, that sometimes met unsatisfactory results.  The Chamber advocated for a summer concert series to be held at Gasworks Park.  Unfortunately, those against won out.  We advocated against removal of a crosswalk at 36th Street and Greenwood Avenue, and saw the crosswalk removed anyway.  We wrote a letter and Michael testified on our behalf with other Board Members, at a City hearing to request more police officers.  We got some.  We also spent the year advocating against the narrowing of Stone Way, and still await a final decision there.

This year we completed many projects that often don’t get done in the normal hectic bustle of life.  We have a new membership brochure, a formal list of member benefits and a revised mission statement.  We discussed raising dues, and then tabled it.  We revised our by-laws and worked on a security kit for retailers.

In our office, phone calls, e-mails and mail were regularly responded to and our web site, e-mail notices and monthly newsletter kept members in touch with us and one another.  In this year of major disruption caused by the Fremont Bridge Approach construction project, the Chamber took a big part in disseminating information.  We continued to host informative monthly general membership meetings on a variety of topics.

It isn’t always about what we do.  The Chamber offers opportunities.  Our Oktoberfest raised $40,000 that we hope to spend on community projects.  It also gave the Rotary Club of Fremont a booth location to raise money for an edible garden at B.F. Day elementary school.  On a side note, Oktoberfest organizers garnered 4 state-level awards for their outstanding event.

Our 3rd Annual Lenin Lighting featured a celebrity lighter, as well as serving as kick-off to the Toast To The Arts fundraiser held by the Fremont Arts Council(FAC).  We also helped finance the FAC SPACE In Fremont art project and supported the Fremont Abbey grant application.  We directly sponsored the Head Of The Lake Rowing Regatta, Moisture Festival, Outdoor Cinema, and Music In The Sculpture Garden.  We funded Trick-or-Treat in Fremont, a meeting space at History House for community groups, and informational banners about the temporary relocation of the Waiting For the Interurban sculpture.  Finally, we promoted the B.F. Day Elementary School Fundraising Auction, the return of Tour de Fat and the Fremont First Friday Art Walk, as well as assisting in the solicitation of funds for renovations to the Wallingford Boys & Girls Club.

In addition to all this, we even got things done ourselves.  In early spring, we gave the Seattle Department of Transportation a check for the $140,000 we’d raised to pay for traffic circulation improvements.  During the summer we applied for, and obtained, grant money from the City of Seattle Office of Economic Development that combined with donations from local landlords to pay for community advertisements on the KPLU radio station.  In the fall, on-time and on-budget, the Chamber published 50,000 copies of the 2007 edition of the Walking Guide.  Throughout the year we welcomed visitors including representatives from the Canadian Embassy, an international shopping program and the Mayor of Seattle.

At the end of our 24th year, the Fremont Chamber completed many important tasks.  Perhaps the most important one of all, however, is that we’ve managed to hang together to transform a business district, and a community, with little more going for us than volunteers committed to doing so.

 

FREMONT CHAMBER AWARDS

As to volunteers, CONGRATULATIONS to a few of them who caught our attention with their efforts, and a big THANK YOU to all!

The 2006 Jim Daly “Press On Regardless” Award –
Jessica Randall, SPACE In Fremont art project

The 2006 Big Bertha Award –
Lillian Tangen, for putting up with us long past the point when anyone else would have consigned us to the netherworld!

The 2006 Local Hero Award –
Mike Hale, for all you have done and continue to do for the Moisture Festival and our community

The 2006 Hammering Man Award –
Lorelei Mesic for keeping those communication lines open and ruffled feathers smoothed between SDOT and the Fremont Community during the Bridge Approach Project.

The “Some Of Our Favorite People” Award –
Alan Bernstein and his crew
at the Seattle Police Department North Precinct

The Big R (or, Taking One For The Neighborhood) Award –
Pete Hanning for participating in the Mayor’s Nightclub Committee

The Best Promoting Award –
Desteenation T-Shirts

The “Gone But Not Forgetting Us” Award –
John Nordstrand for continuing to amaze us with his work on the Walking Guide, Lake Union District Council, the Web site, etc.

The “Way Above & Beyond” Award –
Shoshanna Osterfeld who signed up new members for the Chamber this year in her role as neighborhood vigilante

The “Let Freedom Ring” Award –
Phil Megenhardt, Jon Hegeman, Kathy Moeller
and everyone that wraps Lenin in red and sets him alight every December

The Beer Stein (or, “99 Bottles of Beer On The Wall”) Award –
Frontier Bank

The Incredible Endurance Award –
for the patience of retailers along 34th including
Portage Bay Goods; Pontivecchio; Capers; Fritzi Ritz; Istanbul Imports; Oasis Chiropractic; Mama’s Brown Bags; History House; PCC Natural Markets; Baja Fresh and Frontier Bank.

The “Just Being You” Award –
Harbor Patrol for all they do
(especially for the rescue at the Head of the Lake Regatta)