Brainerd/East Brainerd Council

Chamber’s Brainerd/East Brainerd Council Moves Monthly Meetings

7th Annual “Bid on the Future” Live Auction to benefit Junior Achievement

Live Auction Offers Perfect Valentine’s Gift & Supports Great Cause

Just a few weeks before Valentine’s Day, Hamilton Place and the Brainerd/East Brainerd Council of Chamber of Commerce will host the 7^th annual “Bid on the Future” Live Auction to benefit Junior Achievement on Saturday, January 31 at 6:00 p.m. in center court at Hamilton Place Mall. 

Over the past six years, this event has grown from a small auction featuring only birdhouses to a high-quality event with a fabulous variety of perfect Valentine’s Day gifts.  The event raised more than $32,000 last year for our

K-12 programs which allowed more than 1,280 students to experience our program in their local classroom.

Featured items this year include a 42” Sylvania LCD Digital Flat Screen TV, 2 Continental Airline tickets to anywhere in the US, Canada & Mexico (except Hawaii), Nashville Predator NHL tickets, jewelry, Lenovo laptop computer, spa packages, 8 hours of professional interior design, sports memorabilia, 2 night stay @ Staybridge Suites in Charlotte, NC and a Coach Purse just to name a few.  The live auction will feature 50+ items.

Bidders can start their bidding now by visiting the online auction at  www.bidonthefuture.com.   The online auction will close on January 30^th.  The on-line items will be auctioned live on January 31^st @ 6:00 p.m.

Junior Achievement of Chattanooga is the area’s premier K-12 economic education non-profit organization, specializing in placing volunteers from the business community in the classroom to help students see first-hand the value of their educations. 

For more information, contact Brigette Thurman, President for Junior Achievement of Chattanooga, Inc. at (423) 892-4488 or through e-mail at bmt@jachatt.org. Please feel free to visit our website at www.jachatt.org. 

September Networking

If you missed our meeting in September, you missed our most popular Council event! Every quarter, the Brainerd/East Brainerd Council hosts a networking meeting designed to maximize your chamber membership!

Make sure to mark your calendar for the October meeting when we’ll hear from Dr. Tom McCullough from the Friends of East Brainerd, where he will update us on all of the excellent civic and infrastructure projects the Friends are working on to make East Brainerd a better place to live, work and play.

YMCA: Building Strong Kids, Families & East Brainerd Community

The May meeting of the Brainerd/East Brainerd Council of the Chamber of Commerce heard from one of the pillars of our community: the Hamilton YMCA.

Charlene Crawford, who has been with the YMCA for 16 years, wowed the audience with a presentation about the history of the YMCA, and the organization’s impact on our youth, teens and families. During her tenure with the YMCA, she has worked with children, teens and adults, and for the past 10 years has focused on children, youth fitness and childhood obesity.  She developed the Youth Fitness program for YMCA of Chattanooga Association.  Part of this development is the Empowered Youth program for overweight and obese youth.  In 2007 they opened the YMCA Kids Adventure Center that will hold up to 200 youth and adults.  This center is equipped to keep children and families active and healthy.  Currently her time is spent developing wellness programs for the whole family.

To learn more about the Hamilton YMCA on Shallowford Road, just drop in and ask for Charlene!

Other business addressed during the meeting was the nomination and vote accepting the officer’s for the Brainerd/East Brainerd 08/09 Board of Directors. Heather Holloway of FastSigns has been appointed President, Damien Power of Brewer Interactive was nominated President-Elect and Vice-President of Speakers, Greg Epps of Epps Financial Partners will continue doing excellent work as Vice-President of Membership, and Laura Covington of Covington Consulting has accepted the position as Treasurer.

HubFest 2008

BEBChamber.com New Look

The Brainerd/East Brainerd Council of the Chamber of Commerce is excited to launch our new design for bebchamber.com. In addition to looking more professional, this site features new tools to help you find the information you need.

Please bear with us as we bring new features online, and update old features. One of the new features is our new RSS feed, which lets you subscribe to our site through Internet Explorer 7, Mozilla Firefox, Opera and Apple Safari. Just Click the   logo in your browser to subscribe to the feed, and your browser will automatically link to the new story on bebchamber.com!

If you have any questions, or would like to discuss any news story on this site, click on the story title and post your comment. (Comments are moderated)

Council Event Update: Bid on the Future a Huge Success!

Thank You to everyone who came out to the Bid on the Future Live Auction, on Saturday, February 2, 2008. Thanks to your bids, and the support of our sponsors, this was the most successful Bid on the Future in history!

The auction raised over $32,000 in support of Junior Achievement programs in our local schools. Special thanks to the Bid on the Future committee for all of your hard work, Big River for their tasty catering, Warren Dropkin for his superb auctioneering skills, and both Hamilton Place and the Brainerd/East Brainerd Council of the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce for hosting our event.

Thank you also to everyone who bid online, as this year’s Online Auction was three times as successful as last year’s!