President’s Message October 2017

Oct 1, 2017

We-You are the Best of Long Island!

We just completed our 6th Fall Festival on October 1st under blue, sunny skies with close to 90 vendors selling crafts, jewelry, food and offering services from A-Z. The community and beyond came out to walk the lot, shop, eat and listen to the myriad of entertainers that performed. Our “adopted” charity, SNAP, headed by Paige Bravin and Barbi Schwartzberg staffed their table greeting hundreds and hundreds of visitors! We raised over $1,200 for SNAP (the most ever at the Festival!) through a combination of raffle sales

for a TV (donated by Beechwood), Guessing How Many Coins were in a Jar; and Spins on the Wheel! The Festival was a great day and a huge success for the Chamber!

Thank You! to the Festival Committee, led by Fred Morante and which included Ned Marzigliano, Lindsay Covello, Barbara Mars, David Weinstein, Gary Epstein, Gayle Charlack, Gretchen Browne, Larry Weiss, Laura Avital, Rich Leshaw, Dr. Ben Carlow, Sherrie Gillespie, Doug Hilfman, Laura May, Shari Abel-Saunders and Bryan Trugman. Their selfless work over the past six months is greatly appreciated by all and illustrates how great teamwork creates winning results!

Best of LI imageOur Chamber continues to grow and we’ve been described as “One of the best Chambers on Long Island.” We’ve been nominated as one of the Best Chambers on Long Island. The vote has started. Vote for us—and you—by CLICKING THIS LINK. Scroll down to the Chamber of Commerce Category, click the arrow and scroll down to Plainview-Old Bethpage. Click the VOTE button. That’s all it takes–it’s easy! You can vote with multiple, different e-mails 1x/day. Some of our members have been individually nominated as well like Favorite Gift Baskets (Paula & Howard Rosenthal), Str8 Smiles Orthodontics (Dr. Michael Goldman) and The Family College Experience (Andrea Goldman). Look for their nominations and support them with your vote also!

Let’s show the rest of Long Island what we’re made of and win the award for Best Chamber of Long Island. We can do it! Have your friends, family and customers vote for us. Vote often and vote early!! Voting ends on December 15th—so be sure to vote at least once per day until then. If the Chamber wins, we all win!

Mark you calendar—Wednesday, October 18th for our next General Meeting at 7:30 am at the Marriott Residence Inn. Are you concerned about the direction of our Town and County governments? Corruption? Transparency? Taxes? Jobs? Our Youth? The Future? Come to the meeting and listen to Town and County candidates discuss their vision. You’ll have an opportunity to ask questions and get answers. This is a Not-to-Miss Meeting.

Our networking committee, chaired by Alan Goldberg, has been hard at work. The 1st event of the year, hosted by Main Event in September was energizing. We had a full house with new and old members attending and Main Event providing delectable food and drink. Our next event is scheduled for October 11th at CIIT at 5:30 at their new facility 131 Sunnyside Blvd. Mark your calendar for November 8th for a Multi-Chamber Networking Event at the American Air Power Museum in Farmingdale; besides networking, all proceeds are being used to support local veterans’ groups and the museum. RSVPs are requiredl CLICK HERE TO RSVP for this event. Don’t forget the Boom B2B Network Expo at the Huntington Hilton on October 19th—as a Chamber member you’re entitled to attend the event for free—just click here to register. All of these events are a great way to develop relationships with chamber members in a fun setting and set in motion the foundation for future business dealings with each other.

Looking forward to seeing everyone soon and at the upcoming networking events and meetings!

Elan Wurtzel, President