New Glarus Chamber: Dedicated to and Investing in the Continued Success of Our Community
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Dear Editor,
New Glarus has a magic, and the Chamber staff and our board of directors, along with our business community members, are proud to be part of its success. Together, we work tirelessly to help New Glarus shine brightly as a top-notch Midwest destination, and 2017 was an exciting, busy and productive year for us.
In summary, from New Glarus beautification to blockbuster events, ribbon-cutting ceremonies and village promotion, the following is a list of highlights from our 2017 efforts to support the economic success and growth of our historic Swiss village:
New landscaping surrounding the welcome kiosk flower bed
Additional red benches in the downtown
New highway event banners
Depot building maintenance, including deck staining
New landscaping surrounding the welcome signs
New banners for our streetlight poles
Additional planters and flowers throughout the downtown, generously planted and expertly maintained by Blumenladen’s team
A new welcome sign at the south end of the village and the painting of both welcome signs, generously paid for by the New Glarus Brewing Company
Oktoberfest and Beer, Bacon and Cheese were record years, with estimated attendance of 5,000 and 2,000 people respectively. Events of this scale take nearly a year of planning, and without the full support of our businesses, public service organizations and over 100 volunteers, we simply couldn’t host events of this scale with any degree of success. Thank you, New Glarus!
New Glarus Bike Rodeo (free event including lunch, t-shirts, bike helmets, bike maintenance, safety instruction, a petting zoo and bounce house) attended by over 50 area youth
New Glarus Wine Walk and the Wilhelm Tell Wine Walk brought 300 attendees into our businesses.
Tipsy Turkey Pub Crawl drew nearly 200 people into our downtown with many overnight guests.
Holiday Tree Lighting Ceremony—complete with alphorns, carolers, hot chocolate and cookies—welcomed over 80 guests.
Horse-drawn wagon rides around the village during both Oktoberfest and St. Nicholas Day and between the downtown and the Swiss Historical Village during Harvest Fest to bolster event attendance
BRAVA Women’s Expo exhibitor, which provided booth staff the opportunity to present their individual businesses and New Glarus as a whole to over 3,000 attendees
We welcomed eight new businesses in 2017 (up from three new businesses in 2016; Hutch & Hide, Glarner Bier Haus, Top Notch Feed & Supply): Country View Veterinary Services–New Glarus, Glarner Village Wellness Center, Hawk’s Mill WineHaus, Lollygag Antiques, Railroad Street Boutique, Rusty Raven, S’wisco Taphaus and Casey’s General Store. We are excited about the handful of new businesses we are working with for 2018.
Our promotional efforts include print, T.V., radio, digital and social media marketing targeting an audience outside of a 200-mile radius, and we continued our partnerships with Green County Tourism, Greater Madison Convention & Visitors Bureau and Travel Wisconsin. (Did you see the wonderful Travel Wisconsin videos promoting New Glarus?) Plus, we had 60,000 New Glarus visitor’s guides printed and distributed in 2017!
We launched a new marketing committee including representatives from ten of our small businesses.
In closing, we can’t say enough how much we respect and appreciate our volunteers, our member businesses and our community as a whole. We are awed by the time, energy, heart and dollars our businesses and community members invest to help make New Glarus the treasure it is. New Glarus is truly a great place to live, work—and visit!
On behalf of the New Glarus Chamber and its board, thank you!
Susie Weiss
Chamber Executive,
New Glarus Chamber of Commerce
