GALION, Ohio – St. Joseph Activity Center was packed for the annual Galion-Crestline Area Chamber of Commerce Holiday Open House Thursday, Dec. 4. Attendees enjoyed hors d’oeuvres prepared by the chefs at Galion Community Hospital while meeting friends, making connections and perusing the many items available for the silent and live auctions.
“This is a great networking opportunity,” said greeter Denise Livingston. “It’s a great way to get to know the business people and other people in your community. The silent and live auctions are a lot of fun.” Livingston works for Dostal & Kirk Insurance and is a chamber board member. She has been working the open house for five years.
“This event is a fundraiser for economic development,” said Sherri Clevenger of First Federal Bank of Ohio. She is a chamber board member and chairman of the open house event. “It’s a fun evening to visit with folks. It’s no cost to chamber members and everything is donated and provided by chamber members.”
Clevenger noted the 50/50 drawing, the rows of silent auction items and the larger live auctions items are all donated by chamber members. “They (chamber members) are very generous … We have a wonderful committee that made phone calls, asked for donations, went out and collected items. It gets bigger every year,” she said.
Items for auction were as varied as the businesses that donated them: pillows, home décor of all kinds, unique clocks, gloves, hedge clippers, blenders, a certificate for an oil change, a football, jams, a grill candles, golf supplies tools, lamps, lots of OSU items and a huge variety of gift baskets.
Over 180 items were donated. Some of the large items, auctioned by Craig Miley, included a Mohican Resort Package, a day on Lake Erie, a one-year membership to the Galion YMCA, a season pass for all Galion High School sporting events, a truck load of driveway stone, an iPad, a year’s supply of pizza from Pizza Hut in Galion, and an OSU football signed by Craig Krenzel.
Jennifer Kuns of United Bank has been chairman of the chamber board for three years.
“This is our biggest fundraiser of the year. The second biggest is our golf outing.” Kuns added that the rest of the funding for the chamber’s expenses comes from yearly dues.
Kuns believes the best part of the open house is the networking. “It’s a great free event that we offer to our chamber members to celebrate their membership.” Kuns said she loves that so many people come out to have a good time. “People look forward to it. It’s an exciting night.”
Kim Ross-Polito, owner and editor of the Crestline Advocate, ia a chamber board member and was past president of the Crestline Chamber of commerce. She feels the merge of the two chambers – Galion and Crestline – was a good move. “We share a boarder. Some of our business owners have businesses in both communities. There’s lots of back and forth.”
Ross-Polito said 60 of the Crestline chamber’s members decided to join the Galion-Crestline chamber when the two merged in January of 2013.
“It’s been a good partnership. The two communities have an awful lot in common,” she said. “There are terrific networking opportunities. It’s a way to donate and promote your company. You get to see people here that you only see once a year.”
“This is our 11th Holiday Open House and Auction,” said Joe Kleinknecht, president and CEO of the chamber. “Years ago we had just an Open House event where we served refreshments and people networked. In 2004 we talked about doing an auction of some sort as a non-dues fundraiser. At that time, Sherri Clevenger, who is on our board of directors suggested, we do the auction with the open house, and the wheels were set in motion.”
In 2007 the first combined event was held at the Galion Community Theater with approximately 90 people in attendance. Every year the number has increased, so that the chamber had to move the event to the St. Joseph Activity Center in Galion.
Co-Sponsors for the event this year were Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Elliott Machine Works, Inc., Firelands Federal Credit Union, First Federal Bank of Ohio, Galion Community Hospital – Avita Health System, Galion West Shopping Center, Galion Pointe, MedFlight, Pittsburgh Glass Works and United Bank.
For more information about the Galion-Crestline Area Chamber of Commerce call 419-468-7737 or email ceo@galion-crestlinechamber.org or go to http://galion-crestlinechamber.org.
