Dear Members:
Elmhurst Chamber of Commerce & Industry members and guests will officially ring our Centennial Celebration at our 100th Annual Award Gala in the main floor ballroom at The Drake Oak Brook Hotel on Friday, January 25, from 5 to 9 p.m.
The festivities will feature the debut of our Chamber’s new two-minute promotional video highlighting 10 long-time Elmhurst member businesses (including several multi-generational family businesses) produced in partnership with Shaw Media.
The one-hour awards program will include presentations to the A.J. “Toche” Terrones Business of the Year (The Elmhurst Independent), Ambassador of the Year (Betsy Hanisch, for the third time) and Chairman’s Award (Lori Murray of Inland Bank), along with the 27th inductee (Genie Urick) into ECCI’s Civic Hall of Fame since its establishment in 1992, plus a special award to be announced. Elmhurst Our Kind of Town (formerly directed by Urick) will videotape the awards program to air on local cable TV starting in February and then post online at elmhursttv.com.
Attendees will receive a commemorative lapel pin of the six-color Elm leaf prominent in our Chamber’s new logo and a ribbon below dated 1918-2018, sponsored by The Independent with proceeds from the newspaper’s 40-page ECCI Centennial Celebration special section published for Chamber of Commerce Month last September.
Also, one lucky winner will be chosen in our year-long Centennial Celebration Split-The-Pot Raffle (now at $3,845). You can’t win, if you’re not entered…and you don’t even need to be present to win.
Our one-of-a-kind Centennial Celebration Capital Campaign is at 88 percent of its $250,000 goal with some $220,000 in gifts and pledges, but there’s more to that story.
The Ralph P. Pechanio Student Internship Endowment Fund at Elmhurst College has exceeded its $150,000 goal by $10,000, thanks primarily to the generosity of its namesake ($130,000 in gifts). As early as 2019, annual endowment earnings could start paying 40 percent of our student interns’ hourly wages not reimbursed by the Illinois Board of Higher Education’s JOBPATH Student Internship Program and previously payed from a non-endowed fund primarily funded by Pechanio. You can still send your tax-deductible endowment gifts directly to the College.
Jump started by my own pledge of $25,000 back in 2017, the educational component of our $100,000 Second Century Fund has reached its $50,000 goal. Also within the Second Century Fund, fundraising to build a public ECCI Civic Hall of Fame memorial is at 23 percent of its $50,000 goal, even though project specifics are not yet finalized. We do know that our memorial will be part of the City of Elmhurst’s new Metra train station, which is scheduled for construction in 2021, so fundraising on a more public level will continue for another year or two.
As part of our special activities, ECCI partnered with Cincinnati-based manufacturer Late for the Sky to produce 1,000 Elmhurst-Opoly board games, half of which have already been sold, with purchasers as far away as Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia.
Aside from our Capital Campaign and Elmhurst-Opoly successes, 2018 highlights include organizational and individual award recognition from the Daily Herald/Business Ledger, adoption of tiered dues and sponsorship packages, development and retail sales of an Elmhurst-Opoly board game, hiring of new staff (Director of Member Services Mariella Mastromauro and Office Manager Kim Kurczek), membership growth and much more.
Elmhurst Community Directory
The 2019 edition of our annual Elmhurst Community Directory, produced in partnership with Shaw Media, will be Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) delivered to some 19,200 Elmhurst residential, business and Post Office box addresses the week of January 14.
Some 800 to 1,000 Directories will be distributed via our New Resident Greeter Tote Program, and thousands more Directories will be available at numerous public locations—including Elmhurst City Hall, Elmhurst Public Library and Elmhurst Park District Administration Office—and businesses.
Thanks to the 50-plus members who purchased display advertising, this year’s Directory increased in size from 76 to 80 pages.
Happy Anniversaries
Seven members are celebrating milestone Chamber anniversaries in January, as follows: 30 years— Erwin Steinhebel & Sons; 25 years— Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage; 15 years— Easter Seals DuPage & Fox Valley; 10 years— Baralt’s Custom Landscapes and Goodwill Retail Store; and 5 years— Sky Zone Trampoline Park and Turner Acceptance Corp.
New Members
The Chamber welcomed seven new members in December as follows: Beerhead Bar & Eatery, Expedia CruiseShipCenters Naperville, Fry the Coop, Holiday Inn Express & Suites/Bensenville, Life Stages Therapeutic Services, Liz Sheehan – UBS Wealth Management and Walker Real Estate Group, a division of Keller Williams Preferred.
Reactivated Member
Pythagoras Children’s Academy of The Greek Orthodox Church of St. Demetrios and TANNINS reactivated their memberships in December.
No Longer Members
The Chamber said goodbye to the following seven members in December: Alvir H Hair Salon, European Wax Center, Flying House Media, LinJen Promotions, Rosario Carrillo Illustration & Design, SimpleWisdom Wellness Solutions and Soule, Bradtke and Lambert.