By Megan Alley
Sun Reporter
The Clermont Chamber of Commerce is half a century old, and the organization threw itself a big birthday bash to celebrate the occasion.
The chamber’s 50th anniversary event was held Dec. 17 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Holiday Inn & Suites Cincinnati Eastside in Eastgate.
Event-goers were invited to mingle and “reminisce with fellow Chamber friends” during the open house style event.
Hors d’oeuvres were passed, cocktails were poured, DJ-ed music was played, and at stations set up around the event room, guests could thumb through decades of chamber photos and memorabilia.
In terms of the event program, the celebration was pretty relaxed. Halfway through the event, the chamber’s Board of Directors Chairperson Bill Lyon and President and CEO Matt Van Sant both hit the stage to deliver a couple of short speeches.
Lyon opened by asking the crowd if they could remember when they first connected with the chamber.
“[For me], it was 1990, and it was not quite a conversation, it was more of an encounter with a man named Ed Parrish,” Lyon shared.
Parrish was a long-time former chamber President.
“If you catch me after I talk, a little later, I’ll tell you that story, but then I want you to tell me your story,” Lyon said. “In fact, that’s really what I hope we’re doing tonight. I hope you’re taking time to recall and retell your stories.”
Lyon went on to share a bit of history.
“Once upon a time, on the 17th of October, 1969, a few months after man first stepped foot on the moon, the chamber filed with Ohio Secretary of State Articles of Incorporation with the purpose of the advancement of civic, commercial, industrial and agricultural interests in Clermont County and surrounding territory,” he said.
He went on to ask the crowd to sing, “Happy Birthday.”
When Van Sant took the mic, he started by saying, “We’re very lucky here in Clermont County. We have great leaders; they don’t do it alone, it takes all us to do the work that gets done here in our community, and I’m grateful for that.”
He then said that some 50 years ago, people began to migrate from the city, Cincinnati, to the suburbs, Clermont County.
“We didn’t have a college, and we didn’t have a hospital, and we probably didn’t have a place to buy a pair of shoes,” he said. “And in the room are folks from Eastgate mall, Clermont College, folks from the hospital, and it was the beginning for a very important time for this community.”
He added, “For the past 20 or 30 years, and even today, the Clermont Chamber of Commerce was very involved in attracting companies to this community; holding on to what we have, growing what we have.”
He explained that through the chamber’s foundation, work has also focused on improving the quality of public schools, leadership development, and more.
Then, chamber honorees, past leaders and present, joined Lyon and Van Sant onstage for a the traditional cutting of the anniversary banner/ribbon, because it wouldn’t be a chamber event without a big pair of scissors and a ribbon to cut.