Chamber Year in Review

The Rock Valley Chamber has had quite a year! This year, the Chamber hosted over 31 events to support its 71 members. They also rolled out their new gift card program! Chamber Gift Cards can be used at 33 Chamber businesses currently with the hopes of more businesses
participating in the near future! You can read more about the gift card program here.

This year the Chamber had 8 first-year chamber members and 63 returning members. We are so excited to see the growth in memberships! Membership packets for 2023 are out and can be downloaded here.

Some highlighted events this year include their first Chamber Bingo Night, where over 50 Chamber Gift Cards were given away as prizes. It was held at Parkview Event Center and a Nacho Bar from Cedar Rock was included in the ticket purchase. This event went over so well, the Chamber hosted a second one during Rally in the Valley.

In February, Chamber hosted a Murder Mystery game in which contestants had to visit various Rock Valley Chamber Businesses to find clues to help them solve the mystery. In March, the annual Chamber Basketball Tournament was held and brought many people to town. In April, there was an online Easter Egg Hunt, where participants could look for Easter Eggs that were hidden in various businesses' Facebook pictures. Over 750 people participated in this event, and the winners received a Chamber Gift Card. In July, the Chamber hosted a Back to School Shop Hop at local businesses with a $500 Chamber Gift Card giveaway.

At the end of the summer, the Chamber geared up for the annual community celebration, Rally in the Valley! As always, the week included the Miss Rock Valley Pageant, a community meal (Served by Project Youth Daycare this year), a wing and donut eating contest, a car show, an outdoor movie, a parade, and fireworks! A new event this year included the Chamber Golf Tournament hosted by Rock Valley Golf Course. This is a week the Chamber looks forward to every year!

With the cooler weather came fun fall events! This year, the Chamber hosted Harvest in the Valley, which included “Pick a Pumpkin” discounts, a scarecrow decorating contest between businesses. Congratulations to Perspective Insurance on being the winner! They also provided a way for community members to give back and donate items to Love INC.

To kick off the Holiday season, the Chamber partnered with local businesses for the Holiday Open Houses held on November 2nd. Each of the businesses held its own specials for the day and some even had snacks and beverages available for their shoppers! Santa and Mrs. Clause walked around playing games with shoppers giving them a chance to win Chamber gift cards!

Winter in the Valley was the next big event for the Chamber, held from December 7-10. The Downtown Wonderland event occurred on Wednesday, December 7th with many people attending from the town! Throughout the day, the stores did a Holiday Sip & Shop, where customers brought in their wine glasses to each store, filled it up, and received a punch on their punch card. Once they were done shopping, they turned it into the last store they went to, and this got their name into a drawing to win a Cornucopia of Gift Cards! The Chamber had a couple of Santa’s elves walking around during the Sip & Shop to give away some Chamber Gift Cards as well!

While the adults were shopping, they were able to drop their children off at the city Library for the “Not-So-Silent Night” event! Here, kids could make a present for their parents, participate in holiday crafts, listen to Mrs.Claus read stories, and take photos with Santa!

Another event held during Downtown Wonderland was “Games with the Grinch” where kids could go to the Rock Valley Museum and play board games with the Grinch himself! This event brought in over 25 children! The Chamber also had nine students along with Mr. Ackerman and Mr. Paulsen from the Rock Valley Community Schools visit all the stores and walk through Downtown and around Rock Valley singing Christmas carols to get people into the Holiday spirit!

There were lights around the Train Depot area downtown where people could take photos with their families, and all of the Christmas characters hanging around, and the event ended with the Christmas Tree Lighting counted down by Santa! Downtown Wonderland is set to be an Annual event for Rock Valley!

The Rock Valley Chamber also sold $39,300.00 in gift cards this year. The program officially launched in June of 2022 and we're excited to continue to see it grow! All of this money will be spent at local chamber businesses. These gift cards are available at the city office for purchase. They make great gifts or giveaway prizes and benefit our local businesses.

The Rock Valley Chamber would like to thank the Chamber Board members for their enthusiasm, ideas, and help this year! The Board Members are Dana Brink, Jon Van Egdom, Spencer Gort, Jeff Elgersma, Shayla Louwerse, Kevin Nibbelink, and Kaitlyn Van Maanen.

The Chamber would like to also thank our community for supporting our local businesses! The events we do wouldn’t be possible without an involved and passionate community like Rock Valley! We’re thankful for a fun year and excited about the year ahead!