Connect Your Dots

Culpeper Chamber of Commerce

Business Article

Culpeper Star Exponent

March 30, 2015

On any given rainy day during summer vacation from grade school, I could be found with my big box of 64 Crayola Crayons - complete with sharpener on the back - and one of those giant coloring books.  I would satisfy my creative urge, despite the lack of artistic talent, by coloring, tracing pictures, and my favorite of all - connecting the numbered dots!  Connecting dots #1-74 would always reveal a masterpiece of which any real artist would be proud to affix a signature!  

During a recent babysitting stint with my grandchildren I was once again immersed in another of those activity books with several connect the dots puzzles. This led to reminiscing and a stream of consciousness where I realized how important “dots” are to my life!  My mother’s name was Dot, I love polka dots, candy dots, and the iPad game Dots, and I do my share of dotting i’s while crossing  “t’s”. As that seemingly endless list reached ice cream dots in my mind, I suddenly made the connection (pun intended) that I work to connect dots daily.  

Yes, the Culpeper Chamber of Commerce is a dot connector!  We help draw the lines that connect  businesses with prospective customers and opportunities;  we provide information to potential customers with sources of goods and services; we connect Chamber affiliates with access to a myriad of quality membership services; we help connect Chamber members with the community through monthly newsletters reaching over 10,000 homes and 25,000 readers; we help ensure members remain connected with government through advocacy representation, locally and in Richmond.  In a nutshell, that’s what your Chamber does: facilitate business connections. If I were more of an artist, I could creatively assign individual “dot numbers” to our members, chamber events, and activities that when connected, would reveal a scene depicting the vibrant regional business community and great place to live that is Culpeper County.

Assignment of a “dot number” to your business or organization will ensure you are added to the scene and help you establish and maintain solid connections with customers or suppliers.  Your chamber’s tagline captures the essence of its mission: “Connect * Grow * Prosper”; note the dots between the words and how they connect the concept.  Let your Chamber assist you with the connections that broaden your network and optimally position your business or organization for success.  

Connect with me or Martha Sanford at 540-825-8628 to discuss the benefits of a Chamber membership.  When you do, we’ll make sure you get connected to all the other ‘dots’.  Meanwhile, I’m off to purchase another activity book for my grandkids.  It seems all their connect the dot pages are missing - wonder how that happened?

The Multi-Faceted Culpeper County Library

Culpeper Chamber of Commerce

Business Article

Culpeper Star Exponent

March 23, 2015

My mother-in-law, the late Alcidie Stohlman, was an avid reader.  She always had a stack of books sitting on a shelf next to her reading chair waiting to reveal their stories.  Having grown up during the great depression, she learned to rely on her neighborhood library to satisfy her insatiable "guilty pleasure".  Weekly visits to the library were the norm throughout her entire life. She was quick to point out that she had travelled the globe, visited the most inaccessible of places, and carried out conversations with many of the world’s famous and infamous -- simply by turning pages.  She was quick to exclaim that "My ‘library book shelf’ (as she called it) could never support my passion for books!”

I consulted Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary as I was drafting this week’s column to find a definition. I’m sure you have a mental image of that book if you have attained a certain chronological advancement in life, but this time I used the online version found on the Culpeper Library’s website, www.cclva.org.  Merriam-Webster defines “library” as “a place in which literary, musical, artistic, or reference materials are kept for use but not for sale”. Certainly this is a traditional definition that my mother-in-law’s generation would have considered accurate.  But does it truly reflect the mission of a modern 21st century “library” such as what we have here in Culpeper?

I’ve had the pleasure of serving on the board of directors for the Friends of the Culpeper Library.  During my tenure, I learned that the widely used and simple definition of “library” is far too narrow to fully describe the programs available to Culpeper’s residents through our local library.  In addition to the 400,000 books checked out in 2014 over 9,100 people participated in a wide range of adult and children’s programs and more than 33,000 people took full advantage of the internet and computers available without charge. Recently, our library completed a renovation project which added additional study rooms, computer terminals, and improved their used book store.

21st century libraries are more than just book repositories.  They are important to the quality of life in any community and are another ingredient in the virtual gumbo called economic development.  Locally, the Culpeper County Library supports students, assists job-seekers with connection to potential employers, while transporting armchair travelers to far-flung and exotic places.  Our library also helps us understand and appreciate the rich diversity of the region we call home through the breadth and depth of the available programs.

We have quite the resource here in Culpeper. I recommend you stop in sometime soon to explore the library’s offerings.  My mother-in-law would surely endorse it’s quality, and as I see it, that says a lot.  I’m also pretty sure she’d be asking my father-in-law to build her another “library book shelf” next to her reading chair.   

Our Agricultural Heritage

Culpeper Chamber of Commerce

Business Article

Culpeper Star Exponent

March 16, 2015

I want to milk a cow.  Not sure why really, it is just one of the items on my bucket list. Maybe it has something to do with all the 'farm' related nursery rhymes of my childhood or watching too many episodes of Green Acres.  I've shared this desire with a few of my agribusiness contacts hoping they would know a cow or two in need of milking, but have been told that I have an overly romanticized view of farm life!  You know the one--red barns, idyllic pastures, and quaint farmhouses with large porches for sitting, guitar strumming or banjo pickin’.  The more I learn of agribusiness, the more I realize that farm life is rewarding, but chock full of hard work and long days.

With more than 111,000 acres of Culpeper County devoted to raising livestock, growing and cultivating various crops, and greenhouse operations, the economic impact of agribusiness can not be overlooked.   Interestingly, Culpeper’s census data indicates that over the last 30 years or so, there has been a 50% increase in the number of farms.  Commensurate with this growth there has also been a reduction in total acres farmed, indicating that the larger farms are being divided into smaller parcels.  This tells me that despite societal changes or demographic shifts, there are still many entrepreneurs willing to embrace the challenges and harvest the rewards of agribusiness in Culpeper County; and we are lucky to have them.

Annually, the Agriculture Council of America (ACA)  organizes a celebration to recognize the amazing abundance provided us all by those farmers, ranchers,  producers and distributors who choose to engage in agribusiness.  This year, March 18th is National Ag Day.  With the theme “Sustaining Future Generations”, the ACA’s message is designed to increase public awareness of the quality and quantity of our Nation’s bounty and the efforts of many to bring it to our tables.

Locally, your Culpeper Chamber of Commerce named Kenny and Edith Anderson and Family the 2015 Agribusiness of the Year.  The Anderson Family has operated their brood cow operation for more than 40 years. We are pleased to recognize their contributions to Culpeper’s agricultural community and congratulate them on the success of their family-run business.

It is easy to take the food supply chain for granted and only see the red barns and green pastures as we drive along Culpeper’s beautiful country roads.  But on March 18th, join me in taking a moment or two to ponder the role of agriculture in today’s modern society. For those of us who have never truly experienced life on a farm, I presume we will always retain that overly romanticized image of that way of life.  But perhaps through the ACA we will better appreciate the true work and level of effort occurring daily.  I know it’s not all porches and pickin’.  I do still want to milk a cow, though.

CulpeperFest 2015

Culpeper Chamber of Commerce

Business Article

Culpeper Star Exponent

March 9, 2015

I have an annoying quirk - random songs often swirl around my brain involuntarily for days on end.  While loosely associated with events taking place in my life, melodies and lyrics take-up temporary residence in my frontal lobe from time-to-time.  

For the last week or so, I’ve been stuck in the 1980’s after hearing David Bowie’s song, “Changes”.  Even those not as chronologically advanced as me will almost certainly be able to immediately recall the melody and the lyrics “bridge”  ...  “Ch-ch-ch-ch changes” …  Can you hear it?  Did you just sing it?  

I surmise that this song is stuck in my brain because it has become the unofficial anthem of CulpeperFest 2015.  Since last June, the CulpeperFest Committee has been exploring ideas and concepts to further enhance this highly successful event.  The group tried very hard to avoid saying, “well, that’s the way its always been done”,  or  “it’s not broken, don’t fix it”. We believe we have freshened-up CulpeperFest in a way that will truly connect business to the community.

CulpeperFest will be held Friday, June 12th at Eastern View High School from 3-7pm. Admission will be free with pre-registration at www.culpeperfest.com. In addition to the usual goodies and informational handouts from exhibitors, food and beverages will be available for purchase. A varied line-up of entertainment has been planned along with a selection of short seminars presented by some of our exhibiting businesses.  Yes, this is a big change from previous CulpeperFest formats.  David Bowie’s song was about re-invention, and so is CulpeperFest 2015.  

We have quite a few additional enhancements in the works….watch this column for updates! Uh-oh, Pharrell Williams’ "Happy" just popped in my mind!  I fully expect we will be doing the Happy Dance at CulpeperFest this year.  Hope to see you there!   Interested in exhibiting or food vendor space - go to www.culpeperfest.com or call 540-825-8628.