It FINALLY feels like spring now and believe it or not we're only 17 days from the first day of the Grinnell Farmers Market! My guess is this late spring (since it finally decided to show up) will greatly inhibit our producers' ability to get things planted and therefore push the 'produce season' back a little, but we will most definitely still have vendors with product available the first week of market. The Grinnell Farmers Market will kick off May 10 and will take place at Central Park on Thursday afternoons from 3 to 6 p.m. and Saturday mornings from 10 a.m. to noon.
The market features a variety of product including produce, breads, meats, baked goods, eggs, crafts and much more. We are currently seeking additional vendors to participate in this year's market. If you might be interested in getting involved, or know someone who would, please take a look at our rules and sign-up here. We're also in the process of identifying musicians to play throughout the season -- if you know someone who might be interested, send us a note!
Again this year, SNAP benefits and EBT transactions will be accepted at the market. Users will receive tokens for their transaction amount which can be redeemed with all vendors. We'll also feature our Grinnell Market Fresh program again this year, which debuted last season and offers a great and easy way to prepare dinner and support the market. You can find more information on these programs and other offerings throughout the season at www.GrinnellFarmersMarket.com.
Wow, what a week! I've met myself coming and going with so many meetings, but it's been a great week to learn something new. Yesterday and today, Grinnell hosted the Iowa Rural Development Summit, an invitation-only event to communities under 20,000 population. We have 70 communities from across the state represented at this event, and have stayed in and explored our community. Occasionally we take things for granted in Grinnell, but I was reminded as I was having conversations with many of my colleagues how fortunate we are, and how our hard work has really paid dividends.
The Summit has been a great chance to feature Grinnell, but also make connections and learn about unique ways we can partner on projects such as rural placemaking, housing initiatives and opportunities, broadband projects, cultivating rural leaders and so much more.
Grinnell was also one of 18 communities to receive a Community Catalyst Grant for the Beyer Block downtown which was a result of taking action from the Grinnell Downtown Plan our office helped facilitate nearly two years ago. Along with our colleagues at the City and POW I80 (they did the heavy lifting on this one!), we celebrated this announcement and look forward to continuing to move this project forward.
I was also able to learn about many fantastic projects taking place in rural communities across the state of Iowa and personally look forward to taking in a baseball game in Bancroft and visiting a new brewery in Dyersville in the coming months. What a state we live in -- make sure you get out and take advantage of the great things happening in our own community but those across Iowa as well!
--Rachael Kinnick
p.s. The weather may be chilly this week, but we're hosting a Sprint Triathlon and Mini Triathlon next week -- make sure you get signed up at grinnellgames.com.
Grinnell Games may look a little different to many of you this year. After listening to much community feedback and weighing all sorts of options, we have made the decision to split the events over the course of a few different weekends, and we're kicking things off on Saturday, April 14 with the Sprint Triathlon, a Grinnell Games event which will be USA Triathlon sanctioned. We're hoping to more than double our numbers from this event last year - can you help us reach our goal? We'd love to have you give it a tri!
This particular event will feature a 0.5 mile swim at the Grinnell College Natatorium, 12.4 mile bike on the path to Rock Creek State Park and a 3.1 mile run through downtown Grinnell. You can participate as an individual or a team of 3. And if you're not quite ready to commit to those distances, you can participate in our Mini Triathlon, an event perfect for newcomers and kids because of the shorter distances.
April 14 is also the date for the Live Healthy Iowa 5K, so if you'd prefer to simply run a 5K rather than swim, bike and run, make plans to join us at 10am for that event. You can register here: https://www.
We are fortunate to have the support of our friends at Grinnell State Bank to help bring these fun events to the community this spring and summer, and we hope you'll join us for the fun, now spanning more weekends!
p.s. Save the date now and start training for the 5K & Half Marathon Grinnell Games events, scheduled for June 16. And like our facebook page: Grinnell Games, to learn of additional activities and new events as soon as they're announced!
At our Annual Celebration last week we took the time to give attendees a quick project update regarding some of the Chamber's priorities for the coming year. While our work in large part will remain the same, and we'll continue our efforts to keep Grinnellians updated about things taking place in our community, we do have a number of initiatives we'll be working on as outlined in the strategic plan that was generated by the Chamber's Board of Directors at our planning session last fall.
The board created three different committees: Community Growth, Business Development & Community Vitality, as they relate directly to our mission statement. Each of those committees has outlined various action items for the coming year which include: completing the childcare feasibility study to better understand potential opportunities. Our business development team will work to encourage the development of start-up and entrepreneurial businesses by creating and hosting an event to connect potential entrepreneurs with capital investors, plans to work with at least two businesses to identify and implement a succession plan, and hope to facilitate the addition of two more businesses as identified in the downtown plan. Our Community Vitality group will focus efforts on implementing a community-wide marketing campaign in an effort to attract more visitors to Grinnell, and will continue to develop and implement events that support business and increased usage of Central Park.
There's more on the agenda, but we imagine we'll have our hands pretty full with these action items for the time being. We're fortunate to have such a committed board of directors and membership, and know that by working together we can accomplish many of these exciting initiatives.
If you ever have questions about the work we're doing, please don't hesitate to contact me!
--Rachael Kinnick
Wednesday evening reminded me why I absolutely love what I do as we hosted the Chamber's Annual Celebration and got to recognize our incredible business community. There are many businesses and organizations doing wonderful things in our community, and we received many many deserving nominees, which made our selection process difficult. Congratulations to our following 2018 award recipients who were recognized for their work Wednesday evening:
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Business of the Year: Grinnell State Bank
Retail Business of the Year: Anna Kayte's Boutique
Service Business of the Year: Renfrow Senior Care
Entrepreneur of the Year: Joey & Haylee Pagliai
Economic Impact Award: Hotel Grinnell
Community Betterment Award: Central Park
Volunteer of the Year: Paragon Church
One To Watch Awards:
20 Under 40 Awards:
To read more about the award winners, click here.
Special thanks to Jennifer Weinman Photography who took photos throughout the evening, and of our award winners. Thanks to Grinnell College, Hotel Grinnell and Unity Point Health - Grinnell Regional Medical Center for sponsoring the event. It was a great evening!
To everyone who attended (award in hand at the end of the evening or not) and to all of you reading this weekly newsletter, thank you for the work you're doing to make Grinnell such an amazing community.
--Rachael Kinnick
Grinnell Area Chamber of Commerce along with our partners and with assistance from First Children’s Finance, is studying the supply and demand for child care in the Grinnell area– and we need your help! A part of our assessment is a survey to gain feedback from those that live or work in the area that have children age 12 or younger living in their home, or are planning to have/adopt children in the next 5 years.
This brief survey can be accessed at the following link through March 15, 2018: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GrinnellChildCare
Please feel free to share this survey link with other family, friends and neighbors who live or work in the Grinnell Area.
If you have questions or would like more information about this project contact:
Rachael Kinnick, Executive Director
Grinnell Area Chamber of Commerce
(641) 236-65558 or rachael@getintogrinnell.com
