Holmes Chamber teams with CSB for Christmas Open House
With a roaring pseudo-fire to enhance the mood, the Holmes County Chamber of Commerce & Tourism Bureau’s Christmas Open House at Commercial & Savings Bank was a fine example of the chamber teaming up with its members.
Just because things don’t go according to plan doesn’t mean plans have to be scrapped.
Just like Randy Newman said in his hit song from the movie “Toy Story,” “You’ve got troubles, and I’ve got ‘em too. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for you. We stick together, and we see it through ‘cause you’ve got a friend in me.”
The Holmes County Chamber of Commerce & Tourism Bureau’s Christmas Open House would normally take place at the chamber offices in Historic Downtown Millersburg, but with the chamber expecting to be in the midst of renovations, Executive Director Tiffany Gerber made plans to move the Christmas celebration across the road to Commercial & Savings Bank, which opened its doors and welcomed the chamber to set up their open house in their large conference room on North Clay Street.
On Tuesday, Dec. 3, CSB played host for the event, despite the chamber being available due to construction delays at the chamber offices.
The celebration carried on without a hitch, with chamber partners gathering for a time of fellowship and catered from Exclusively Yours.
The afternoon was filled with Christmas music and a couple of roaring fires, courtesy of the large-screen TVs in the conference area, and the day was a success, thanks to good friends willing to step in and fill a need.
“Tiffany thought originally they’d be having their construction work going on at the chamber at this time, but that timeline got expanded a little bit,” said Brett Gallion, CSB president. “When she thought that was going to be happening, she asked us if we’d be willing to open our doors to host the Christmas Open House in our new space, and we were more than happy to do so.”
Gerber was thankful to CSB for welcoming in members to celebrate the Christmas Open House, something she said is an annual event designed to bring chamber members together for the holidays to simply relax and connect with one another.
“This is one way we can thank our members in the community, and it’s one more networking opportunity, something that is one of our main goals as a chamber,” Gerber said. “Making these kinds of casual contacts is important.”
Gerber said the delay in construction on the chamber offices isn’t ideal, but she said they understand the construction world is extremely busy right now, and they want to make sure they do the renovations the right way.
“We knew we had to get the date out for this event well in advance, and CSB was gracious in offering their facility to us as an alternative,” Gerber said, noting another function of the chamber is to provide opportunities for its members to showcase what they have to provide for the community.
She said it is always heartwarming to see how the various partners within the community and throughout the chamber members continually are more than ready to assist one another and help whenever there’s a need.
Many of the chamber partners are well connected to Commercial & Savings Bank, but some of them may not have had the pleasure of visiting the bank since it made some renovations of its own in creating the new conference area.
Gallion said they were excited to invite members in to enjoy the Christmas atmosphere and view some of the changes in the bank.
“As a community bank, these buildings are part of the community, and they are welcome to come in and visit, and we have opened this new space up for not-for-profits to use,” Gallion said.
The friendships made through the chamber partnerships proved that just like in “Toy Story,” when a challenge or situation arises, there’s always someone to help a friend in need.