Hayden Chamber: Looking back on 2023

It is a time-honored tradition, to look back on the past year and reflect on our triumphs and tribulations. It is also a pleasure to present the Hayden Chamber of Commerce's 2023 Annual Report. I have been proud to serve as the president/CEO for the last three years and start the beginning of our 23rd year.

It was a record-breaking year for our chamber in terms of both membership and programs.  

In January 2023, we were proud to give our annual report and give awards to some of our outstanding chamber members. Some of those winners were able to present the awards for 2023 at our January 2024 annual meeting. 

We just had our event on Feb. 13 with the annual Sip, Sample & Savor, a unique wine tasting event at Uncorked With Friends in Hayden. This event had almost 70 attendees last year and again this year and was a great night out for all.  

In March, we attended other member community events with Wine, Stein & Dine, Bartenders Ball and the NI Veterans Stand Down Fundraiser Auction. 

April brought us to our Ambassadors delivering Easter goody bags to our members and we had a great time attending the Chamber After Hours/Grand Opening of the new office space for Primerica.

May started off with the North Idaho Veterans Stand Down and the Hayden Chamber sponsoring the food drive with more than 5,000 pounds of food being distributed to more than 300 veterans in our community.

In mid-May, the third annual Bacon, Bloody's & Brews Festival drew more than 350 people to Stateline Speedway, where 40-plus businesses, organizations and vendors made sample bacon dishes, Bloody Mary concoctions or homemade beer, to win trophies for the best of the best!

June was the month for a Chamber After Hours at Overland Wellness with a mobile Heat Praxia Sauna and Ice baths.

In July, we welcomed the new Prairie Falls Golf Club with a tour of their new facility with a joint RC with the area chambers. 

The Hayden Days parade in July had the Hayden Chamber walking and riding down the street as we decorated for Christmas and threw out candy canes to the kids while promoting our Outdoor European Christmas Market. Thank you Dark:30 Outdoor Rentals for the use of the UTVs. July we had our Chamber After Hours which was hosted by New Leaf Nursery as we welcomed them with their ribbon cutting.  

For the month of August, the chamber participated, with a booth again at National Night Out. Our August Networking, Business & Connections (NBC) was our summer party with an indoor lunch picnic prepared by the Best Western that made us feel like we were in paradise!

Let's not forget about the Connecting Community & Business Expo Fair we had in September. More than 40 businesses set up their booths at our new venue, PEAK Health & Wellness in Hayden, with approximately 250 business and community members walking through.

October was a month filled with a lot of ribbon cuttings, and a Chamber After Hours/ribbon cutting hosted by the Wine Vault. We participated in the first Hayden Haunts Pub Crawl, hosted by Triple Play Family Fun Park, as the check-in team. I was able to take my very first cruise to Alaska at the end of October making that my 48th state. Two to go — Hawaii and Florida!

In November, we delivered poinsettias again to our Legacy & Platinum members for the holidays and listened to a great presentation from Samantha Means from J. Rapha Consulting at the November NBC.

December started out with our third annual Outdoor European Christmas Market where we had more than 85 homemade craft and food vendors with twinkling lights and fire pits. This event brought more than 1,500 people through our market which led to a successful event. We also were happy to be a part of the Red Kettle bell ringing for the Salvation Army in front of Super 1 Foods in Hayden. We had our Board of Directors retreat to put together a plan for the new year. Our Chamber After Hours was with Curley’s Events & Saloon as they start with a new adventure and then our Ugly Sweater Christmas Party and fun networking mixer to round out our last NBC of the year.

This past year we have worked together to achieve far more than we could have individually. We welcomed 69 new members in 2023, which put us at 323 total members. We welcomed 35 businesses with ribbon cuttings/grand openings, eight Chamber After Hours, delivered approximately 275 member appreciation gifts to our business members and had around 965 people attend our NBC's averaging 80 per meeting.

Recently, we welcomed two new members with ribbon cuttings: Sign Gypsies & The Children's Village Family Support Center.

I look forward to seeing you all throughout 2024!

• • •

Andrea Fulks is the president/CEO for the Hayden Chamber of Commerce.

    The Hayden Chamber of Commerce celebrated a ribbon cutting with Sign Gypsies.
  

    The Hayden Chamber of Commerce celebrated a ribbon cutting with The Children's Village Family Support Center.