Chamber Update

Please give a warm welcome to our newest members:

• Silver member: LaBarge Financial. Owner Jason LaBarge recently purchased the historical building on Riggs Avenue and has restored it to the original splendor.
  
  
• Gold member: Mike’s Pharmacy. They have opened a new location in Pasadena, and we will be planning a ribbon cutting.
  
  
• Trillium Wellness. Owners/practitioners Lisa Manning and Carol Heckman have founded this new company and are also the chairs of our newly relaunched wellness committee.
  
  
• Pura Vida Bowls and Java LLC. We cannot wait to taste their acai bowls and avocado toast.
  
  
• Betty Batty, Hello Home of Compass. Five-star reviewed agent serving Anne Arundel County.
  
  
• My Bookkeeping Advisor LLC. In business for 26 years providing tax prep, bookkeeping, payroll services and more.

We also thank the many members who have renewed. We are so proud to have you in the chamber family.

Due to the rise in COVID cases, we converted all our January meetings to a virtual format. However, we were still able to have some great events and begin our planning for the parade and other community centric festivals.

We are excited to partner with the Severna Park Voice to produce our annual Community Resource and Business Directory. This year’s directory includes all the chamber members; our board members with their pictures; information about the community, local government and more. It will be mailed to 25,000 households and delivered to countless drop sites throughout the year. And chamber members received a 20% discount on advertising, one of the values of membership.

We held a virtual Successful Women in Business networking meeting where we introduced two new chairs, Jennifer McAndrews of Synergy Home Care and Danielle Ortiz of Q Sciences. We are so proud to have Nancy Greer of the Jing Ying Institute of Kung Fu & Tai Chi continue as co-chair.

Our keynote speaker was Dr. Erica Adams of Blue Sky Wellness. Dr. Adams has been practicing physical therapy for over 13 years. A graduate of the University of Maryland in 2008, she began her career at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center with a focus on pelvic health. She transitioned to outpatient private practice and has an office in Millersville. She delivered a fascinating presentation on the importance of a healthy pelvic floor for men and women.

February is a busy month for the chamber. Believe it or not, we begin planning for the parade. We held our first meeting to select a theme and grand marshal (to be announced soon). Because this is an election year, we are working to manage the anticipated large attendance of political candidates. It will again be a fun and well-attended event.

We relaunched our wellness committee with our new committee chairs. We have big plans for this group including holding a wellness fair in the community. If you have ideas on topics that are interesting to you, please reach out to me at the chamber.

We held a ribbon cutting ceremony celebrating the official grand opening of DeMaio Family Chiropractic and Physical Therapy in Severna Park. DeMaio has four locations: Severna Park, Gambrills, Odenton and Bowie, and is the official chiropractor for the Bowie Baysox. We learned so much about its services for all ages and saw their beautiful facility.

Our 2022 new officer installation and general membership dinner will be held at the newly renovated Romilo’s restaurant in Severna Park. We are honored to have the esteemed Ben Birge, CEO of the Anne Arundel Economic Development Corporation, as our keynote speaker. Performing the swearing-in ceremony is Cathy Vitale, and we could not be more excited to have our former elected representative, brilliant Anne Arundel County judge, and great friend conducting this important feature of the evening.

Every month, I conduct a Chamber 101 membership orientation where I talk about the chamber, display some historic photos as we have been in business since 1957, and tell the story about how founder Walter Winkelmeyer’s goal was to create a local economy of businesses that would survive and attract more businesses to strengthen our community. When it was then called the Severna Park Chamber of Commerce, Walter invited everyone to participate, from the local feed store owner to the Tupperware ladies.

Our chamber has never been an “exclusive old boys’ club” but has always been a strong advocate for the freedom to create a livelihood through owning and operating a small business. In fact, a woman was board president as early as 1961, and our chamber had the first Black female board president in Maryland in 1980.

We have always focused on one mission: to champion economic prosperity and foster a pro-business climate which improves our quality of life. And we do this together.

As always, please check out our website calendar for upcoming events (www.gspacc.com) and our Facebook page. You can reach me at ceo@gspacc.com or 410-647-3900. Thank you for buying local and shopping small!