Total Wine and More Grand Opening on So. Hill

Congratulations to Total Wine and More, the most recent business to open on South Hill.  Located in the South Hill Village across from Walmart, Total Wine and More had their grand opening celebration last Thursday.  Store manager, Tim Brown, is seen here presenting a $10,000 donation check to Valley Arts United representative, Glenda Carino.  Tim is a lifetime Washington resident and President of the Bonney Lake Food Bank board of directors.   Our Chamber welcomes Total Wine and More to Puyallup and encourages our members to stop in and say hi and check out their products and event schedule for their classroom which can be booked for private meetings and corporate events.  Be sure and tell them the Chamber sent you!

Gary Petersen Hosts First East Pierce Fire & Rescue Foundation Fundraiser

Teresa McCallion, President of the East Pierce Fire Foundation with husband, Assistant Fire Chief, Russ McCallion

Congratulations to the East Pierce Fire & Rescue Foundation for a successful first fundraiser last Saturday night at Gary Petersen's vintage car warehouse.  The sold out event hosted over 100 visitors who came to see the first ever showing of more than 20 vintage automobiles and support a great community cause.

The East Pierce Fire and Rescue Foundation was created to help fund CPR training for the community, provide fire alarms for citizens and host a community program called Sentimental Journey.  The Sentimental Journey program is one of only three in the country that gives eligible hospice patients a cost-free trip of their choice to do things they couldn't otherwise.  It deploys off-duty EMTs and paramedics in aid vehicles to escort patients and family members to their favorite spots. Founded in 2012, the Foundation is a non-profit affiliated with East Pierce Fire and Rescue and has a limited partnership with MultiCare Good Samaritan’s Home Health and Hospice, which provides support services and care to patients.

Our chamber is proud to support the efforts of the East Pierce Fire & Rescue Foundation, the Fire Department and Multicare.  And a big thank you to Gary Petersen for hosting a really fun community event.   

Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2014/03/20/3108094/sentimental-journey-program-gives.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2014/03/20/3108094/sentimental-journey-program-gives.html#storylink=cpy

Sumner Councilwoman Kathy Hayden, Shelly Schlumpf and Gary Petersen

EPFR Fire Chief, Jerry Thorson and wife, Gina.

Deputy Fire Chief, John McDonald

Event Planner Extraordinaire, Tamara McDonald 

 

Jerry Yoder and Gary Petersen

Clark and Lana Hover with Councilwoman Kathy Hayden and Doug Hayden

Shoppin' With Sherm in Sumner

You gotta love this photo of Congressman Denny Heck during a recent business tour holding a Sunset Chevrolet T-shirt that says "Shoppin' With Sherm" Sunset Chevrolet. Owners, Phil and Sita Mitchell, told the congressman that they host periodic promotional days giving away a free T-shirt with a test drive. What a great idea.  Congressman Heck's visit and business tour is just one of many he has coordinated with our Chamber in the 10th Congressional District that he represents.  He was interested in learning about the challenges of the auto industry for local dealerships and about Sunset's growth and ongoing success.

A big thank you to Phil and Sita for hosting the tour and for supporting our Chamber efforts to keep local business issues in front of our electeds.

 Go Hawks!

Fred Oldfield Celebrates 96th Birthday at Washington State Fairgrounds

More than 150 people showed up at the Washington State Fairgrounds early Tuesday morning to celebrate Fred Oldfield's 96th Birthday, including Puyallup's Mayor John Knutsen.  There were lots of artists and supporters of the community arts and heritage programs who gathered for breakfast, photos and a chance to walk through the center to learn more about the life and times of Mr. Oldfield.  The event was a fundraiser for the center and featured guest speaker, Michaele Sein-Ryan, career counselor at Tacoma School of the Arts.  It was a great event and funds raised will be used for continuing art and heritage programs.

TRCVB Annual Meeting Focuses on 2015 U S Open

The Tacoma Regional Convention and Visitor Bureau held their annual meeting last week and focused on the work their organization is doing to prepare for the 2015 U S Open at Chambers Bay in University Place.

Bennish Brown, President and CEO of the TRCVB spoke about upcoming hospitality programs and services they will be providing throughout Pierce County in preparation of the event.  Hunter George, Pierce County Communications Director, was one of the guest speakers who focused on statistics of the economic impact this world class international event will bring to our region.  They anticipate selling out all 235,000 admissions tickets as this will be the first time the U S Open has been held in the Pacific Northwest.  It's never been held north of San Francisco.  They anticipate each attendee will spend an average of $1,200, the will be 2,000 credentialed media here for the event and a global televised audience of over 100 million.  Event sponsorships are selling fast and they anticipate they will be completely sold before the June 2014 U S Open in Pinehurst.  George explained that normally it takes two months to sign up the 5,000 volunteers necessary to host the event, but here in Pierce County they exceeded that amount in 36 hours.  That's never happened before and is a great sign about how our region will embrace the event. 

If any of our members have questions about the U S Open or how it may impact their business, please contact our office, (253) 845-6755.  

New Employee and Intern Connections at State of Education

Last Friday's State of Education luncheon boasted a new format that featured nine of our Chamber's local education partners.  The luncheon program featured guest speakers Timothy Yeomans, Puyallup School District Superintendent, Sara Johnson, Sumner School District Superintendent and Marty Cavalluzzi, President of Pierce College Puyallup, as well as Gary Kemmer, Owner of STAC, Inc in Sumner.  

Our Education Showcase pre-event also included representatives from PLU, Clover Park Technical College, Pierce County Skills Center, WSU, UW Tacoma, and Brandman University. Some of the chamber business members who made connections for employees and interns included Sound Family Medicine, The Old Cannery Furniture Warehouse, and Dillano's Coffee Roasters.  

A sincere thank you to all of our education partners who participated in the new event and provided career and program advisers to talk with our local business representatives.  Also a big thank you to the Washington State Fair Foundation for sponsoring the event and to the Daffodil Festival's Queen Marissa and local princesses for greeting our guests with a bright cheery hello.  

Chamber Welcomes Puyallup Smiles Dentistry

Dr. Bienstock shows Chamber Ambassadors, Rob Lewis and Laura Davis how he can make a new dental crown in his office while you wait. In about two hours he can have you in and out. Amazing. Great ribbon cutting on Friday. His Puyallup Smiles Dentistry office is on So Hill across from Thun Field and they have a pediatric practice as well. His whole staff is fun, courteous and professional.  If you're looking for a great local dentist, be sure to check out his office and tell them the Chamber sent you.

Rob Lewis, manager of So. Hill Columbia Bank branch and Chair of our Ambassadors in Blue, ponders the perfect location for our Friday ribbon cutting at Puyallup Smiles Dentistry. Love this guy!

Congressman Denny Heck Visits Puyallup Businesses

Congressman Denny Heck visited with Crocketts and Trackside Pizza owner, Shaun Brobak last week and toured both restaurants in Puyallup to talk about the impact of issues like minimum wage and affordable healthcare on small businesses.

Congressman Heck also visited with newly crowned 2014 Daffodil Queen, Marissa Modestowicz, from Emerald Ridge High School while we were at Trackside Pizza as well as Daffodil Festival Executive Director, Steve James, and the Queen Mom, Carrie Swanlund.
  

Afterwards he toured the Puyallup Hatchery and spoke with local advocates including Puyallup Councilman, Steve Vermillion, followed by a tour of our Puyallup Southern Wine and Spirits facilities.

2014 Daffodil Queen Crowned

Marissa Modestowicz from Emerald Ridge High School was crowned 2014 Daffodil Queen last Friday evening at Life Center in Tacoma.  This year's Royal Court had 25 representatives from local Pierce County high schools.  Princess Nina Thach from Mt. Tahoma High School was named Miss Congeniality.  

Another year of great emceeing at Queen's Coronation by King 5 sportscaster, Chris Egan.  He and Miss Washington were the perfect team to introduce the princesses and ask the impromptu questions.  

And Wow! The brothers Egan (Mike and Chris) from Puyallup entertained the crowd and Mike surprised all princesses with a gift of surface computers for each of the 25 daffodil royalty. Big thanks to Microsoft for their generous donation and supporting this Pierce County tradition. 

Attending Coronation in support of their communities and school districts, Puyallup Mayor John Knutsen, Councilman Steve Vermillion and Daffodil Festival Board Member, Jamie Gregory.  

Sumner electeds, Council women Kathy Hayden and Cindy Hochstatter and Deputy Mayor, Mike LeMaster, also showed up to support representatives from the Sumner School District.

The Clan Gordon Pipe Band, the official Queen's Band, once again played their well known Scottish theme song to herald in the formal introduction of the 2013 Queen and the 2014 Royal Court.

 Congratulations to the 2014 Daffodil Queen, Marissa Modestowicz.

Go West Tourism Summit Come to Tacoma

Nolan and Lola Bursley with Las Vegas Tour Company

 Tour operators and hospitality suppliers came from all over the world last week to attend the 2014 Go West Summit at the Greater Tacoma Convention and Trade Center.  The Puyallup Sumner Chamber of Commerce partnered with the City of Sumner, a/k/a Rhubarb Pie Capital of the World, to promote Sumner as a great place to bring clients and customers to.  Carmen Palmer, Communications Director for the City of Sumner, was one of the event presenters and hosted the tourism booth promoting Sumner and Rhubarb Pie.  We met and talked to international representatives from Germany, Hungary, Tibet, China, Korea and Japan, plus hundreds more from across the nation.  Our promotion of Sumner even resulted in visits to Berryland Cafe during the event for one tour operator company out of Las Vegas.  It was a great event and a great partnership for Sumner tourism promotion.

Carmen Palmer with guest from Tibet

Japanese visitors take photos of Rhubarb Pie Booth to share at home.

Sewing Expo 2014 Brings Thousands of Visitors

Just a few of the vendor booths as the 2014 Sewing Expo

This past weekend the Washington State Fair and Event Center once again hosted about 30,000 nimble fingered seamstresses and tailors from all over the world.  Visitors inspected the products displayed in hundreds of vendor booths ranging from finished products, to sewing equipment, to oversized bolts of fabric.  Industry specific presentations and speakers from all over the country were available for those attending the event as well as sewing classes that attendees signed up for.  The result of this largely attended event was hotels that were booked full for almost a week, restaurants, cafes and coffee shops saw increased business and our chamber answered about four times as many phone calls and greeted drop in guests looking for information about Puyallup while they were here.  

Kudos to the Washington State Fair for hosting another great local event with substantial economic impact for our business community and to the event hosts for allowing our chamber to provide visitor guides and maps featuring our local chamber business members.

Hundreds of attendees listened to sewing presenters

Rows of fabric caught the attention of visitors

Red Canoe Credit Union Opens New Branch Near So. Hill Mall

New So. Hill Red Canoe Credit Union Ribbon Cutting

Friday, February 28th, heralded a new beginning for the new Red Canoe Credit Union branch location in Puyallup near the So. Hill Mall.  Although Red Canoe has long been a valued and active member of our Chamber of Commerce, becoming very well known for their annual "Fill The Canoe" school supply drive every August, they have not had a branch location in Puyallup.  

The opening of this new branch has been much anticipated by many in the community.  Branch manager, Laura Garcia, a current participant of our 2014 Chamber Leadership Institute program, has purposefully emersed herself in our community and begun establishing business relationships prior to the ribbon cutting.  We know Laura and look forward to seeing her at the new So. Hill branch and working with her in the future as one of our valued community leaders. 

Congratulations to Red Canoe Credit Union for a successful grand opening which included a partnership with the Good Samaritan Hospital Children's Therapy Unit.  Every person who signed the donation wall at the two day celebration earned a $5.00 donation to the Children's Therapy Unit from Red Canoe Credit Union.  Once again Red Canoe Credit Union show's they are a great partners in our communities.

Laura Garcia receives framed Proclamation from Chamber

The new "Red Canoe Crew"