My Business Advocate

Building Better Communities by Building Better Businesses

July 2009 Volume 29, Issue 7

Inside This Issue

28th Street Metro Cruise® Tops List for Summer Fun

Log on towww.metrocruise.org,see page 10 of this newsletter,Email john@southkent.orgor call 616-531-5990 for details.

August 2009 Event - Planning Non-stop Since January 2009

Start Planning Christmas in July

Friday, August 28

1 pm to 9 pm andSaturday, August 29

9 am to 9 pm

Don't wait tobecome a MetroMerchant!Call John Today!

Santa is Coming!

We expect hundreds of familiesfrom Wyoming and Kentwood toline S. Division Avenue between34

and 43

Streets beginning at10 am on Saturday, December 5, 09 when WKACC Members welcomeSanta to South Kent County with aBIG parade.Our guest of honor will ride in hisown specially designed "sleigh" andMembers of the Wyoming KentwoodArea Chamber of Commerce areinvited to join many local not-

for-prot organizations and local

chuches and schools in welcomingSanta and the 2009 ChristmasShopping season in celebration of one of our nations most loved andcelebrated holidays, Christmas. To be a part of this celebration,either on the committee, bysubmitting an entry in the paradeor providing support through anevent sponsorship, contact janine@ southkent.org or call 616-531-5990today.5th Annual Metro Cruise® 1Christmas in July 1Opinion by John 2MIBLN-GR Kickoff 3Message from the BBB 3Community Blood Drive 3Member Recruiting 4ChamberPartners 53rd Fridays Networking 8Ambassadors' Corner 9Cruise Corner 10You've Joined, now what? 11Member Milestones 12Calendars on Pages 6 & 7Log on to www.southkent.orgfor details.

YOUR CHAMBER MANAGEMENT

2009 Board of Directors

*indicates Executive Committee Member

*John Crawford - President & CEO*Todd Duncan - Consumers Energy, Board Chair*Steve Marshall- MAS Advisory Service, Chair, Fin. & Budget*Norine Mulvihill - Sr. V. Chair*Kathey Batey - Priority Health/Spirited Presentations*Brent Holland - Chameleon Ltd.*Skip Knapp - EdwardJones Investments*Tom Kruisenga - The Kruisenga Agency, Past Chair*Brent Vander Kolk - Vander Kolk & Vander Kolk PLC,Legal Counsel

Community Relations Division (Blue)

*Kathey Batey - Vice Chair Tommy Brann - Brann’s Steakhouse & GrilleDan Van Dyke - PCO Associates, LLC*Brent Vander Kolk - Vander Kolk & Vander Kolk,.PLCLillian VanderVeen - Lenger Travel Services

Member Relations Division (Red)

*Brent Holland - Vice ChairRichard Chrisman - Hungerford, Aldrin, Nichols & CarterDanna Mathiesen - Mercantile Bank

John Schwartz - AT&T

Membership Development Division (Gold)

*Skip Knapp - Vice ChairRob Wells - VantagePointe Financial Group

Financial Development Division (Green)

*Norine Mulvihill - Sr. Vice Chair

Betsy Artz - Loeks Theaters (Celebration Cinema)

Joel Iakiri - Huntington Bank

David Szidik - Proforma Innite Marketing

Matt Uhl - National City

Ex-Ofcio

Carol Sheets - City of Wyoming, MayorRichard Root - City of Kentwood, MayorCurtis Holt - City of Wyoming, ManagerBill Doren - Chamber Foundation Chair

My Business Advocate

Building Better Communities by Building Better Businesses

Opinion by John

July 2009By John J. Crawford, Jr.President & CEO

A Letter of Appreciation

To: WKACC Board of Directors, Ambassadors,Members, Staff and Friends:On behalf of Joan and I and the entire Crawfordfamily, I can’t begin to describe how much we haveappreciated your support, your encouragementand your prayers this week as we laid our Dad torest next to my Mom. The phone calls, emails, visitations and yourattendance at his funeral have really meant the world to me and have gotten me through a tough

week. The ower and plant arrangements from the

Board and from the Ambassadors are beautifuland brought added tears to my eyes.Even though we knew Dad was sliding these lastfew weeks, he passed away sooner than we hadexpected.We gave him a good send-off, complete with bag

pipes at church and a rie salute and TAPS at the

cemetery. I am excited knowing that he is nowdoing the Happy Dance with Mom again and hadthe best Father’s Day ever – he’s gotten to see hisDad AND has met his Heavenly Father face-to-face! Tom Kruisenga and Todd Duncan, our past andcurrent Board Chairs, have both been right indescribing the vision for this Chamber – you haveeach certainly Made on Impact on my family as amotivated group of Servant Leaders, A Family of Businesses. Thank you for everything. Thank you for beingthere.

John J. Crawford Jr.

John J. (Jack) Crawford, Sr.

1923 - 2009 "We will miss him greatly for his humor, wisdom, sense of hospitality, graciousness,mentorship and love." -John Jr.

From the Better BusinessBureauof W. MI

Jerry Fennell

Storage Consultant

PH 616-452-4413FX 616-452-66371204 28th St SEGrand Rapids MI 49508fac0308@extraspace.comwww.extraspace.com

MIBLN Holds Kick-off Event for G.R. Afliate

Nancy Golds

Manager

On May 12

Business LeadershipNetwork of MI (MIBLN)

, in partner-ship with Disabilities Advocates of Kent

County (DAKC), held an inaugural

event as a kick-off for the MIBLN Grand

Rapids afliate.

The event, titled “ADA: Not Just theLaw, It’s Good Business”, demonstratedthe business case for employing people with disabilities. It was made possiblein part due to a grant from the Ameri-

cans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Steer

-ing Committee of Michigan, with addi-tional funding provided by the MichiganMedicaid Infrastructure Grant.

A number of organizations, includ

-ing the

Wyoming-Kentwood AreaChamber of Commerce (WKACC) andseveral of its members

played a rolein making the event come together

The event was held at the

Holiday InnExpress and Crossroads BanquetCenter,

providing a beautiful facility

and amazing food for the 75 plus at

-tendees.In addition, among the top-notchpresenters for the event was

WKACCBoard member, John Schwartz, fromAT&T.

In fact, since he was unableto stay for the entire event, a thank you gift was presented to John by

Vickey Argo (West MI Coordinator forMIBLN)

at the Chamber’s May boardmeeting.

MIBLN

, one of 32 state afliates of theUSBLN, is a private non-prot organiza

-tion whose members promote the inclu-sion of people with disabilities in both the workforce and in the marketplace.If you would like more information abouthow your company can become a partof this business-led initiative to help im-prove your bottom line, please call VickeyArgo at 616-430-0993 or e-mail her atvargo@mibln.org.

The Better Business Bureau warnsconsumers and small businessesto "Grab Your Wallet" or yourCheckbook if you hear any of thefollowing:

Free grants available fromstimulus...Debt Relief, just circle here...Settle Your Debts to the IRS orcompanies for 50% of debt...Suspicious activity on your credit,

click here to authorize/verify your

account...You have won $___, here's a check

(counterfeit of course) deposit it

and send money to claim balance of

your prize...

Guaranteed 12% investment return

(available only to your group,church, organization)...Veried funds available, guaranteednancing...

My name is... and my deceasedhusband was oil minister in

(Nigeria, Iraq, Sierra Leone)...

These and other wonderfulopportunities are available to aselect few billion people seekingmoney in tough times. There arerarely arrests; if you give out moneyor ID information you will lose;no one will get caught, no one willgo to jail and your money/ID/credibility will be gone.Encourage your employees to visitthe BBB's web site to check outevery offer every time.When in doubt, check it out!

••••••••

Members Team Up to Benet Community

COMMUNITY BLOOD DRIVETuesday, August 4, 2009 - Healthy Smile Parking Lot2021 44th St SE, East of Kalamazoo

hopitals! In conjunction with

Michigan Community Blood Centers

-the only source of blood for all hopitals in Kent and Barry county

Healthy Smile

is sponsoring a blood drive on August 4th from 2pm to6pm, in the

MI Community Blood Bus

located in the parking lot behindour building. Please join our cause to save lives in our community. Tosign up, contact Molly Lang at 616-281-8338 or e-mail healthysmile.dr.ona@gmail.com. We will be scheduling donors every 15 minutes. Please call or e-mail toreserve your spot today! Thank you,

Dr. Suzette Ona &

Healthy Smile Staff Dear Fellow Chamber Members, More than 140 pints of blood must be donated every day year-round to care for patients in Kent and Barry county