November 30 – The Nanuet Chamber in conjunction with the Nanuet Civic Association held a free networking breakfast at the Nanuet Fire House Community room where most of the recently elected legislators, Highway Superintendent and judge were on hand to meet and greet and answer questions in a general forum.
November 12 – The Nanuet Chamber organized a fundraiser with the outstanding support and hosting of Raymour & Flanigan for the Nanuet High School DECA organization. About a dozen companies donated “tricky trays” (an assortment of gifts, baskets, etc.) for a raffle donation. In addition to the raffle, Raymour & Flanigan mad ea generous contribution to the DECA organization fund. These donations will help pay for students to be able to travel to the state and national competitions.
October 28 – The Nanuet Chamber held it’s 5th Annual Halloween Spooktacular at the George Miller Elementary School. There were free giveaways, pumpkin painting, face painting, children’s old-fashioned games e.g. ring toss, apple toss, bean bag toss, etc where prizes were awarded. Vintage cars were on display and “trunk or treating” was available for children (of all ages). Almost all the 300+ children were in their wonderful and many original costumes (with their parents we had over 500 total attendees). We want to thank Verizon (our year-long Sapphire sponsor), Wegman’s and Tumble Bee Gymnastics for their sponsorship and support. A special thanks to our chamber board Vice President, Susan Farese who coordinates this annual event and created many of the old-fashioned games.
September 26 – The Nanuet Chamber held is September Fall kick-off and Networking Event at Aqua Terra Grill (border of Nanuet and Pearl River). Several Nanuet businesses were recognized for their commitment to the Nanuet community and given the Chamber’s Partnership in Progress awards.
Risa Hoag, president of the Greater Nanuet Chamber of Commerce, presented Verizon with a Partnership in Progress award for their support of the 2016 and 2017 Nanuet street fairs as well as their overall support of the chamber’s activities on-going through 2017. Susan Farese, vice president of the Nanuet Chamber, presented Dennis Maher, owner of Ambulance Brew House, with a Partnership award for his support of the Nanuet street fair and recognized his commitment to beautifying Nanuet’s Main Street with the upgrading of the Ambulance Brew House retail front. Nanuet chamber treasurer George Mollo presented Jason Ruiz, owner of Advanced Audiology in Nanuet, for his support of the chamber through multiple event sponsorships and overall support of the chamber’s activities over the 12 months. George Mollo also received a Nanuet Chamber of Commerce Leadership award.
During the event, the chamber also revealed the first-ever shopping and dining map for Nanuet and the surrounding area. The map was made possible through a grant from Rockland County’s Tourism Office. Area businesses placed ads on the printed map which features six other geographic areas corresponding with other Chambers of Commerce in Rockland. The online map can be found on the chamber website and also at map.nanuetchamber.com. The map will be available at various retail locations, restaurants and hotels throughout Rockland and the tri-state area. Businesses can take ads on the online version of the map and should contact the chamber at info@nanuetchamber.com for more information.
The Nanuet Chamber also announced the launch of Nanuet and Beyond (www.nanuetandbeyond.org), an official 501 c3 charity whose goals will be to provide scholarships to students pursuing higher education, while providing benevolent assistance to individuals and charitable giving to non-profits and educational programs to the public. Anyone interested in volunteering and assisting with the ground level startup, please contact us at nanuetandbeyond@gmail.com.
Finally, The Nanuet Chamber announced, after taking several surveys through Facebook and our 2,000 name mailing list, a new town slogan for Nanuet —-“Small Town, Big Heart” The slogan will begin to appear on banners and taglines for the town.
August 29 – The Chamber had the pleasure of hosting a ribbon cutting ceremony for our Adopt-A-Spot area at the Triangle Shopping Center. The magnificent renovation is a cooperative effort between the Chamber, the Town and the County and the generous donation of labor and supplies from Mr. Landscape, Nanuet resident Richard Stein.
It is a beautiful design, one that we can all be proud of! There are a few more tweaks to come including the refurbishing of the guardrail so that it better matches the new look, the installation of the Welcome to Nanuet sign and a few other landscape tweaks. It is also lit up at night making for a wonderful entry to Nanuet. We want to thank Mr. Landscape’s team for all their hard work and thank Clarkstown Highway Superintendent Frank DiZenzo, his Assistant, Kim Termine, Clarkstown Town Supervisor George Hoehmann and the Town Council as well as the County and County Executive Ed Day for their support in this effort. We also want to thank Chamber Board Vice President Susan Farese for spearheading this project!
June 4 – Our 4th Annual Street Fair was held on Main Street/S. Middletown Road in Nanuet. Although the day started out without a cloud in the sky, by 1 pm we continued through some rain showers the balance of the day (the one thing the Chamber could not control). We squeezed almost 200 vendors (a few more than last year) and estimates of 8,000 to 12,000 local area residents who were determined not to let the weather hamper their shopping and fun times. The 500 free bags were all given away by noon. New this year, we added a sound system throughout the entire Street Fair so everyone could hear the day’s entertainment and repeated announcements thanking our Sapphire, Gold, Silver and Event Sponsors. We held old-fashioned family games where Country Executive, Ed Day was the master of ceremonies for “Simon Says…” There were also potato sack races, and egg toss contests.
Our 5th annual Street Fair is scheduled for June 3, 2018. Mark your calendars. We have sold out spaces every year so if you are interested in participating as a sponsor or exhibitor, sign up early. We will begin posting details and registration forms in the fall of this year for our 2018 event. Please continue to check our website for updated information.
May 31 – The Nanuet Chamber once again held a “bag stuffing” party at Pinot’s Palette (a Chamber member) where sponsors for our Street Fair T-Shirts and bags, networked and enjoyed wine and snacks while they added their literature, coupons, giveaways, etc. to the 500 bags the Nanuet Chamber gives away for free to the first 500 attendees who stop by the Nanuet Chamber booth at the upcoming Street Fair, Sunday, June 4th.
May 10 – The Chamber held its annual meeting and networking event at the Pearl River Campus (hosted by IRG Realty Advisors who now owns 200 acres of the Pfizer campus) at 401 N. Middletown Road, Pearl River. We had several presentations on microloans for small businesses, social media for businesses and the pros and cons of internships with DECA (a business marketing club for future business leaders at Nanuet High School).
April 22 – The Chamber’s 4th Annual Health and Fitness Fair was held in the parking lot of our event host Crystal Run Healthcare in West Nyack. We thank our host and our event sponsor, Advanced Audiology of NY. Over 35 providers held demonstrations and offered screenings and provided giveaways. The Nanuet Chamber also gave away free first aid kits to all who attended.
April 15 – The Nanuet Chamber of Commerce had a team participating in the Nanuet Community Cleanup in conjunction with Keep Rockland Beautiful. Raymour & Flanigan in Nanuet hosted organizers who provided locations and supplies e.g. grabbers, garbage bags, recycle bags, safety vests, etc. to all the volunteers and families who participated in the Keep Rockland Beautiful cleanup.
April 4 – The Nanuet Chamber of Commerce held a Free Breakfast and Board meeting at the Hilton Garden Inn on Route 59 in Nanuet. New and current members attended the monthly board meeting to hear about the events and programs the Nanuet Chamber was working on and planning for the future. After a lengthy question and answer period, attendees were able to network and meet new businesses from the area who had attended.
April 1 – The Nanuet Chamber participated in a ribbon cutting ceremony at Bach to Rock, a new student music studio that had recently opened on Route 59 in Nanuet.
April 1 – The Nanuet Chamber of Commerce in conjunction with the Nanuet Civic Association held an open house to discuss the Transit Oriented Development (TOD) project to review but primarily receive resident input and suggestions on zoning and development for the area around the Nanuet train station. A second open house and discussion was held Monday evening, April 3 at the Nanuet High School for those that could not attend the first session. A final open house discussion will be held in early June prior to submission of the proposals to the Town of Clarkstown. Additional information may be found on the Town of Clarkstown Planning Department website.
March 17-31 – Artwork from over 100 Nanuet students was on display at various businesses around Nanuet. On the evening of March 31st, our Art Show was held at the Shops at Nanuet in the 2nd-floor atrium between Macy’s and Regal Theaters. It was very well attended with over 100 adults and children artists who were presented cash prizes by the Nanuet Chamber of Commerce. Outstanding music selections were performed by the Nanuet High School Chamber Orchestra and Nanuet School Jazz Band directed by Katherine Rife and Walter Miller.
January 29 – The Nanuet Chamber organized a fundraiser with the outstanding support and hosting of Raymour & Flanigan for the Nanuet High School DECA organization. About a dozen companies donated “tricky trays” (an assortment of gifts, baskets, etc.) for a raffle donation. In addition to the raffle, through generous cash gifts by Raymour & Flanigan, Harley-Davidson in Nanuet, Area Pro Realty, Valerie Moldow and several others we were able to raise over $3,000 for the DECA organization fund. These donations will help pay for students who win in the all-state competition to be able to travel to the national competition.
January 24 – The Nanuet Chamber held its Post Holiday Networking Party and Banchetto Feast in Nanuet. At the start of our 5th year, we took the opportunity to recognize and honor our founding members and also have a little fun. The founding members (businesses and individuals who had signed up with 4 years of dues in advance as seed money for the chamber) were honored with free admission to the event and all those present were given honorary yellow “hard hats” with the Chamber logo, representing the work they helped establish through the chamber and also as an invitation to continue to participate in building the chamber’s future events. Tony Pallogudis (our Immediate past President) created an honorary program listing several of the chamber’s accomplishments to date and a brief biography for each of the founding members.
We also had several other major announcements including our new relationship with Nanuet High School DECA club. (DECA is a non for profit organization in high schools and colleges around the globe that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality and management). The Nanuet Chamber would be making a $500 donation to the Nanuet HS DECA organization in the names of the founding members.
At the event, we also honored those businesses who had ribbon cuttings in 2016 with a framed photo of the ribbon cutting which included a piece of the actual ribbon.
The Nanuet Chamber also announced that it was in the process of establishing “Nanuet and Beyond” (www.nanuetandbeyond.org) a 501 (c) 3 charitable organization whose purpose will be to provide informational, educational and enrichment activities to improve public awareness, enhance the local business environment and build community. It is our hope this new organization will further enhance its goals and objectives by expanding our ability to raise charitable contributions and sponsorships through matching grants, other foundations, etc. We hope to be fully operational by the late summer of 2017.