The Board of Directors of the CHQ Chamber has selected Amy Rohler to receive the Pam Lydic Coalition Builder Award for 2024. Amy Rohler is Executive Director of the United Way of Chautauqua County. Under her leadership, the two United Ways of Chautauqua County merged after several years of successful partnership and shared services. She has been Executive Director of the United Way of Southern Chautauqua County for seven years and was previously the Executive Director of Community Helping Hands. She is passionate about problem-solving, collaboration and community change.

Amy has a Master of Religion from Yale Divinity School, a Master’s in Divinity from North Park Theological Seminary, and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Seattle Pacific University. She and her husband, Adam, have two children. Originally from Oregon, she has lived in Chautauqua County since 2009.

Pam Lydic was the very first President and CEO of the Chautauqua County Chamber of Commerce, having pulled together a variety of smaller community business organizations in order to strengthen the whole, financially and programmatically. Following her untimely passing in 2012, the Chamber launched this award in her memory to recognize an individual who has worked hard to bring groups of people together around a common goal or objective to move the region forward in a positive direction.

The award will be presented during the Chamber’s Annual Meeting December 13 at the White Inn in Fredonia. Advanced registration is required by December 6 through the Chamber’s online calendar.

CHAMBER ANNOUNCES BOARD SLATE FOR 2025

The Chautauqua County Chamber of Commerce is proud to announce its slate of board members and officers for the coming year. Board leadership positions will remain the same as this year. Heather Brown of The Resource Center will serve as Board Chair. Continuing their duties in additional officer roles will be Vice Chair Emily Reynolds of Cornell Cooperative Extension Chautauqua County; Treasurer John Felton of Southern Chautauqua Federal Credit Union, and Secretary Courtney Curatolo of the Small Business Development Center.

Newly named to the board is John Davis of Ashville General Store; Dawn Espersen of Dave’s Outlet Store in Silver Creek representing the Hanover Committee; Kim Maras of Westfield Boatworks representing the Westfield Committee; and Monica Simpson of the Chautauqua County Partnership for Economic Growth representing the Dunkirk Committee.

Continuing to serve in existing terms are Dr. Stephen Kolison of the State University of New York at Fredonia, Robert Mazza of Mazza Chautauqua Cellars, Arthur Pearson of the Roger Tory Peterson Institute, and Kristofor Sellstrom of the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities. Additional community committee representatives are Larry Fiorella, HBKS Wealth Management, Fredonia; Vicki McGraw, Elegant Edibles Catering, Jamestown; and Brian Pender, Northlake Development, Mayville.

This full slate of nominees will come up for a vote during the Chamber’s Annual Meeting, which will be held at noon, Friday, December 13 at the newly re-opened White Inn in Fredonia. The cost is $35 for lunch. Our keynote speaker will be Lesley Zemsky, Vice President of Larkin Development in Buffalo.

The CHQ Chamber Annual Meeting is sponsored by Brooks-TLC Hospital System/Kaleida Health, County of Chautauqua Industrial Development Agency, Jamestown Community College, LaBella Associates, Media One Radio Group, Observer, and The Post-Journal.

Registration is open now through the web calendar at www.chqchamber.org. We urge all Chamber members who are not able to attend to complete the proxy vote form available online at www.chqchamber.org/proxy-vote-form.

CHECK-IN, VOTE, AND EARN POINTS IN THE

CHQ CHAMBER HOLIDAY WINDOW

DECORATING CONTEST

The CHQ Chamber Holiday Window Decorating Contest for local businesses is now live online! You can visit your favorite participating businesses, check-in and earn points to be entered into a prize drawing, and vote for your top three favorite windows!

Here’s how the contest works: from your phone browser, go to go.chqchamber.org. You’ll see the Holiday Window Decorating pass and should click Sign Up. On the pop-up window click Check Out to input your contact information and then click Complete Order. Now you can vote and start check-ins at local businesses to be entered into our prize drawing! For each check-in you’ll get 5 points. Once you have earned 20 points (4 check-ins) you can redeem them for an entry into the drawing for one of two $100 ShopLocalCHQ Gift Cards. If you earn 40 points (8 check-ins) you can redeem them for an entry into a drawing for a $300 ShopLocalCHQ Gift Card. If you earn 50 points (10 check-ins) you can redeem them for an entry for a $500 ShopLocalCHQ Gift Card!

There is no purchase required at any time to participate in this contest, but we do hope you’ll check out our local businesses and see all the terrific holiday merchandise they have to offer.

In addition to checking in, we hope you’ll vote for your top three favorite windows! You’ll see the Vote Now button on the page. You can check in and vote once every 24 hours.

You will also have the option to adjust your votes after you have viewed more windows and check-in at a variety of locations, so your votes will not be tallied until the close of the contest at midnight December 15. The top three vote-getting businesses will earn advertising packages with a total value of $2000 from the CHQ Chamber.

We hope you enjoy our new experiences page through the CHQ Chamber! You’ll find additional games and passes throughout the year on the site with more opportunities to win prizes.