April 2011 Newsletter

The Annual Easter Bunny Breakfast and Easter Egg Hunt will be Saturday, April 23, 2011. Breakfast will be at the Rotary Building from 8-10 am and the Egg Hunt will be on the Courthouse lawn at 10:00.

The all-you-can-eat breakfast will consist of pancakes, sausage, juice, milk and coffee. All the profits benefit the START Scholarship Fund. The cost of the breakfast is $5.00 per adult and $.99 for children 12 and under. The Easter Bunny will be available to get your child's picture taken with. (Please bring your own camera as NO PHOTO WILL BE PROVIDED.)

The Easter Egg Hunt will be on the Courthouse lawn, with the different age groups taking turns this year. The 0-3 year-olds will start at 10:00 am, the 4-6 year-old children will hunt eggs at 10:10 am, followed by the 7-9 year-old children at 10:20 am, and finally the last group to go will be the 10-12 year olds.

Hope to see you there!

Missouri Main Street Assessment

Gayla Roten, Missouri Main Street State Coordinator, and Norma Meiss, National Program Associate with the National Trust Main Street Center, were in Clinton on Tuesday, March 22 for the annual Clinton Main Street program assessment.

Meetings were scheduled with several different committees throughout the day and included board members, staff members and various volunteers. Gayla and Norma also spoke to several local business owners in their quest to determine Main Street's presence in the community.

The final meeting of the day was at 5:30 p.m. where Gayla and Norma reviewed the Ten Criteria that determines accreditation and were happy to report that Clinton Main Street will again be an accredited National Main Street Program in 2011.

As a National Main Street Program, Clinton Main Street receives special assistance and education from Missouri Main Street to help in the areas of Design, Organization, Promotion or Economic Development in the ongoing process of downtown revitalization.

Working Women's Luncheon

The Chamber Ambassadors will be hosting the Working Women's Luncheon again this year. It will be held at the Rotary Building on April 27 with the theme "Bedazzled."

There will be 3 shifts again this year: 11am-12pm, 12pm to 1pm or 1-2pm. Tickets are $10.00 per person.

All working women will enjoy a delicious lunch, and door prizes will be given at each seating. You must be present to win the door prizes. There will be to-go orders available. The deadline to sign up is Friday, April 15.

Cruise Nights Schedule

Jim Raysik Chrysler-GMC is the sponsor for our first Cruise Night of the year on May 14, which is always one of our best!

We will start off big for our first Cruise Night with a Pinewood Derby. All boys, girls, and adults are invited to participate or be spectators. Please see the website at www.clintonmo.com and click on Cruise Nights for more information. You may call the Chamber office at 885-8166 for a flyer to be faxed to you.

Pinewood Derby kits are available at the Scout Shop on the South Side of the Square. This is a great family project so get your ideas together, build your racecar, and join us for a great evening of fun!

On June 11, we will have our second annual Downtown Clinton Cruise-In, Automotive Swap Meet and "Women's World" flea market, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Cost is only $20 to register for a space to sell. Check out the website for more info or give the office a call. Our regular Cruise Night will begin at 5 p.m.

Our sponsors for June are Kreisler Drug Stores and Fristoes Body Shop.

Revolving Loan Fund

Clinton Main Street has a Revolving Loan Fund that is available to any downtown property or business owner, or a prospective business owner, to help with façade renovations, fixed assets, remodeling or certain start-up costs.

Also available for downtown businesses are grants up to $500 for new sign or awnings, up to $1000 for complete façade renovations. The Chamber Community Grant Program can grant up to $500 for any Chamber member to help with exterior improvements to commercial businesses. Improvements must be approved by the committee before work begins.

Please see Diane in the Chamber office for more information.

Update Your VisitMO.com Listings,
Travel Guide Submissions Accepted
     Jefferson City, Mo. --- Now is a great time to update your FREE listing on www.VisitMO.com; it's also time for those qualifying businesses/attractions to update their FREE listings for the 2012 Official Missouri Travel Guide.
     Travel Guide listings must be updated annually. Because of ongoing improvements to our Industry Submissions Portal, the Travel Guide submission process is starting later than it has in years past; meanwhile, the deadline is June 1, 2011. So, it's vitally important qualifying businesses update Travel Guide listings as soon as possible.
     Please note the Travel Guide descriptions for our 2012 Travel Guide will be shorter than in years past; the character-count limit is dropping from 240 characters to 140 characters (Twitter users know you can say quite a bit in 140 characters or less) so be sure to edit your Travel Guide listings carefully.
     Qualifying businesses listed on VisitMO.com with up-to-date information will automatically be included in the 2012 Travel Guide; listings not updated by their "owners" by June 1, 2011, will be edited by Missouri Division of Tourism staff and could be included in the Travel Guide without further notice.
     Events and some businesses listed on VisitMO.com do not qualify to appear in the Travel Guide. To view our listing criteria, please click here.
     For the latest information and instructions, please log on to our Industry Portal at www.Industry.VisitMO.com, and click on the March 2011 updates and information link and then open (or save) and review the corresponding document.