Amidst the hustle and bustle of this very special season, we want to take time to extend our appreciation to all of our more than 650 members, our board, elected officials and volunteers, as well as the thousands of local and area residents who work shoulder-to-shoulder with us during the year to improve the quality of life in our community.  We're truly blessed to live, work and play in the unique community called Greene County.  May the true spirit of Christmas fill your hearts with peace, and may 2013 bring you all the happiness and success you so richly deserve.  Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year to all!!!!

Congratulations to Nicole Rader, the Green Coat Ambassador of the Quarter for December.  Our sincere thanks goes to Nicole for all her hard work and dedication to the Partnership.  For more information on the Ambassador program, contact Lori Collins at 638-4111 or email gcp@greenecop.com.

More than 190 people attended the Annual Christmas Luncheon held this past Thursday, December 13, at First Presbyterian Church.  Attendees enjoyed the sounds of the Greeneville High School Gospel Choir and were given the Parrish Properties' new 2013 calendar, which features the Roby Fitzgerald Adult Center.  Artwork is by Chris McAdoo. 

Seventy-five local sanitation workers were honored at the Keep Greene Beautiful Annual Sanitation Appreciation Breakfast December 5.  Thanks to the sponsors, J.A. Street & Associates, Transport Technologies and Wal-Mart Transportation, for making the breakfast possible.  Also, thank you to the businesses that donated door prizes, particularly Wal-Mart Logistics, West Main Recycling, Greeneville Iron & Metal, Studio Nine 22 and Patti Roberts.

More than 30 local manufacturers attended the Manufacturers' Council meeting Monday, December 10, at John Deere Power Products.  Dr. Vicki Kirk and Dr. Linda Stroud, directors of county and city schools respectively, and Dr. Anita Ricker, assistant dean at Walters State, presented the council with an update on program initiatives including Career Pathways, which assists students in finding a career they are interested in and directs them to courses geared for that career, and JobFit, a program that uses students' traits to match them to more than 300 careers and employers.  Attendees also enjoyed John Deere's presentation of the Shingo Principles of Operational Success and a plant tour that focused on continuous improvement objectives.  John Deere was one of only two companies worldwide to receive the Shingo Prize in 2010, and their return on investment was evident through the tour presentations given by employees who helped achieve those continuous improvement benchmarks.  Chairman of the Manufacturers' Council, Scott Crawford, said, "This is our second meeting of the council and we have had two powerful presentations so far, I really look forward to the next meeting and the accomplishments that can be achieved by this powerful group." 

Tourism now has a Pinterest account, pinterest.com/tourgreeneville.  Pinterest is a free virtual pinboard that lets users organize and share the images they find online.  Users can "follow" other Pinterest users' boards to see what they are pinning and share with their followers as well.  According to the director of marketing for the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development, their Pinterest account has replaced Twitter as the number two social media referral site for tnvacation.com.  If you have any high resolution photos that you would like to share with Tourism for inclusion on the site, email them to Tammy Kinser at tkinser@greenecop.com.  The creation of the Pinterest account comes on the heels of Tourism creating a Twitter account for Historic Greeneville as well.