Chamber glad people help out

Debbie Vandeberg

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the Havre Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and staff. That very special time of year is upon us and was officially kicked off Saturday with the lighting of the community tree at Town Square. The crowd was awesome in spite of the frigid temperatures Mother Nature dealt us. Thanks to all that came out and braved the weather.

Many hours of behind the scenes planning and work goes into the community tree lighting, the decorating of the community for the holidays. Thank you to everyone who helped this year — from the washing and fixing of the holiday pole decorations, to getting the tree adorned with lights, to the many helping hands that make the tree lighting and the arrival of Santa a special community event. We are very grateful to their efforts and time. Those that volunteer during the holidays and throughout the year are community members who are willing to step up and undertake a service and give back unselfishly to something they believe in and support.

Thank you to the city crews for making our community look so festive with all the holiday decorations and banners.

Thank you to Stacy Mantle, Joe Ross and Shawn Holden for their help to make our community tree at the Town Square a magical site. Thank you to all who helped with the organizing of the tree lighting this year — Joe Ross, Shawn Holden, Matt Hedstrom, Debbie Callahan, Dominique Preputin, Stacy Mantle and the Chamber Ambassadors.

Thank you to Leadership High School students Rachel Bartlett and Cole Keller for making the tree lighting a magical gathering for the children. Thank you to members of Havre High School choir groups for the wonderful holiday music and for braving the wickedly cold evening. To Santa: Thank you for making the tree lighting a magical gathering for the children. Thank you to the Salvation Army for providing the very cold crowd with hot chocolate, to the Elks Club for letting costume changes take place and for their winter refreshment and to the radio and newspaper for sharing the holiday message.

Thank you to all who celebrated the holidays at the community tree lighting this past weekend.

Another huge thank you needs to go out to BNSF for their sponsorship of Havre’s first Santa Run. Again our tenacity showed through, with a great turnout of runners to make history in our first Santa Run in minus temperatures. Also, thanks to Dr. Grow for sponsoring Northern Montana Health Care participants, a great team effort from Shauna Albrecht and the employees of Timber Creek Village, those that dressed up in Santa-themed costumes and the Havre police force being great partners in making the race route safe.

During this time of year, many people give unselfishly of their time to make the holidays a little more special for all of us. I would like to thank everyone who volunteers in our community, from the hospital, to their child’s school, to their church or belong to a local service organization.

Sometimes thank you just doesn’t seem to be a strong enough expression of one’s gratefulness. The Chamber has hundreds of people who support the Chamber and its many activities hosted for the community to enjoy. Thank you to each and every one of you! Havre is a great place to live because of you. Merry Christmas.

(Debbie Vandeberg is executive director of the Havre Area Chambeer of Commerce.)