Ambassadors get ready for golfing

Wed, Jul 1, 2009

With new officers in leadership roles, the local Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors — who are business and professional men and women volunteers — will begin contacting sponsors for their Sept. 2 Chamber Golf Tournament.

The skill and fun day will be held at Grand Haven Golf Course, where 144 golfers were tested on the greens a year ago.

Dave Ruwe, chairman; Stacey Bierling, vice chairwoman; and Michelle Thyfault, secretary, met with Pam Blake of the local Chamber office; and Ryan Goldman, co-chairman of the golf committee. They organized the program for contacting sponsors this month.

"We are thankful to annually have three major sponsors at $1,000 apiece and five at $500 who generously sign up each year for the annual tourney," Blake said. "The golf event, with its fun activities and prize items for the golfers, is the major annual fundraiser for the Ambassadors.

Each year, the downtown merchants and Ambassadors launch the Christmas season in downtown Grand Haven with an hour-long lighted Jingle Bell Parade. It draws big crowds with hundreds of children in parade units and lining Washington Avenue with their families to see the sleigh-arrival of Santa and Mrs. Claus.

"The Salvation Army provides parked mobile units with hot chocolate served by members of the church," Blake said. "Every year, parade vehicles glitter with more creative nighttime crowd-pleasing sparkling lighted trucks and other vehicles. The committee hopes to have a hundred entries again this year."

Ambassador membership here is at an 18-year high with 26 attending the recent monthly meeting at Kirby Grill. Ruwe, the new chairman, is an agent with Remax/Grand Haven Realty; Bierling owns Stacey Bierling Design; and Thyfault is the membership director for Tri-Cities Family YMCA.

The Chamber of Commerce staff is finding the business people like networking through the Chamber and meeting more people in these more difficult economic times.

It was Connie Farell, the former Chamber coordinator who organized the first Jingle Bell night parade with first Ambassador Chairman Steve Harvey, an accountant. They started assembling in the parking lot, then across from The Bookman. Often it can be quite cold with winter winds.

New businesses are welcomed to Grand Haven with a framed $1 bill "buck-for-luck" presented to them by the Ambassadors. Major business renovations are recognized with Ambassador "brick awards," given them in recognizing the quality of life here and community activity that draws newcomers to Grand Haven.