The Marlette Chamber of Commerce has been facilitating Marlette’s Country Fair Days for decades, and after several years of dwindling interest and a lack of volunteers, the Chamber voted to no longer sponsor or organize the July event.
Instead, they are focusing funding and volunteer efforts on the Fall Family Fun Day event that was started last October.
“It was not a decision that came lightly, trust me,” states Sara Redman, Chamber President. “This has been a rolling agenda item for the last year that I have been President, and volunteerism has seen constant turnover for the last 10 years that I’ve been involved in community events.”
She went on to add, “There is an immense amount of time and community funding that goes into these events and we don’t get the turnout in the summer like we do in the fall. After much discussion with local business representatives and community volunteers, the Chamber members voted Wednesday to no longer organize and sponsor Country Fair Days in order to focus efforts on business attraction, business training and support, and staying true to the goal of rebuilding a vibrant business community. We will focus our community engagement efforts in 2020 on the Fall Family Fun Day instead.”
By limiting the number of Chamber sponsored events, it alleviates both volunteer and donor fatigue, a common issue that all small towns face.
The Fall Family Fun Day event had the most positive feedback of anything the Chamber has ever done, and it brought hundreds to our downtown area last fall.
By limiting sponsorship asks of our local businesses, they can build upon an already successful event and continue to keep all activities free to attendees.
“Although the Marlette Chamber is stepping down from hosting Country Fair Days, the community is still welcome to host traditional events like the softball tournaments, community church services, car shows, class reunions, and fundraisers for local causes. The groups will just be responsible for their own advertising of events. Of course, they are always welcome to send the information to the Chamber and it can be shared on the Facebook page and in our e-newsletters,” adds Redman.
The Marlette Chamber will be working closely with the DDA, Farmers Market, local service groups and businesses to continue to expand activity in the downtown during Farmers Market & Food Truck Fridays, Small Business Saturday, Country Christmas Weekend and other special activities.
