Thank you to the Wilber Care Center employees, guests and volunteers who helped contribute to the success of the Independence Celebration on July 2nd. A lovely evening of fellowship and fun as we honored the birth of our Nation. The Care Center kitchen staff prepared a delicious picnic supper with Chamber volunteers, John & Jo Brickner, Brian & Judy Florian, Wanda Rademacher, Sue Underwood, Karen Sebek, LaVern Aksamit, Twila Wanek, Mary Keller, Danni Klasek and Bill and Sheryl Kastanek helping to serve over 425 meals. Musical entertainment included polka music provided by the Czechland Trio, following by a grand stand, husband and wife team, “American Pie”, providing country and rock & roll classics as a salute to the USA. Bingo, games for kids, a bake sale and our local clown, made for a welcomed evening for everyone. An excellent fireworks show completed the evening. Kudos to administration, directors and staff of the Wilber Care Center for their extra efforts to enhance a evening of family fun, Barb Dreyer, Barb Nelson, Michele Vana, Jamie Siems, Brandy Garrison, Pam Schuerman, Cindy Zajicek, Rania Hagemeier, Randy Homolka and Chamber member, Randy Kozeal. Special thanks to Care Center board members, Joyce Wusk, Scott Albert, Steph Hroch, Chris Linhart and Mike Barrett for understanding the need to keep the facility a vital link to our Wilber Chamber of Commerce community.
I hope you have all had the chance to get a peek at the 2014 Jeep Cherokee on the Wilber Body Shop car lot at 3rd and Harris Streets. This deep cherry red vehicle will be raffled off on August 3, 2014 at 6:00 pm. Only 350 tickets will be sold for this prize. The first drawn ticket will win the Jeep with nine other tickets drawn for $100.00 each. While many fine Chamber members help with the ticket sales for this fund raiser, special thanks must be given to Cindy Pulliam for registering each one of the 350 tickets sold. During a hectic festival weekend, Cindy is busy at a computer, meeting the requirements of the State of Nebraska gaming commission. Since the inception of the “Vehicle Raffle”, this fund raising project has generated almost $100,000.00 for the benefit of the town of Wilber. The Wilber Fire Department, Wilber Swimming Pool, street lights for Main Street, downtown murals, Wilber youth sport programs and facilities, downtown beautification, flags, banners, benches, trash cans and cigarette containers and the four Wilber welcome signs were all made possible from the income of the vehicle raffle. What a great investment to enhance our town with a purchase of a $100.00 ticket and have a chance to win a vehicle. If interested in helping Wilber, please purchase a ticket shortly as sales have been good.
During these hot summer days, take some time to check out our newly vamped Wilber Chamber of Commerce website, http://www.wilberchamberofcommerce.com/. Our website has an all-new look and feel with added benefits for members, resources for the community, relocation information and tourist travel to Wilber. Julie Hensel, a 2005 graduate of Wilber-Clatonia High School, has created, updated and launched a new website for the Wilber Chamber and the Nebraska Czechs of Wilber. Chamber business members are encouraged to include the address, phone number, email address, website and social media pages in your listing. We are all learning and growing with this promotion dedicated to the success of our chamber members by providing advertising opportunity on the world wide web at no extra cost to our chamber merchants. Please watch for further updates to enhance your business by being a member of the Wilber Chamber of Commerce. The Wilber Chamber of Commerce is dedicated to the mission of keeping our downtown merchants strong.
Please be watching for the “Christmas in July” fundraiser. The Wilber Chamber of Commerce would like to update the downtown Christmas decoration on the main street of Wilber. Long time community supporters Nancy and Frank Linhart, came up with a great idea to enhance downtown Wilber all year long. Beautiful, hand crafted Czech signs will be offered to all local merchants by the Chamber. With the help of LaVern Aksamit and local Czech language expert John Kastanek, the Linharts donated their time to handcraft signs to be placed in the windows of downtown businesses. A professional artist was hired by the Chamber to paint the signs. Donations received from our merchants will be used to purchase new downtown Christmas decorations.
Wishing each of you a safe, happy and successful Czech Festival weekend.
As always,
Sheryl Kastanek