Victoria Helling, Executive Director, Boone County Chamber of Commerce and Holly Stecker, Executive Director, Downtown Boone Mainstreet, November 5, 2026

On our program today we are going to be talking about what's going on with our Boone County Chamber of Commerce and also we are going to be visiting about what's going on with downtown Boone. You guys just had a very busy time. You wrapped up a lot of things here. So Victoria Hellings here and Holly Stacker. Victoria tell a little bit you got to go in. Did you go in the holiday? Did you go in the Halloween parade? Yes we were. We were in the Halloween parade this year. That was such a blast. Yes actually we had one of our good red coat ambassadors drive me around in his vintage car, John Vetter. So I have to give a shout out to John. My girls actually walked alongside the car, my twin girls, and threw candy to the kids and they were very proud of themselves. So we had a great time. It was a huge turnout. Not the longest parade around as we know from after Puffer Belly. But still it's a parade. It's a parade and I think everyone's done trick or treating and then they decide well you know what maybe we need a little more candy. So they just walk downtown and kind of finish up their night there. Holly one of those things downtown at least the shops on Story and in others in downtown Boone. All part of I mean it's one of those things we kicked it up last year and I think it's going to be a regular the way it sounds. I certainly hope so and we've been lucky with two great nights, two years, two great nights for trick or treating. Also October in general was really just a beautiful month all around. Unless you had to harvest.

We were just harvesting events downtown. Exactly. You hit the dry ones. Well even with trick or treating and everybody was going oh you know with the rain and the way it turned out to be a really not a bad day. So I would say from trunk or treat to we had our witches and wine events. I mean I feel like October turned out beautiful. Yep. All our outdoor events. That's right yeah trunk or treat. I'm not even going. That was yeah I'm going in excess of 15 this time. Excess of 1500 maybe. That would be my best guess as well. In the first hour the Boone PD and Boone Fire Department handed out 1300 hot dogs. I know that we visited with people for two straight hours at our balloon. Hey we had uh it was uh you know it once again. Just a fantastic event. People just keep coming out for it. It's one of those fun things to do. Absolutely. I gotta ask did you get enough people for the part uh the annual meeting? So we actually have 115 guests who will be joining us on Tuesday November 10th for the annual meeting at the 1868 farmhouse. So we yes we have we did really well. We are going to have catering done by witches smoking so they'll have like a delicious barbecue lunch and then we're gonna have the plant manager from Daisy Jeremy Fowler come speak to us kind of talk about hiring operations the the state of construction and what Daisy has in store for Boone in the future so. All everybody sees is tall building. Correct. That's up there. So right. Skyline has changed. Right. We're gonna get the I have to say behind the scenes inside info on Tuesday. That's one of the things people are because obviously we know constructed well operations or beginning up and starting up is in 28. Correct. That's a ways away. Correct. So again hiring and all of that and I'm guessing that they've got their people that operate that will be moving. Yes. Coming in so we got to get it built first. That's absolutely. Absolutely. So he'll give a nice update. We're also going to have Amy Bozzard with the Edge program come speak about professional internships. I know that she is trying to kind of beef up her professional internship program at the school. We have a lot of trade internships but not as many professional internships. So you know as far as in you know agribusiness banking IT. Sure. Those are the ones we're trying to you know get students in because that's what they're what they're interested in. And again it's you get the internships if you can get internships lined up there. Yes the trades we've got people that they jumped on that right away. They knew and and there are people that fill them up quickly. So just the the other side of it. The other side of it and it's you know it's you know investing in this younger generation. We want we want our our students to you know hopefully maybe go off to college but then come back and live here and work here and be part of this community. So I feel like that's the first step is starting at the at the high school. So that's coming up for you. What other fun stuff after that. What do you have going well obviously today. Is this another lead day today. Nope lead is actually going to be on the 19th. Okay. So November 19th. So we have our next program is going to be critical thinking and logistics. So we're going to meet with Noel Wilson group Teresa Patterson. She's going to be speaking to us in the morning and then we're going to go visit the fairway warehouse and meet with their logistics team. We're going to go meet with West Bass their logistics. So we're very excited about that and that's well underway as I kind of mentioned before. This program runs from September to May and we meet once a month at the chamber from 10 to 3 and this year we have 14 participants. So we're kind of just slowly add into it each year and growing that program. It's the idea. Keep going with it too. So we got that happening. Holly what about you? What do you have coming up? We are full steam ahead on holiday planning. So the holidays downtown are approaching fast and furious which is also hard to believe simply because the weather hasn't allowed us to even think about any kind of snowfall or the fact that we've got just a handful of Mondays before Christmas left here. But I suppose we could jump right into holiday dates to keep in mind. The holiday open house with specials downtown at modern dress and the Boone Vision Center is November 14th so that's next Saturday. It's just a week and a half. Yep and that will be the kickoff of our holiday pass which is a nod back to the old coupon or discount book. It will have a value of over $200 and will be available on our website and in most of the retailers. Okay that would be good. Yep and then looking ahead November 28th is Small Business Saturday following Thanksgiving. So get out, shop small, shop downtown and all kinds of things happening down here. Speaking of Boz and her Edge students we've got a project of a pop-up market will be placed at 8th and Story and the high school students will be selling their crafts and holiday kits and holiday decor. Again it's Small Business Saturday so all of the shops will be running their own specials and for the fifth year Santa on Story will be down here. So Santa will be down down here taking photos at Melissa Bell's photo studio. And I think that Saturday the 28th that's gonna be the parade too. Correct. Yep another parade. We're gonna be in that one as well. I feel like I have to hit all the all the parades. Really it's my girls now they're they're like well we want to go do that again.