Coat drive to continue

By Staff
Cheryl Bradford
Franklin County Times
If you cleaned out your closets during the holidays and found some coats that you no longer need, bring them to us at the Chamber.
Because some of our coldest weather is ahead, we will continue to donate coats to those who need them and would appreciate your coat donations. Due to the generosity of a lot of you, we were able to give over 200 coats to all of our Franklin County and Russellville city school children and will continue to offer them to our needy until the winter has passed.
Thanks to all of you who have helped with our first, very successful coat drive.
If you are a member of the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce, there is an exciting event coming up that you and your employees can attend for very reduced prices. The event is called "Get Motivated" and will be held all day on Jan. 28 at the Von Braun Civic Center in Huntsville.
The event will feature speakers such as Rudy Giuliani, Zig Ziglar – America's #1 motivator, Dr. Robert Schuller, Rick Belluzzo-legendary President of Microsoft, Tamara Lowe, and top sales training expert Bryan Flanagan.
There will be fabulous door prizes including $10,000 in cash, a Disney World vacation and a big screen TV.
You will be receiving a letter inviting you to this big event as a guest of the chamber so I hope to see all of you there.
For those of you who would like to attend but have not yet joined the Chamber, come join us for this wonderful event. Call me at 332-1760 and I'll make arrangements for you and/or your employees to attend.
I hope all of you enjoyed your holiday season and am ready to look forward to 2009. This year the Chamber will be filled with new efforts and challenges to improve our Franklin County.
We have 54 new members and an excitement that we can make a difference when we work together.
The Chamber recently elected new officers and has added three new board members. Our new president is Susan Hall, Vice President is Danny Brown, Secretary is Kathy Hall and Treasurer is Pam Hester.
Our three new board members include Mike Vaughn of First Metro Bank, Joe Mansell – Fire Chief for the City of Russellville, and Linda Holcomb who serves as City Clerk in Red Bay.
I am honored to have as my Board of Directors: Jonathan Willis of the Franklin County Times, Freida Fowler of CB&S in Phil Campbell, Ken Askew of CB&S Financial Services in Russellville, Kevin Stone of Valley State Bank, Karla Lewey and Brente Jeffreys of Community Spirit Bank in Red Bay, Betty Chesnut who serves as director of the Country Cottage, Buddy Perdue, owner of Thompson Drapery in Russellville, Joel Pounders of Pilgrims Pride, Stacy Day who serves as Director of the Sarah Dinsmore Center in Red Bay, Marsha Oliver of Northwest Shoals Community College in Phil Campbell and Brian Hamilton, an attorney in Russellville.
This is a voluntary board and I appreciate that these very busy professionals are willing to volunteer their time and service to the Chamber. All of us at the Chamber wish all of you a prosperous and happy 2009 and please continue to remember:
Shop Franklin County First……..it matters!!
Cheryl Bradford is the executive director of the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce.