Our speaker Carolyn Cerf serves as Executive Director of Highwood Chamber of Commerce, a position she’s held since April of last year. Prior to her current role, she was a Director of Government Relations for American Heart Association in downtown Chicago, and of course most of us know Carolyn from her active membership in this club when she was with Walgreens, employed as Government Relations Grassroots Coordinator. Carolyn is a native of Highland Park, a product of Indian Trail grade School, Elm Place middle school and HPHS. She has an undergraduate degree from Hendrix College in International Relations and is also a certified paralegal. Carolyn told the Club that she has the most amazing job! She loves bringing her business skills to help the community. She also touts the skills she learned through Rotary are being put to practice every day. She credits Rotary with igniting the spark in her to help the community. Using her Rotary know-how, living in Highland Park and working in Highwood, Carolyn feels all of these give her a great advantage. For the past few years, Highwood has recently experienced accelerated growth. This community has limited resources from taxes and doesn't have a park district. Besides the ability to attract new small businesses, more residential buildings are coming, giving this small community double digit growth! Carolyn cited Macy's at Northbrook Court - closed and being torn down as a sign of the times. The irony is that Amazon delivery trucks are parked right out front. The shift of consumers shopping to online has seen the closing of many retail stores. What brings people out is the experience - and that is what Highwood offers with their restaurant and service sectors. Patrons come from not only HP and Highwood, but also Lake Bluff, Lake Forest, and as far as Gurnee. Sometimes just having a venue is difficult - Function 429 is available for special occasions or meetings. - just one example of Highwood meeting a challenge head on. Highwood has capitalized on its 'small but mighty, blazing new trails' slogan. Celebrate Highwood started with three big festivals - Pumpkin Fest, Bloody Mary Fest, Inferno Fest, expanding even to Taco Fest, Red Head Fest, and Nashwood. Another sector of the community that the Chamber of Commerce has focused on are home design.and improvement. You may have seen signs around town, "Highwood Design District". With the creation of "Girls Night Out', what started as a way to bring women together, it also brought the number of women business owners to the forefront. FYI - Girls Night Out also welcomes men to come out and enjoy what Highwood has to offer. There are bigger cities with bigger resources, and the chamber has taken on an out-sized role in getting traffic to all these businesses. The Chamber of Commerce is even more relevant now. They've been advertising in North Shore and Sheridan Road magazines and developed a relationship with Lake County Visitors' Bureau. Highwood businesses that join the Chamber of Commerce will get a discount on membership when they join the LCVB. Two businesses that have taken advantage of that are 28 Mile Vodka and Miramar. The LCVB has a Libation Trail throughout the county and it stopped before Highwood. Carolyn has worked to extend that Libation Trail to include businesses in Highwood. Restaurant Week is February 18th - March 8th. Social media will also play a part in this event. If you check in, post a picture of your meal on Facebook and include the hashtag #HighwoodChamber you could win a prize, The participating restaurants are: Slyce, Disotto, Miramar, Scott's on Sheridan and Club 210. Another step the Chamber, other organizations and area businesses are doing to fill the gap that exists without a park district, is open their businesses for yoga, organize walks on trails among other fitness opportunities. The annual Chamber of Commerce meeting is next week. You must RSVP for the event, but it is open to the public. The annual meeting is tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. and you must RSVP. The cost is $45 for a buffet and glass of wine or beer. This will take place upstairs at Maria's Bakery in Highwood. Contact Carolyn at info@highwoodchamber.com. |