Chamber looking ahead to bright future in Vermilion

The Vermilion & District Chamber of Commerce has a lot to look forward to with new executive members, and community holiday initiatives coming up.

At their Annual General Meeting in October, Kory Kralkay was elected the new Chamber president, Amber Skolarchuk vice-president, and Janine Lange was the returning secretary-treasurer.

President, Kory Kralkay, said that as per their mandate, that each executive had to be on the board for over a year and that after having been asked, that he gave it some consideration and thought perhaps some of his skills and experience from Cornerstone Co-op could help.

“Working for Cornerstone Co-op makes me a good candidate for a chamber representative because we share a lot of the same values – giving people a reason to shop local, and encouraging people to be involved in the community,” said Kralkay.

“This is one avenue which I take pride in doing here in Vermilion. For others, it could be the Ag Society or Knights of Columbus, etc.”

He said there is some history in being involved with the community as he volunteers for Ukrainian Dance and previously was on the Kinsman Club during his time in Saskatchewan.

Kralkay has been working with the chamber for the past three years and started with Co-op 24 years ago as a grocery clerk doing deliveries, before taking part in university certificate programs and internal training opportunities on communication and how to be a good leader, becoming the Director of Operations for Cornerstone Co-op.

He said the chamber can provide short term tangible benefits, including a benefit plan for small businesses and reduced negotiated insurance rates for point of sale purchases.

“A chamber member has a larger voice in the community,” said Kralkay.

As a new small business, Booster Juice got involved by providing lunch to each winner of the chamber’s Business of the Month program. He said a great way for people to shop local is by participating in Holiday-Opoly.

“There was a lot of business interest and as businesses, we need to give people a reason to shop local, and this is a fun way to do it,” said Kralkay.

“This is a different spin on a traditional local shopping incentive. The more colours you collect through shopping local, the more chances you have to win.”

Holiday-Opoly provides participants an opportunity to win over $3,200 in Chamber Cash.

Two game boards (one for shopping and one for visiting) can be entered in to the corresponding draws once colour blocks are filled with stickers. There is only one entry per person for the visiting draw, but there is no limit for the number of times people can submit completed categories for the early bird draw, colour block draws or grand prize draw.

Kralkay hopes to assist the chamber in listening to business concerns so the chamber can advocate on their behalf. He said working with the town will be critical in growing a strong and robust community.

“I look forward to a more normal time so we can get back to networking which provides opportunities to share ideas and solutions,” said Kralkay.