VP MCC BANQUET … Vice President Lauren Oxender delivers the State of the Chamber Address.
(PHOTOS BY BRIANNA BALOGH / THE VILLAGE REPORTER)
OUTSTANDING CITIZENS MCC BANQUET … Nathan and Tashia Thompson receive the outstanding citizen award from Jim Thompson.
By: Brianna Balogh
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
publisher@thevillagereporter.com
The Montpelier Chamber of Commerce hosted their annual banquet on Tuesday, February 18th. The chilly winter air did not deter the multiple attendees from businesses across Montpelier coming together to celebrate the past and look forward to the future.
Starting at 5:00 p.m., a social hour was held before dinner began at 6:00 pm.
The room was littered with highlights from the past year including photos and articles from ribbon cuttings at new business openings, last year’s banquet, bean days, the Christmas parade, and maps of the new Iron Horse River trail.
Emcee for the evening was Police Chief Dan McGee, who kept the crowd engaged and entertained. The festivities kicked off with a brief highlight of several activities sponsored by the chamber over the last year.
Special to his heart was the police department taking home the coveted title of best beans. McGee even joked that he should be titled as the ‘bean king’.
Prior to dinner, Pastor Jan Desterheft led the invocation. McGee then invited everyone to enjoy a delicious meal provided by local restaurant, Drop Tine.
Vice President Lauren Oxender took to the stage, providing information on the past, current and future plans for the chamber of commerce. The chamber currently has 93 members.
Oxender highlighted some activities that had taken place. She mentioned several ribbon cuttings that had taken place over the past year.
Quarterly lunch and learn sessions held at drop tine welcomed several different guest speakers covering various topics from cyber security to the housing shortage.
One big project the chamber had taken on over the past year was updating its regulations, which had not been done since 2000. The updated regulations, benefits brochure, and chamber office hours were provided in a packet to all attendees.
Looking to the future the chamber has several goals for 2025, first being the Veterans banners intended to be hung in the downtown area.
Increasing the chamber of commerce membership is also a main goal as well as completing an updated business directory. The chamber will be taking responsibility for the weekly cruise in, held on Tuesday evenings throughout the summer.
The Montpelier Jazz Band, under the direction of Rachel Kruger, were introduced next. The student musicians performed four songs for the crowd’s enjoyment.
Kruger concluded the performance by thanking the chamber and community for the continued support of the jazz band. Emcee McGee especially appreciated the inclusion of two Beatles songs in their set.
McGee then introduced guest speaker Ira Barrett, director of LifeWise academy. LifeWise provides religious education to students during school hours.
Barrett began by providing some alarming statistics from the 2022 Williams County Health Assessment regarding suicide rates and ideation among local youth.
Montpelier had the highest rate in Williams County and only about 20% of students attend church regularly. He continued with how that has inspired the spread of LifeWise academies into many local school districts.
Lifewise provides the opportunity for students to study religion during normal school hours, which for many students may be the only exposure they have to religious education.
The program is completely voluntary for students and families. The program offers an easy to follow curriculum that is character based and driven by local community churches.
LifeWise was implemented in Montpelier in 2024, with grades 3-5 and expanded in August to grades 1-2.
Barrett shared several parent and student testimonials expressing the positive impact of LifeWise. Future plans in Montpelier include expanding to all grades and having a permanent LifeWise facility.
Barrett closed his speech with ways that you can help LifeWise by donating time as a volunteer teacher or ambassador, snacks, resources or monetary donations which can be done at www.lifewise.org.
Jim Thompson filled in for Kara Custar representing the Montpelier Area Foundation to present the outstanding citizen award. Mr. Thompson, having a special connection to the recipients, outlined some of the many qualities required.
Mr. Thompson was thrilled to announce the outstanding citizens as Nathan and Tashia Thompson. Both Nathan and Tashia have dedicated many years to the community.
Tashia has been on the Montpelier Public Library Board for 19 years, she served for 16 years with the academic boosters which she is currently president, 12 years co-chair and treasurer of Montpelier Bean Days, and served as a shuttle driver for LifeWise among many other activities.
Nathan has served the community in several different ways including the Montpelier Rotary Club where he served as president, the village council, president of the church council, 10 years on the planning commission, former board member and president of the chamber of commerce, and his intensive work on the Iron Horse River Trail.
Nathan graciously accepted the award with an emotional speech stressing how much both he and Tashia care about the betterment of the community. They were both humbled by the nomination for this award.
He reminisced on past discussions about the problems faced in Montpelier and how much the community has grown for the better. His passion and pride for the Montpelier community could be felt by everyone in the crowd.
Following, Nathan Thompson was invited back up along with Chirs Kannel to talk about the Iron Horse River Trail. A project that they are both very passionate and proud of.
Thompson provided a lot of background information about how the trail idea came about. He also shared the steps taken to get the required funding for completion, which totaled over $1,000,000.
Chris Kannel spoke about some of the future plans for the area as well as future plans for the community in general. Several benches are set to be installed, story book library, disc golf, mountain bike obstacle course, work out equipment and canoe launch are all in the works.
Both were very proud of the work that had been done, with people coming from local communities and beyond to enjoy the trail.
The final award of the evening was to be presented to the outstanding business of the year, presented by Executive Director Kelly Herzog.
Starting with the history of the 100 year old business, Fackler’s monument has been family owned since 1924. Being handed down within the Fackler family until George Roerig and his family took over.
Current owner Paul Roerig, the third generation owner, was presented with the Outstanding Business of the Year Award by Kelly Herzog.
In his acceptance speech, Paul Roerig highlighted his entire team. He introduced each team member, those present and those who could not attend.
He gave extensive background and how each team member is a valuable contributor to the business. The focus on the team and family really showed through in his speech.
McGee closed out the evening by thanking everyone for attending and looking forward to 2025.
