The Chamber held its annual installation breakfast on January 25 at the American Legion Hall. Our guest speaker was Supervisor Tom Croci. We had a large turnout and that is a reminder of how our local merchants and residents want to stay involved for the enrichment of their community.
We named our “Merchant of the Year”, Mr. Dan Toomey from Atlantic Auto Mall. Through their generosity and customer service, not to mention the vast improvement on Sunrise Highway with their state of the art buildings, West Islip is a better place.
We are into the new year and have escaped most of the harsh winter weather. Last year brought us some new openings and some great projects around our town. Residents have been fortunate to receive a local discount card from many of our businesses through our Maptoons project. This cartoon map is both fun and useful and I feel proud when I see one of them any displayed around town.
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Our car show last year was accompanied by our very first outdoor move night at the high school grounds. This was a great way to send time with your entire family for only $5 per carload. Hence, the movie “Cars” was selected to cap off a great day at our annual “Blast from the Past” car show event.
The West Islip Breast Cancer Coalition and Good Samaritan Medical Center sponsored the Pink Flags of October which proudly displayed over 400 pink flags along Montauk Highway, some of which were dedicated to loved ones. This was a great way to create continued awareness for this very important cause.
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We are seeing some renovations in progress and I a hopeful that the pace will continue to pick up for our local retail and business community. The Chamber along with a few local businesses launched a West Islip Cares campaign “Make a Soldier Smile” which runs until March 4 when we will have a fundraiser at Farrell’s Pub. This campaign will provide needed sundry items to our local troops and the West Islip Cares program will continue throughout the year for other important causes.
Our business community has opened their arms to the community needs and as always, we need to support them in return. A new student mentoring program will be launched this year and will give our local students a chance to shadow a business person in the field that they choose. We have plenty of local businesses and we will encourage all of them to sign up for this great opportunity. More information on this project will be released shortly.
So, let’s be optimistic for a fruitful 2012 and remember to Keep It In West Islip (KIIWI)
