Four Locals Join New Canaan Chamber of Commerce Board

The New Canaan Chamber of Commerce is pleased to announce four new members to the Board of Directors. The new members include: Rachel Lampen with the HamletHub, Michelle Mauro of South End Restaurant, Christa Carr of the Glass House and Phil Williams, owner of New Canaan Music. The Chamber has 21 Board members that all share their expertise, ideas, and time to help promote New Canaan and all it has to offer. “We have a great team and I feel so fortunate to work with each and everyone one of these talented members” said Tucker Murphy, Executive Director of the Chamber. The Chamber would also like to thank Diane Roth and Keith Simpson for their time on the Board and service to the Chamber.

Five Years On: New Canaan Chamber’s Tucker Murphy Shepherds Community, Commerce with ‘Positive High Energy’

 

Here’s a word that lifelong New Canaanite Beth Jones—a 1974 New Canaan High School graduate who serves on the Board of Selectmen and belongs to the Kiwanis Club of New Canaan and League of Women Voters—used Friday to describe the positive changes brought to our community by the Chamber of Commerce these past five years: “Unbelievable.”

Splintered at the time Tucker Murphy took over as executive director, with a business-led group that called itself the “New Canaan Village Association” breaking off to create the now-annual Holiday Stroll and push for more activity, the chamber today is credited not only with mending the rift and boosting the visibility of local businesses through new events, but also with creating something that’s difficult to describe—a kind of inclusiveness, feeling of shared mission and connection among not just businesses but also nonprofit groups, community organizations, individuals and the town itself. Thursday marked exactly five years since Murphy took over as executive director at the chamber—bringing in marketing associate Laura Soper Budd along the way. Asked to describe what they’ve seen happen in that time, business and town leaders credit Murphy’s enthusiasm, vitality, creativity and sense of community in forging an enviably active, mutually supportive membership. “She’s just a fabulous spokesperson for the businesses, the community, the town itself,” Jones said. “She just loves New Canaan.”

Asked about the change herself, Murphy said one touchstone for what’s happening is the fact that one new business here, Mrs. Green’s, contacted the chamber itself (and joined) entirely on its own.

Volunteers Needed for Annual New Canaan Spring Cleanup

 

Town officials are calling for volunteers to raise their hands and organize for a longtime New Canaan tradition that sees community members clear trash each Spring from our roadways, parks, downtown/village center, school grounds and elsewhere. The 2014 “Clean Your Mile” campaign is scheduled for April 26 and 27. On that weekend, organizers and sponsors will mobilize to provide gloves, garbage bags and dumpsters (more details on that below). “Clean Your Mile is a New Canaan Spring tradition that is over 40 years old, most likely originating out of some of the first Earth Day activities,” Kathleen Holland, director of Inland Wetlands and Watercourses, told NewCanaanite.com in an email. “Volunteers are recruited from service clubs, schools, church groups and members of the community. We look forward to improving the Town and at the same time helping the environment.”

To help ensure participants get to school grounds, parks, streets, parking areas and other public places, organizers are asking people who will lend a couple of hours to sign up with Kristi Ready at the New Canaan Department of Public Works: Kristine.Ready@NewCanaanCT.gov and 203-594-3090.