Dinwiddie County

December Edition - The Monitor

by Tanya Hale, Founder

Dinwiddie County Chamber of Commerce Christmas Parade 2010 was a huge success! Months of planning and meetings culminated into the largest Christmas Parade in the Chamber's five years of parade presentation! Bands, US Army marching units, dignitaries, students, businesses, clubs and of course Santa Claus made for a lively day this past Saturday.

With the parade getting larger each year, sometimes changes and adjustments need to be made, both in planning and event day time frames. A huge THANK YOU to all the participants for adapting smoothly to the last minute changes that were made. Your willingness to adjust with a great attitude made the committee's job so much easier.

No parade happens without the hands of many volunteers and Dinwiddie County has been blessed with an abundance of volunteers and contributors this year! We would like to recognize and publicly thank some of our larger contributors to this event: Bank of McKenney, Bank of Southside Virginia, Farm Bureau Insurance and Jason Dean, Village Shed Store, Dinwiddie County Sheriff's office and Sgt. James Parker, Shockwave Radio Club, WalMart Distribution, Gerdau Ameristeel's Community Team, Smyrna Baptist Church, Dinwiddie County Parks & Rec., Whiz Bang Promotions, Dinwiddie County Public Schools, Fort Lee Public Affairs, Jeanette Bishop and friends, Dinwiddie County Airport, VDOT and their local crews, Charlie Haire and the Community Service Youth program, Dinwiddie Junior High Honor Society, Edmunds Waste Remove, Roselyn Stell and our wonderful panel of judges! There are so many more that we have not listed here, however their time and resources which contributed to the success of the 2010 Dinwiddie County Christmas Parade are very much appreciated!

As a chamber body, we look forward to this one major event that we have the ability to organize and offer to the community for a coming together for a common goal. What a beautiful way to celebrate the community you live in and a holiday that is held dear to so many. Special thanks to this year's Christmas Mother, Mrs. Diane Galbreath and the Christmas Sharing Foundation who reach out to those in our community, especially at Christmas to provide for those who might not otherwise have a Christmas.

Our deepest thanks to each of our participant entries this year who paid their registration fee and in some cases MORE than their registration fee as a donation to our Dinwiddie County Chamber of Commerce Scholarship fund. Every entry fee goes straight to the Scholarship fund, with event expenses coming from the Chamber's general fund. This year we were blessed with an additional $500 donation to be used specifically for scholarships. It has been our Chamber Board of Directors goal to raise enough money to be able to present three (3) scholarships to our seniors and with this blessing, we will be offering three (3) scholarships to Dinwiddie County Class of 2011. Scholarship Applications will be available through Dinwiddie High School Guidance Office and at the chamber website www.dinwiddiechamber.org beginning in Mid-January and will have an April deadline for return.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank our Dinwiddie County Chamber of Commerce Members and supporters for an awesome 2010. We have seen scholarships awarded, a Job Skills Fair presented, a Poker Run support our scholarship fund as well as the Sports Backers, and now a successful Christmas Parade. All these events and opportunities for our community would not be possible without our dedicated members and supporters. I wish all our members and County Businesses much prosperity and success in 2011! Our calendar of events for chamber members is filling up quickly and the opportunities for our members in 2011 to network and grow will be bigger and better than ever! Check us out at dinwiddiechamber.org and plan to attend our next Membership Meeting where we hear from the Sesquicentennial Committee , Wednesday, January 12, 2011 - 11:30-1:30 for lunch! RSVP reservations to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or contact a chamber member today! Member applications are available on our website at dinwiddiechamber.org Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year Dinwiddie County!

November Edition - The Monitor

by Tanya Hale, Founder

Plans are underway, registrations are coming in and this year's Dinwiddie Christmas Parade will be the biggest ever! Floats, horses, fire engines and Santa in old time fashion! Bring out the family on Saturday, December 11th 2:00 p.m. to enjoy the sights of "The Gift of Christmas".

Each year since 2006 the Dinwiddie Chamber of Commerce has put on the Dinwiddie Christmas Parade. Each year our county businesses and organizations lend a helping hand in so many different ways. Folks donate food for the parade participants to enjoy while setting up and while waiting for the parade to get underway. Shockwave, a local hand radio group donates their time from September to Parade Day to make sure that participants are safe and set up is smooth. Jeanette Bishop rallies her car club friends together to provide sleek and stylish rides for our dignitaries. Many hands make light work!

As I reflect back over the last year and the organizations I have been involved with, I see a trend that is very disturbing and perplexing. With all of our social media and busy lives, folks seem to have forgotten the simplest means of socialization and advertising. . . volunteering. Volunteering has long been a standard staple in communities here in our great county. As a volunteer, you meet new people, expose yourself to a variety of different personalities and professions, all rendering a different level of education and common knowledge. I recently worked with a group of youth men who were serving Community Service hours in the county. This group was a good group of boys and were ecstatic to provide their assistance and input on the project at hand, as well as roll up their sleeves to get involved. When the tasks were complete and their time was over, a majority of the young gentlemen asked if they could come back to assist again next time. These young men should be an example to all of us.

The benefits of volunteering are so tremendous. We need to step out of our tortoise shells and become active in the community in which we live! The Chamber of Commerce would not have been formed had I sat at home watching Desperate Housewives and waited for someone else to pick up the ball and run with it! The Christmas Parade would be the politically correct "Holiday Parade" and Dinwiddie High School Seniors would not be awarded $500 scholarships each year for the last three years. Businesses thrive on networking and volunteerism, as each public / volunteer encounter affords the owner or company representative to tell where they work and to share a bit about their company in a more relaxed set of circumstances. The only cost....YOUR TIME! For our community members and youth...when you volunteer, you are physically active (not sitting on the couch or la-Z-boy!), you expose yourself to a variety of personalities and have the ability to share your own wealth of knowledge. You don't have to have a PhD to be wise! Truly, I have learned some of the most interesting things from high school drop outs (don't get ideas kids, times were different in their day). Instead of gangs, crime and poverty, when people volunteer (and especially as a family) they are more in tune with their own community and their own community is more in tune with them and with their needs. Communities rally around each other in times of need. Can you understand my sadness in not seeing our volunteerism in Dinwiddie at an all time peak level?

As organizations, it is your job to encourage individuals to volunteer. You should be taking a skills inventory of all your organization members and asking members to perform tasks that meet their special skills and talents. After all, we all feel more comfortable doing things we know (and learning how to do other things along the way to broaden our skills and understanding). ASK A MEMBER TO ASSIST. Volunteering doesn't always consist of a month, a day or an hour of your time, sometimes it's as simple as making a phone call! You voted last week, now GET OUT AN VOLUNTEER!

Don't know how to volunteer or what organizations may need your help? Call or email me to find a group or organization that fits your talents and desires! Get moving Dinwiddie! See YOU at the Christmas Parade!

for lunch! RSVP reservations to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or contact a chamber member today!