Over the past year It has been my pleasure to be the president of the Langdon and District Chamber of Commerce for a third term.
This past year, we have seen the landscape of Langdon change dramatically. The addition of sidewalks and the continuing upgrades to Center Street, including pedestrian pathways to Boulder Creek, lighting, and signal lights at the Brander/Anderson Corner will forever change the look of Langdon. We are also honoured to add quad diamonds to the community, a project spearheaded by volunteers and brought to reality through funding from Rocky View County. All those involved should feel proud of their dedication to the future of Langdon Recreation. This past year, Langdon was also honoured to receive confirmation that local high school students will soon be able to attend school right here in their own community. These are some of the initiatives that the Langdon and District Chamber of Commerce has been honoured to support and champion for. As a board, we have worked on internal initiatives including a full bylaw rewrite which we will present for adoption today.
It has been my pleasure to represent the Langdon and District Chamber of Commerce at numerous Alberta Chamber of Commerce events including political action Day, mlas dinner and the deputy ministers dinner. During these events, I was able to interact and build relationships with current Provincial ministers, Deputy ministers as well as various Chambers of Commerce within Alberta. Attendance at these events have been extremely important to build relationships and move our own Chamber of Commerce into the future.
With the support of the economic development department at Rocky View County the Langdon and District Chamber of Commerce website launched in the fall of 2019. The website is a hub of information including a business directory, a community calendar and a Blog of important information for not only Chamber of Commerce members but also the community as a whole. All LDCC members have their business information listed in the directory for ease of access. Since the launch of our new website, we have had 9,275 unique visitors to the site. A huge thank you goes out to The Economic Development Department at Rocky View County as well as Harkus Strategic Design Solutions for the design and creation of our website.
Our annual wine and cheese evening brought numerous RVC managers and staff, our local Councillor as well as our MP Martin Shields and a representative from our MLA Leela Aheer’s office to Langdon. It was well attended by not only ldcc members but also residents. It is an honour that the ldcc is able to host events where we can get all levels of government in one room to talk about Langdon.
Over the past six years the Newsy Neighbour magazine has put on a Readers Choice Business Awards for the Strathmore, Chestermere, and Langdon area. This past year they announced they would no longer be hosting the Readers Choice Awards. At that time all three Chambers of Commerce took it upon themselves to make individual awards that cater to their own communities. Nominations and voting took place via a social media campaign with an enormous response from the community. The winners of the 2020 Golden Horseshoe business excellence awards were announced on April 23rd. We look forward to this being an annual event.
Your LDCC board of directors partook in emergency preparedness and economic resiliency training this past year in conjunction with Rocky View County, the economic developers of Alberta and the Red Cross. This was extremely valuable training for your board of directors especially as we are working to provide support for our businesses during the global pandemic of covid-19. Emergency preparedness and economic resiliency is more than just what if training, we have learnt that it is a valuable tool that all business owners and community members should have in their back pocket. We have seen communities like Fort McMurray ravaged by fire and water, and the impact it has had on not only business but also the community as a whole. Working with Rocky View County and their emergency preparedness team has been valuable in providing insight and plans should an emergency happen here in Langdon. During the training none of your board members, administrators or Rocky View County ever imagined that we would need to utilize emergency preparedness and economic resiliency measures so soon. Covid-19 has changed the way we do business, the way we communicate, and the way we live. This past week we have seen the first phase of the Alberta relaunch begin with a variety of businesses opening with restrictions in what could be called our new normal. There is nothing Normal in how we are living currently. However it is up to us as Community leaders, business owners, Neighbors and Friends to support each other and prove that we are resilient in the face of this pandemic.
~ Alysha Bates