2024 in Milford-Miami Township
As we finish 2024, we look back on this incredible year and give thanks to have been part of its journey. We as a Chamber continued our focus on relentlessly supporting our members, which led to our finishing the year at 400 members (WHOOO! Growth of 21% this year!) and to being named the 2023 Outstanding Chamber for Ohio by Chamber of Commerce Executives of Ohio. Our commitment to finding ways to support our businesses and helping them meet their business goals is obvious in everything we do. Just take a look – here’s a summary of the highlights of 2024:
NETWORKING
Morning Mixer at Scene 75
Combined Morning Mixers
In partnership with other Eastside chambers, we hosted 12 monthly morning mixers, attracting an average of 80-100 chamber members each month eager to network with fellow business owners and professionals. We want to thank our members who hosted for our Chamber this year: Scene 75, Cincinnati Distilling, and the TOCA Soccer Center. They did an outstanding job of showcasing Milford-Miami Township!
Quarterly Connections
Our Quarterly Connections (smaller networking events) are continuing to grow in popularity and this year were hosted by By Gollys, Wings & Rings, McHarper Manor/The Curious Kiln, and Miami Athletic Club (MAC).
Quarterly Connection at Wings & Rings
Time Savers Heating & Cooling
at the Eastside Business Bash
Eastside Business Bash
On March 7, we once again held the Eastside Business Bash, in partnership with Little Miami River Chamber Alliance, at Little Miami Brewing Event Center. We had a wonderful response from business owners and the community, with over 200 attendees and 48 presenting businesses.
Firehouse Luncheon
We kicked off the fall with our annual Firehouse Luncheon at the Milford Community Fire Department. This is always a very popular event with over 60 members present. Delicious food was served from Midwest Best BBQ with yummy desserts provided by our board and ambassadors.
Delicious lunch from Midwest Best BBQ
WHAMM! Awards Celebration
In April, we held our annual WHAMM! Awards, presented by Icon Property Rescue – always a fun and inspiring time. The decor from Paint Playground and The Twisting Sister is always new & exciting and makes for great photo opportunities for attendees. This year we awarded 75 BAM! (Community) Awards and 11 WOW! (Business Powerhouse) Awards.
Our Chamber Awards are awarded by the Chamber itself and this year’s recipients are listed below:
Advocacy Award: Nation Kitchen & Bar
Community Support & Development Award: Day Heights Auto Service
Economic Impact Award: LeiMarie Limited
Education Award: Live Oaks
Ambassador of the Year: Erin Barcroft
Above & Beyond Business: City of Milford
Above & Beyond Individual: Ken & Libby Tracy of Impacting Tomorrow
Patrick Toomey Small Businessperson Award: Kris Richter of Paint Playground
Chief John Cooper, Sr. Award: Sara Huseman of Feed Our Flock
Presenting Sponsor, Icon Property Rescue
Zach Gambill, President, Ron Swogger, 2nd Vice-President and Andrea Brady, Executive Director of the Milford Miami Township Chamber
Rachel Baker of The Twisting Sister and the team from Sharkey’s Cuts for Kids Milford
PROMOTION
Ribbon-Cuttings:
We held 17 ribbon-cuttings this year and were excited to congratulate so many businesses in our Milford-Miami Township community: Balance in Motion, Sharkey’s Cuts for Kids, Icon Property Rescue (20th anniversary), Milford Dental Excellence (groundbreaking for expansion), Milford Traditional Acupuncture, Busy Bee Boutique, A Healing Journey, Aldi, Grocery Outlet in Eastgate, Blue Pine Psych Services, Little Caesars, Paint Playground (re-branding), Salt + Light Wellness, Hometown Urgent Care, Beneficial Talent Source and Seidon (expansion/remodel), and Flamingo Drive! We Facebook Live our ribbon-cuttings, and these videos have been receiving an average of 8.6k views. This is a great way not only to celebrate your grand opening (or a significant achievement!) but to let a lot of people know about your business!
We already have two scheduled for January 2025, and we’d love to do more – if you’d like to host a ribbon-cutting for your business opening or something special you have going on, just let us know!
Social Media:
Our social media continues to be an extremely valuable asset we use to support our members. In 2024, our social reached an average of almost 66k people a month, with monthly views of over 531k! We love promoting what’s happening with our members!
Shirl Page and the Ladies of the Chamber
Ladies of the Chamber
We had our inaugural Ladies of the Chamber event in September at Nation Kitchen & Bar, hosted by Shirl Page of Page Health Coaching and Shelly West of Shelly’s Hands Therapeutic Massage, followed by a second event hosted by Salt + Light Wellness.
Community Calendar
On December 23, we officially launched our brand-new Community Calender Powered by Duke Energy! This new tool pulls in events from our members, putting Milford-Miami Township happenings all in one place and helping increase businesses’ exposure. If you are a member and would like to include your events on this brand-new calendar, please contact us for more info.
Community Calendar
Holiday Promos
During the holidays, we brought MiMi back – but this year, she did a 26-day Advent Calendar to accommodate the many businesses who wanted to share their fun giveaways with our community. We also continued our holiday decorating contest and had 11 businesses submit. We had 3 winners: In First Place is Little Miami Brewing Co.! In Second Place is Kirk and Company Jewelry! In Third Place is CenterBank!
EVENTS
2024 Frontier Days presented by Peoples Bank
Frontier Days
May 30 through June 1 brought our annual Frontier Days, known as “the start to summer” in our area. Presented by Peoples Bank, the 62nd rendition of this fun community festival is one of the largest in the Greater Cincinnati area!
We started off with a parade, sponsored by Champion Windows, drawing between 4-5,000 people, and the 3-day festival entertained over 14,000 with rides, music, food, and other entertainment! In addition, the festival provided a venue for 24 businesses to reach customers and develop relationships.
Chocolate Walk
On October 5, we held our second annual Chocolate Walk, another great success. 220 tickets were sold in less than two days, selling us out. 54 businesses participated. Special thanks to COhatch and Cincinnati Distilling for hosting multiple businesses, allowing this event to include businesses from outside the downtown Milford area.
The Honey Hive at Pivot Realty serving up Chocolate Treats
Cindy Lou Who and the Grinch from Kingsbury Productions with the Elves from Milford Youth Theater
Breakfast with the Grinch
We hosted our third annual Breakfast with the Grinch! This event was hugely popular, with over 800 tickets selling in just a few minutes (after some online hiccups were ironed out)!
Special thanks to our presenting sponsor for the third year in a row, Day Heights Auto Service, and to Little Miami Brewing Co., without whom we could not hold this event. This event is another way for businesses to get in front of potential customers, with 5 booths selling holiday items; two giving away special gifts to attendees; and 6 more providing info on their services to guests.
Miami Township Concerts
We enjoyed being a part of Miami Township’s concert series this summer, including a Jimmy Buffet Tribute concert at Community Park and the Red Stockings Vintage Baseball Game + Bronson Arroyo Concert at Miami Meadows.
Ryan Himes of Miami Township
EDUCATION & SUPPORT
Membership Meeting
In addition to sharing the benefits and opportunities our chamber provides to members one-on-one, we host a Membership Meeting where several of the key benefits are shared directly by the benefit providers themselves.
Feed Your Mind
We continued our “Feed Your Mind” education program in partnership with three other area chambers. Each session was interesting and valuable for local chamber members. The session the MMT Chamber hosted featured Mike Gelfgot of Activate Brain and Body who spoke on keeping our brains healthy and strong.
Topics at Twelve
In September, we held our Topics at Twelve program at the Miami Township Civic Center where we heard from Steve Kelly, Township Administrator, about the vision for and development of the Township.
Webinars
Two webinars were held this year: David Brodsky of Reynolds Law informed our members of recent developments with the Corporate Transparency Act, and Jeff Vaught of TALK Toastmasters here in Milford-Miami Township helped us develop an effective elevator speech.
Education Portal
We have continued to offer our Education Portal which provides programs on all kinds of business topics, at all kinds of levels, at an extremely reasonable cost (some free!).
Historic Miami Township, painted by Kate Albert
PUBLIC ART
In January, we joined the America250-Clermont County effort to celebrate our country’s 250th birthday in 2026. As part of that, we coordinated the first of seven county-wide public art murals: “Historic Miami Township” was painted by nationally-known artist and Miami Township resident, Kate Albert. In her unique, whimsical style, Kate depicts some of the key happenings over the last few centuries that have made the Township what it is today: a home to over 40,000 residents and numerous businesses.
The original painting is hanging in the Miami Township Civic Center, and the mural will become part of the new fitness court at Community Park in April 2025. Learn more about this gorgeous artwork here: https://www.miamitwpoh.gov/mural.html
In 2026, we will be working with Kate once more, this time on a Milford mural. Keep an eye out for her next depiction of the history of our local Milford-Miami Township area!
GIVING BACK
Giving back is extremely important to everyone involved with the Milford Miami Township Chamber. We donate to and provide opportunities to earn higher donations for a variety of our member non-profits every year. In 2024, we were able to donate or raise over $10,000 for local non-profits. Plus, we support our local students, granting $5,250 in scholarships.
2024 Student Scholarship Recipients
OPERATIONS
Shelly West, Events Coordinator
We welcomed a new staff member, Shelly West, who has proven herself to be invaluable – we can’t imagine how we ever got along without her! Our staff now consists of Andrea Brady, Executive Director; Elesa Labanz, Operations Manager; and Shelly West, Events Coordinator.
Thank you to all our Board Members and Ambassadors who have served this year. Your work is invaluable. Lastly, we could not do what we do without our Trustees supporting us along the way. Thank you to Mike Castrucci Automotive Group, City of Milford, OH, Park National Bank, RDI Corporation, Sharefax Credit Union, Time Savers Heating & Cooling, and Champion Windows.
Copyright © 2021 All Rights Reserved.