Stephanie Norris

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and we are happy to have a major resource, Bridge Health, feature at our luncheon. Heather Roesner is a mental health clinician who has been with Lookout Mountain Community Service, now Bridge Health since 2006, Heather graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology and Master's in counseling psychology from Lee University in Cleveland, TN.

Please, join us for this lunch and learn. It's a great opportunity to have a delicious meal, network with those at your table, and learn something new about your community and how we can all work together to make the biggest impact on Chattooga County.

Reservations are greatly appreciated for catering purposes.

May 2nd at 7p---Young Farmers Meeting & Class, Ag Center, Summerville

May 4th at 9a---Prodigy Presents Trion to Ace III Disc Golf Tournament, Trion

May 4th at 3p---Bow Ties & Belles, Sarah Jane Farms. Summerville TICKET$

May 17th at 11a---May Market, Paradise Garden, Summerville

May 17th at 7p---Friday Night Live BIKE NIGHT with Whole Fam Damily, Summerville

May 17th & 18th at 8p---4L Rodeo, Summerville TICKET$

May 18th at 9a---CRG River Clean Up, Lyerly--.Chattoogaville

May 28th at 12p---Chamber Luncheon with Bridge Health, Civic Center, Summerville

All month---Exhibits, Free for Chattooga Residents!, Paradise Garden, Summerville

June 8th, all day---Chattooga River Fest, Summerville

First Tuesdays at 6p-- Menlo City Council Meeting, Menlo City Hall

Second Mondays at 6p-- Summerville City Council Meeting, Summerville City Hall

Second Tuesdays at 7p-- Lyerly Town Council Meeting, Lyerly Town Hall

Fourth Thursdays at 6p-- Trion Town Council Meeting, Trion Town Hall

Last Tuesdays at 10a---Chattooga County Administrative Meeting (open to public), Civic Center

Third Tuesdays, Quarterly (Jan, Apr, Jul, Oct only)---Chamber Board Meeting, Chamber Board Room

TBA (check ChattoogaCounty.org)---Land Development Commission Meeting, Civic Center

Optimist Club meets Fridays at 12p at Jefferson's (Georgia Room), Summerville

Friends of Sloppy Floyd meets the third Monday at 6:30p at the Park, Summerville

Chattooga Family Connection May meeting TBA

Drug Free Chattooga May meeting TBA

Chattooga GICH Team meets the fourth Wednesday at noon, Civic Center, Summerville*

Chattooga River Group Board meets quarterly on the third Wednesday at 11a, Civic Center, S'ville

Young Farmers is meeting date May 2nd at 7p at the Chattooga Ag Center, Summerville

Please submit your events, activities and meetings to execdirector@chattoogachamber.org

Leadership Development Students

Leadership Chattooga Student Edition

The Chamber graduated its third class of Leadership Chattooga Student Edition participants on April 10, 2024. The program recruits twelve high school juniors or seniors from the three school options in the county: Chattooga High School, Trion High School, and the home school community. The program runs from September - March and encompasses sessions on tourism, industry, farming, community outreach and government. With a deep concentration on leadership skills, the Chattooga Chamber pulls in local professional trainers who specialize in personality assessments, public speaking, communication and relationship-building. The class also visits the State Capitol and (connecting to the local community) the High Museum, which houses local folk artist Howard Finster's works as a special permanent feature of the entire folk art exhibit. Thanks to generous sponsors and donors for the fundraiser at last month's Chamber Awards Night, the program remains FREE for students, parents and schools. We're looking forward to another great class in September!

High school juniors and seniors, who live in Chattooga County, are eligible to apply for the program. Please, contact Cindy McGraw at execdirector@chattoogachamber.org / 706.857.4033 for details.

Diane Vinyard with Living Life on Target is offering classes.

Click the titles for more info:

Leading Others (May)

Young Adults Stepping Up (Jun/Jul)

Leadership Development Adults

Leadership Chattooga Adult Edition

The adults hopped in the van to tour some of our local industries this month. We started off at Georgia's first stand alone emergency department, ED for short. Robby Hill, a participant in this year's class, arranged the tour with Matt, who walked us through the unit to see the various labs, nursing central, and the state-of-the-art trauma room. Afterwards, we drove over to the EMS station in Summerville for Director Herbert Dodd and Captain Christi Harris to show us the amazing new trucks and high-tech equipment each "bus" has onboard.

Our next stop was Try-Con Tufters. Terry Payne and Cindy Willingham showed us this local treasure which tufts many of the finest carpets for Shaw's premiere clients. If you have been to Mercedes-Benz Stadium and visited their luxury suites, you walked on carpet tufted in "li'l ol Lyerly, GA". Disney, Marriott and Hilton are also Shaw clients which use Try-Con tufted carpets in their hotels. A-mazing!

We lunched on some Armstrong's BBQ at the Lyerly Community Center...thank you, Sally Kerce, Town Clerk, for arranging that. What a great venue!

After lunch, we ventured over to Mohawk in the Summerville Industrial Park, the county's largest employer. There, LC2024 participant, Paul Meredith, introduced us to Jonathan Skelley and Perry Klouda (LC2020), who gave us a brief overview of Mohawk's history. This plant, which is the world's largest PET bottle recycling facility, takes plastic bottles and, through a patented process converts them from flake to pellets, and then extrudes the material into the yarn used in Mohawk's carpets. In one hour, they can produce 30 miles of yarn! They convert approximately 7 billion bottles a year at full capacity. Their trucks leave with yarn and come back with bottles thanks to the FT+ work of the Materials Manager (inside joke).

Our final stop was Vitality Labs, also in the Summerville Industrial Park. Melissa Hamilton (LC2019) and owners Dr's LeBron and Corrinna Long greeted us, along with Hollis Siffles, who took us on the grand tour. They formulate, package and market all natural health products and dietary supplements. Have heard of Purple Tiger? That is one of LeBron's best selling products he formulated himself. His story is one for the history books---he started out when he was only 14 years old and has built this successful company to be a model for entrepreneurs...way to go!

presented by GP Federal Credit Union

Kayak Paddle  

FESTIVAL @ DOWDY  

Free Admission. Free Parking.

   Vendor Market    

Summerville Main Street's

Calling for SPONSORS, VENDORS, PADDLERS now!