On January 1st, Maine’s Earned Paid Leave law went into effective. Everything you need to know can be downloaded here: Earned Paid Leave FAQs.

Join Cynergy and United Way of Kennebec Valley's Emerging Leaders for our first combined event - CEO Spotlight! Bob Moore of the Augusta Food Bank will be joining us to share his journey and experience as a leader in our community.

Kristin Mutchler began Pickle's Potions in 2015 in response to a desire to provide effective, natural products for her children. Her business has been growing and they recently opened a shop on Main Street in Winthrop. She is married to Gary - a British man she met in a youth hostel in China. They have two kids, Elijah (9) and Eloise (7). They currently live in Wayne Maine, and have been there for 5 years since they moved to the USA from South Korea.

Kristin’s passion is to create high-performing, luxurious yet affordable natural skincare products for the ingredient-aware modern woman.

Join us for our first Chamber Connection of 2021 and meet your representatives! Representatives for the towns that comprise our Kennebec Valley region will introduce themselves and discuss the issues they will be addressing in the 130th Maine State Legislature.

Although we are not networking together face-to-face, we are excited to catch up and network virtually! Our members and guests are invited to join us on Wednesday, January 27th from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. for a virtual Business After Hours. Share updates on your business and reconnect with the KV Chamber!

Does your business need PPE? The KV Chamber has masks available for our members! Please contact us at info@kennebecvalleychamber.com or by calling (207) 623-4559 so we can assist you with your needs.

Charlie's Toyota | N.R.F. Distributors, Inc.

Delta Ambulance | Lipman, Katz & Boston, LLC | Marketplace at Augusta| McDonald's - Bangor Street, Augusta | Rolfe's Well Drilling | Thayer Engineering Co., Inc.

20+ Years

Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association | Sparetime Recreation

Augusta Crossing | curtisWorks Communications Solutions | Steve's Appliance Service & Sales, Inc.

Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate The Masiello Group | Bug Busterzzz Pest Control | Gold Bridge Partners, Inc. | KYOCERA Document Solutions New England | Wayne Ladner Maine Insurance

American Red Cross of Northern New England | Highbrow | Kennebec Valley Tourism Council | Paychex | Quarry Tap Room | What About Maine

Augusta Adult and Community Education is invested in creating educational and professional development opportunities for our local residents and businesses. We create classes and professional development sessions specific to your organizational needs. These sessions range from the 21st century skills of team development and navigating virtual platforms, to technical skills such as Microsoft Office and Quickbooks. In an effort to understand the needs of individual businesses we are conducting this quick survey regarding training and development that you and your employees would benefit from. Please take a moment (survey takes about 2 minutes to complete-7 questions) to fill in the form and we will contact you to follow up. Even if you are unsure what you might need or want, please take the survey so that we may capture the overall needs of the Augusta business community. Link to the survey: https://forms.gle/hoXXRuLbDrFJSPiF8

Camden National Bank announced its 2020 Leaders & Luminaries Awardees and provided $22,000 in grants for their respective organizations. The honorees include: Doris Dennee from The Iris Network, Evelyn Kieltyka from Medical Care Development, Inc., Jackie Studer from Classical Uprising, Ray Gerbi from the Pejepscot History Center, and Dr. Robert “Bob” Holmberg from Community Compass.

Gardiner FCU has long been committed to financial education for area school children, K – 12. No longer able to go into the schools to assist with financial education due to the pandemic, Gardiner FCU has found new ways to reach out with valuable lessons for all ages. For the Kindergarten or first grade classes, they launched a new YouTube channel, called GFCU4kids. There, they have uploaded recorded video classes for the students. Below the link to each video is a list of materials needed or a linked PDF worksheet, to finish the lessons. These can be used by teachers in the classrooms, or by parents in the homes. On their website, gardinerfcu.org, there have been new links and features added to pages that are targeted for certain age groups. There are interactive games, animated videos, and resources to help put our youth on firm financial footing and have them better prepared than most of us were. To help replace the workshops, previously offered to their adult members, a new page was added to the website. It covers topics from tips & resources for the college-bound and their parents to ten financial tips for seniors. All of these pages and links are available, under the Products & Services tab on their website.

Gardiner FCU is also very excited to announce that they have partnered with ZOGO, to make an app available to students, teachers, CU members and community members. They are the first institution in Maine to make it available. There are great lessons on budgeting, credit, loans & more. If you are interested, go to the app store on your phone, look up ZOGO and download. Your access code is GARDINER. It’s that easy to earn free gift cards, all while becoming smarter savers & better budgeters.

To submit Member News, send your press releases to: info@kennebecvalleychamber.com

Augusta Civic Center

Walton External Affairs

PERFORMANCE Foodservice - NorthCenter

J.S. McCarthy Printers

Quality Inn & Suites Maine Evergreen Hotel

MaineGeneral Health

Capital Area Staffing Solutions, Inc.

Kennebec Valley Chamber of Commerce

Lipman & Katz, P.A

Camden National Bank

Sprague & Curtis Real Estate

Ellis Law, LLC

G&E Roofing Co., Inc.

Cross Insurance Agency

Ganneston Construction Corp.

Stained Glass Express

Macomber, Farr & Whitten

Kennebec Savings Bank

Central Maine Power Company

University of Maine at Augusta

Katie L. Doherty, President & CEO, kld@kennebecvalleychamber.com

Lindsay L. Corbett, Office Manager, llc@kennebecvalleychamber.com

Kayla M. Tracy, Events & Membership Director, kmt@kennebecvalleychamber.com

Caroline A. Saban, Marketing Director, cas@kennebecvalleychamber.com