We had 25 attendees at the January meeting at Eltana Wood-Fired Bagel Cafe yesterday. Here’s an overview of what Chamber President Debbi Larson covered:

Grant Approval

The Wallingford Chamber has been awarded 2 non­monetary grants from Impact Capital and the Office of Economic Development’s “Only in Seattle Initiative”. “The first one, is for ‘Consultation for Organizational Capacity Building and District Vision Creation’, and the second one is ‘Consultation Support for BIA Creation, Modification or Basics of BIA’s (Business Improvement Area)’. We are very excited to have help from the city and will start meetings soon together with leaders from other Wallingford organizations since we want to share these grants with the whole community. Thank you to Mark Parker for filling out the applications in a short time to meet the deadline in November so this could happen.

Events this year

Fremont/Wallingford Security Meeting

The Safe Communities program through the Seattle Police Department will address Police oversight and feedback from the public on how the City is dealing with safety and crime issues. Anyone is welcome to attend this monthly meeting hosted by Seattle Bank-next one on Tues January 29th.

Artwalk

February 6th will be the first Artwalk of 2013. We don’t have many volunteers for the committee this year but Gino Carter has promised to keep it alive for us and will keep the emails and facebook posts coming. We are in discussion as to what the schedule will be this year. It seems there is more participation in the summer months, so it’s possible that will go back to May-September. We will keep you updated.

Business Expo

March 21st – We are working together with other Chambers, including Fremont and Queen Anne to make the expo a ‘multi­chamber’ event, so we will rename the event “Cheers to Chambers”. We are still looking for a venue, as Wine World is unable to host us. Please let us know if you know of a place we can talk to.

Wallingford Kiddie Parade and Summer Festival

July 6th, 2013 – the Chamber will be co-hosting along with the WCSC and other Wallingford organizations. We have started the process of applying for permits and meetings with the city to change the parade route to start at Interlake going east on 45th to Bagley and into Meridian Park at the Good Shepherd Center for the festival. We hope to make the parade a combination of the Kiddie parade with new additions. We also want to expand the Summer Festival to a larger event that can become a big attraction to Wallingford to help raise funds for the Community. Please stayed tuned.

Our next Chamber meeting will be a luncheon; we’ve tentatively scheduled with the Wallingford Community Senior Center for Thurs. Feb. 21st from 12-1:30PM – See you there!

The next Wallingford Art Walk is coming up on Wednesday, June 6th from 6-9PM!

This month’s Art Walk will feature art, music, community dance and an after party for participating Art Walk businesses at Wine World! If your business would like to participate, you can find a registration form here.

Visit www.wallingfordartwalk.org for updates on featured artists & entertainers in June.

Put on your dancing shoes and join us for a BOLLYWOOD FLASH MOB! Rehearsals are underway — come join the fun on Sundays from 5-6PM at Fresh Fitness & Dance, 4430 Corliss Ave. N. Rehearsals are FREE and open to the public, plus the Art Walk will supply refreshments!

Whether you wear dancing shoes, sneakers, or combat boots — DO THE WALLINGFORD ART WALK!