Summer greetings from Creston

"The Creston Valley’s future has never been brighter!" says Rob Schepers, president of the Creston Valley Chamber of Commerce.

Rob Schepers, president of the Creston Valley Chamber of Commerce. — Photos courtesy Kootenay Business and Creston Chamber

Greeting from the beautiful Creston Valley! My name is Rob Schepers, and I am the past president of the Creston Valley Chamber of Commerce. I was asked to say a few words on behalf of the Chamber as one of my last acts as President.

The word is out! The Creston Valley’s future has never been brighter! Here are some of the reasons why:

Over the past few years we have seen a combined effort among all interested stakeholders to establish a Creston Valley “brand”. There has also been, and continues to be, a tremendous effort in Creston to unify our message to the world of the beauty and magnificent scenery/wildlife/lifestyle that our Creston Valley contains.

What that means for us going forward is that all of our efforts will be much more focused, and we will be sending out a message that is unified. As we live in a world that is struggling economically, and really has been since the crash of 2008, it has been shown that people are being more careful with spending their hard earned dollars. To earn the trust of tourists, and encourage them to come to our beautiful area, an ability to speak with one voice is not only a good thing, it becomes necessary.

Moving forward, the Creston Valley has the branding, and we have the combined efforts of many people and organizations in sending out a message that will accurately portray the breathtaking beauty of our home, and encourage people to visit us here. Tourism is a big part of our local economy, and continues to grow year by year. We don’t want Creston to be the world’s best kept secret.

One thing to note is that when people visit Creston they will typically visit other parts of the Kootenays as well—a unified message inviting people to Creston will not only benefit us, it benefits the entire Kootenays.

There is so much to offer here in Creston. Because of our mild climate, and our rich soils and relatively vast fields, (well, vast for BC) we have an agriculture sector that produces many wonderful commodities that continue to expand to foreign markets. In addition, we also have a tremendously successful farmer’s market that allows our local folks to buy and sell locally grown food so that our residents can literally eat a 10 mile diet that wants for almost nothing.

The Creston Valley Bird Fest is another exciting, relatively new event that is growing and bringing in tourists from all over. This year, there was even a couple that came to Creston from Louisiana! We have this beautiful climate that allows for many privileges, such as a wide variety of our flying friends that visit us yearly that few Canadians can partake of, unless, of course, they come to Creston. Creston folks typically feel like they live in a modern day Garden of Eden.

As a Chamber, we are excited about the future for Creston and for our Chamber. We have spent a great deal of time and energy over the last while analyzing where we were, where we are, and where we wish to go. We are working closely with our partners in the Town of Creston and the Regional District of Central Kootenay to outline a solid plan of growth for now, and the foreseeable future.

We are critically analyzing past performance and asking tough questions that all revolve around what we, as the Chamber of Commerce, can do better in the future to help our Chamber members, as well as the community that we love so much to bring more opportunity here. The answers we are discovering have been exciting for all of us.

We will continue to encourage support of local business. Supporting each other in our community has always been the backbone of our community. As a Chamber, we will encourage more business to business collaboration. We will also provide means that our Chamber members will be able to access out of town, and out of province contracts free of charge. We are big enough to believe that we can look beyond our own valley and compete strongly.

We will continue to offer our members the ability to be a part of a very competitive group benefits plan for their business, regardless of the size of their business, as well as many other benefits that we can offer because we are a member of the BC Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber is moving forward.

As I step down in my role as president, I encourage those businesses who are not members of the Chamber of Commerce, to look into becoming a part of our organization. Membership is very affordable with many benefits, and the more members we have, the stronger our group will be, and the more good we will be able to do for our community.

To all who have supported and continue to support the Creston Valley Chamber of Commerce, I thank you. It has been an honor to serve you as your president. I will continue to be a part of the chamber as a general member, and will continue to support the chamber in any way that I can.

A strong Creston Valley Chamber of Commerce is a piece of the puzzle that we are all part of to ensure that the Creston of tomorrow continues to be a vibrant, wonderful and safe place where we can live and grow together, while serving, and being served by a strong business community.

Looking forward, the Creston Valley Chamber of Commerce is in good hands, and with increased collaboration that we are seeing with the Town of Creston, and the RDCK, Creston will continue to be a great place to do business, to live, and a world class location to visit. The word is out.