The Willkommen Committee recently welcomed the New Ulm Basketball Association (NUBBA) as new members of the New Ulm Area Chamber of Commerce. Jeff Boettger, vice president of the association, spoke to the committee. NUB-BA sees the value in a chamber membership as they would like to grow and expand the program. They know that being a chamber member is a great way to make connections. They have about 200 kids in grades K-8 signed up this year, and that number has been growing. They host a large tournament in February that brings 150 teams to New Ulm over two week-ends. The NUBBA Board is made up of 15 members, and they are always looking for volunteers and board members. Want to get involved but don’t have a child who plays basketball? That’s ok! Contact them at nubbapresident@gmail.com, or find out more at www.newulmbasketball.com.

WILLKOMMEN VISIT - NEW MEMBER

Kathy Van Roekel, NU-Telecom; Jeff Boetgger, NUBBA; Pam Kitzberger, Oak Hills Living Center; Randy Schroeder, Frandsen Bank & Trust.

00 The Journal, New Ulm, MN Sunday, December 15, 2015 www.nujournal.com

New Ulm Area Chamber of Commerce Connection to Local Businesses, Economic Development & Community EventsPhone (507) 233-4300 • Email: chamber@newulm.com

1-800-549-0194www.citizensmn.com New Ulm • Lafayette • LaSalle• Lakeville

MemberFDIC

NEW!DigitalDownloads

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Look for Our CU photographers at local events.Thousands of photos one local website!

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Check out the galleries on The Journal CU Site.

PARTICIPATING BUSINESSES INCLUDE:Semblance, Gallery 512, Lambrechts, A to Zinnia, Spinning Spools, Broadway Chiropractic, New Ulm Furniture, Nicklassons Athletics, Chuck Spaeth Ford, Sewing Seeds, Anytime Fitness, Lola – An American Bistro, New Ulm Area

Chamber of Commerce, and Hope & Faith. More details at www.newulm.com.

The 27th AnnualNew Ulm Parade ofLights went off with-out a hitch on Friday,November 27th! 75brightly lit units en-tertained a crowd of

nearly 5,000 people. River Creek Nursery, the2015 Business of the Year, led the parade asGrand Marshal, and Carlson-Tillisch Eye Clinic Ltdreceived the 2015 Governors Award. Thanks toeveryone who came out to watch, and thanks toall businesses and organizations who put so muchwork into their décor and entertained us all!

Holiday Shopping at the Chamber!

Christmas Tree SponsorsIn 1990, the tradition of placing natural Christmas trees on the sidewalks of the downtownbusiness district was brought back. The Chamber’s efforts have been rewarded with com-pliments from our local residents and our many visitors during the holidays. A very specialthank you to the following who have already sponsored trees this year: Harold & MaxineRemme, Hobart & Charlotte Anderson (2), George & Sharon Glotzbach, Duane & CleoBohne, Maria Metzen in memory of Bob Metzen, Bob & Cheryl Beussman (2), MaryBorstad in memory of Steve & Chris Borstad, Denis Warta, Ken & Vicky Rolloff, HerbSchaper Family, Jim Boeck, Margaret Nonnemacher in memory of Walter & WallyNonnemacher & New Ulm Garden Club (2). Additional Thank You’s are extendedto the local teachers, and NUBRA members who helped in placing the trees in thepots.

Be a part of the magic by sponsoring a tree this year, at a cost of only $20per tree. Checks may be dropped off or sent to the Chamber at PO Box 384,New Ulm.

The first annual New Ulm Day of Giving was ahuge success with over $3,000 raised for New Ulm Area Food Shelf, Brown County

Humane Society, and United Way of Brown County.

Thanks again to the businesses who participated:

Lambrechts, A to Zinnia Floral & Gifts, Gallery 512, Semblance, Rooms and Rest,

River Bend Business Products, Kohls-Weelborg,Spinning Spools Quilt Shop, Sewing Seeds QuiltCo., New Ulm Furniture, Cash Wise Foods, 3M,New Ulm Chamber of Commerce, MRCI, and

Schell’s Brewery.

We have Germans Have More Fun and New Ulmmerchandise for all the New Ulm lovers on your

list! Shirts, sweatshirts, beer mugs, bottle openers, can koozies, lapel pins, and more!

Chamber Dollars are always a hit and redeemableat 300+ businesses throughout town!

Open Mon-Fri 8am-5pm and from 10am-3pm on Saturday, December 19th.

233-4300.

EJ Vacations & Pilgrimages, LLC re-cently became a new member of theNew Ulm Area Chamber of Com-merce, and the Willkommen Com-mittee met with owners Eric and JanDulka to learn more about their busi-ness! Eric was a funeral directorhere in New Ulm for 20 years beforegetting into the travel business. In1992, they purchased New UlmTravel and operated this for 20years before they decided to retirefrom the business. They found thatretirement was not for them, and sothey began again and formed EJ Va-cations about 5 years ago. They

operate their business out of their home at 308 S Highland Ave. Their specialty is or-ganizing groups, and they do about 6 group tours a year. They have the ability to doanything their customers may want, from airline tickets, to cruises, to full vacationpackages. Eric has been a chamber member throughout the years with other agencies,and we appreciate the support!

Audra Shaneman, Chamber President; Eric and Jan Dulka,EJ Vacations & Pilgrimages; Jan DeLeo, Sid’s Signs onBroadway; Donna Lambrecht, United Way of Brown County.

The Willkommen Committee is ex-cited that Kristy Ann Nelson of Mo-bile Medical Thermography Imagingis a new member of the New UlmArea Chamber of Commerce, andthey stopped by her office (locatedabove the Chamber Office) to wel-come her! Kristy moved to New Ulmfrom Buffalo. She has always beeninterested in health and is happy tobe able to offer this non-invasivepreventative tool in the community.Medical Thermography Imaging is aprocess much like a CAT Scan or anMRI, but uses no radiation. Thismedical process is one that hasbeen growing in popularity around

the world and, though it is not currently covered by insurance, Kristy thinks it will besoon. This process can catch signs of breast cancer 8-10 years before a traditionalmammogram. She offers three different scanning packages, upper body (torso),breast, and full body, and the costs range from $163 to $443. The camera that sheuses has 307,000 pixels, and is one of only 5 in the world. Welcome, Kristy!

Brittney Schmiesing, Chuck Spaeth Ford; Kristy Ann Nel-son, Mobile Medical Thermography Imaging; PamKitzberger, Oak Hills Living Center.

The Chamber of Commerce brought rural sociologist Ben Winchester to New Ulm on

December 4 to present on “The Brain Gain of Newcomers to Rural America

and the Baby Boomer Housing Supply.” More than 60 people attended the program!

More info on the Brain Gain in rural MN can be found here:

http://www.extension.umn.edu/community/brain-gain/ If you are interested in continuing the

conversation, email chamber@newulm.com.

Hospitality TableSponsorship for

December MinnesotaWedding

Shop301 20th South

Thanks to MinnesotaWedding Shop for spon-

soring the hospitalitytable for the month ofDecember. Please stop

in to have a cup ofcoffee and visit YOUR

chamber staff.

For the New UlmChamber Office

Thurs, Dec 248am-noon

Friday, Dec 25Closed

Sat, Dec 26Closed

(closed Saturdays through March)

Thurs, Dec 318am-noon

Friday, Jan 1Closed

The Willkommen Committee recently welcomed Horace Mann Insurance – Dennis Waloch Agency as a new member of the New Ulm Area Chamber of Commerce. Denny, who has worked for Walgreens for the past 19 years, recently took over this business when Don Wendel retired. Denny says this new career lets him continue to help people, which is his passion, and own his own business, which has always been a dream of his. The primary focus of Horace Mann is providing lifelong financial well-being of educators. Denny has 20 public school districts in his region, as well as a number of parochial and pri-vate schools. Denny, who is originally from Lisbon, ND, moved to New Ulm 11 years ago and lives here with his wife Jen and their three children. Congratulations and best of luck!

Chad Aukes, Tech Unlimited; Denny Waloch, Horace Mann Insurance; Jan DeLeo, Sid’s Signs on Broadway.

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Annual MeetingFriday, January 19, 2018Best Western Plus, New Ulm

You, your co-workers, employees, and guests are invited to our Annual Member Meeting!

5:30 pm social hour & silent auction | 6:15 pm dinner | 7:00 pm business meeting 7:45 pm comedian Scott Novotny | 8:30 pm afterparty

CONNECT | GROW | PROSPER

Hospitality Table Sponsorship for December

New Ulm Event Center 301 20th St S

Thank you to our members for a great year! We look forward to continuing to work with you and for you in the new year! For a list of current chamber members, or to learn more about becoming a member, visit newulm.com.

TICKETS - $30Please RSVP by January 10, 2018 | 507-233-4300 | chamber@newulm.com

FEATURED ENTERTAINMENT: COMEDIAN SCOTT NOVOTNYA versatile performer, Scott Novotny headlines comedy clubs through-out the United States, has acted in numerous stage productions, worked at the “Brave New Workshop” as an improvisational actor/writer, owned and operated The Comedy Cabaret - MN’s first fulltime comedy theatre, and has written for “Saturday Night Live” and the comic strip “Strange Brew.”

New Ulm Area Chamber of Commerce Connection to Local Businesses, Economic Development & Community EventsPhone (507) 233-4300 • Email: chamber@newulm.com

www.newulm.com/nu2020New Ulm is a community with so many good things

going for it! Great city management, a thrivingbusiness community, vibrant non-profits filling culturaland social service needs, quality health care, extensiveeducation for a variety of ages and more parks thanmost other communities! However, to continue beingan attractive community to new business and newresidents takes deliberate conversations and planning.What works fine today may need to be reworked fortomorrow's success - hence the need for communityvisioning.

A small group of community leaders led the effortfor NU2020 and our meetings convened in earlyNovember 2016 with approximately 90 attendees.On the website www.newulm.com/nu2020, you willfind the ideas that were brought forward as projectsfor the community and supporting documents fromthe day.

Our format is to provide each of the projects witha committee for progress and communication. Noneof the projects can be completed in a vacuum, butneed a variety of representatives to really pull itforward. Watch the website for continuinginformation as we move into NU2020!

COMMUNITYVISIONING

Hospitality TableSponsorship

for November Bank

Midwest26 S Broadway

Thanks to Bank Midwestfor sponsoring the

hospitality table for themonth of November.

Please stop in to have acup of coffee and visitYOUR chamber staff.

The Network New Ulm group spent a daylearning about the Economic Health of New Ulm.They had a presentation from Brian Tohal of NewUlm Economic Development, then toured DLC,Windings, American Artstone (pictured), RiverValley Sanitation (pictured), Firmenich, and Elkay.Next month’s topic is Community Health andServices.

HolidayShopping at

the Chamber!We have Germans Have More Funand New Ulm merchandise for all the New Ulm lovers on your list!Shirts, sweatshirts, beer mugs,bottle openers, can koozies,

lapel pins, and more!Chamber Dollars are always a hit

and redeemable at 300+ businessesthroughout town!

Open Mon-Fri 8am-5pm andSaturdays from 10am-3pm

(through Dec 17)

Committee members from the Modenschau Fashion Show recently presented ProKinship for Kids with a check for $2,700. This was the amount raised for the charity at the annual event

hosted by the New Ulm Business & Retail Association in September, which showcased fashion from local boutiques.

Pictured in the photo are Curt Lambrecht, Lambrechts; Kari Berans, ProKinship for Kids; Heather Hammer, A to Zinnia Floral & Gifts.

ChristmasTreeSponsors

In 1990, thetradition ofplacing natural

Christmas trees onthe sidewalks of the downtownbusiness district was brought back.The Chamber’s efforts have beenrewarded with compliments fromour local residents and our manyvisitors during the holidays. Be apart of the magic by sponsoring atree this year, at a cost of only $20per tree. Checks may be droppedoff or sent to the Chamber at POBox 384, New Ulm. A very specialthank you to the local teachers andNUBRA members who helped inplacing the trees in the pots.

The Chamber will regularly host lunch or break-fast meetings around Hot Topics of conversation for the community. Past programs for Hot Topics events have included presentations by Governor

Dayton and the State Demographer, the pro-posed sales tax extension – RENU and updates from local legislators. These events serve to in-form and educate leaders and the community on issues of concern from a business perspective.

Coming in January 2018

On January 12 at noon, please join us at the New Ulm Country Club for an update from the Community Visioning program that happened in 2016. On that day, community volunteers identified and prioritized initiatives to pursue with corresponding action teams. Some groups have taken off… and some are not being pursued for a variety of reasons. Come and hear updates from action team leaders and contribute to the conversation on oppor-tunities with housing, river development and workforce development. Cost is $10, RSVP to the Chamber.

Most recently…

The Chamber hosted Jeff Rossate, Busi-ness Development Director at the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) to talk about how com-munities successfully engage in economic development. Jeff has al-most 20 years of economic development, consulting and location strategy experience and talked about the “what works” when growing a com-munity’s economy.

Christmas Tree SponsorsWe extend a very special thank you to everyone who sponsored a Christmas tree this holiday season and helped make our downtown

beautiful and festive: George and Sharon Glotzbach, Duane and Cleo Bohne, New Ulm Garden Club (2), NU-Telecom (2) Margaret Nonnemacker, Jim & Christine Olson, and Denny Warta.

Additional Thank You’s are extended to the local teachers and NUBRA members who helped in placing the trees in the pots.

WILLKOMMEN VISIT - NEW MEMBER

Thanks to Minnesota Wedding Shop for sponsoring the hospital-ity table for the month of Decem-ber. Please stop in to have a cup of coffee and visit YOUR cham-ber staff.

T H A N K Y O U