We have had an extremely busy week starting out with the Business After hours at the Shoppes of Brasstown, who hosted a very well attended BAH… lots of good food and networking, from shop to shop-Silva Gallery, Carolina Crafting, Morning Song Studio, The Frog & The Dragon, Highsmith Pool Tables, The Bear Paints & Inks Art, & Waterfalls by Peppers. Once again we were unable to give away the membership drawing totaling $275.00, had Merinda Woody been there we would be starting all over again at the Christmas Party, but since she was not the drawing will be at $300.00. So if you are interested in winning you must be current with your membership dues and present. We had several door prizes donated, Highsmith Pool Tables-wine glasses, Frog & The Dragon-earrings, Center of Well Being-$30 gift certificate, Southern Impressions-Hayesville t-shirt, Deer Valley @ Davy Mtn-sweatshirt, Silva Gallery- 2 gift bags, Morning Song Studio-gift bag, Carolina Crafting-Apron, Murphy Medical Center-canvas bag, Chamber of Commerce day planner, The Market/Magic Bean & Brew donated a bottle of wine which was raffled off with the proceeds to benefit the food pantry bringing in $55.00.

The Christmas party will be at the Sequoia, Mountain Elegance at the Ridges Country Club. This evening will take the place of our business after hours for December. Tickets are $5.00 per person & either a Toy for Tots or a can good item to donate. This will be a social event asking everyone to bring your favorite hors d’oeuvre to share. The Chamber will supply the meat, hors d’oeuvres and drink set ups. Please look for to more information to follow.

Now if you were unable to make it out to the Punkin Chunkin Fest last Saturday, I’m sorry! We had a beautiful day with lots of Punkin fun. Kerry Bowler won first place with her Pumpkin Crunch, Mary Wiegold 2^nd with her Pumpkin Cranberry Bread. There were several wonderful recipes out there to sample; we have all of them at the Chamber office in a recipe book if anyone is interested.

The Little Miss Punkin Pageant had three winners, Alyssa McDaniel – First Place Winner, Rylee Joy Summer Kitchens - 1^st Runner up and Miss Congeniality, and Zoe Cunningham – 2^nd Runner up. These girls were darling. I’d like to thank Mindy Sink, Missy Stephens, and Tracy Scolaro for judging this pageant.

The Chili cook-off served about one hundred folks first place winner Tony LaCroix and his assistant Scott McDaniel, and 2^nd Place Louisiana Swamp Grillers, Carlton Williams.

The main event Saturday was the actual Punkin Chunkin 2009, a blast for everyone out there - the crowds went wild! The record for the day and winner was a whopping 770 feet by Cutworm’s Crew and their Trebuchet machine Ichabob Crane. Followed by the Catapult winners, Hayesville Hurlers and their Catapult machine Sir-Launch-A lot with a 692 foot throw. The Coyote Warriors (Middle & High School boys) lead by Mr. Turner Guidry, won the youth 13 and under with their Bungee Coyote machine with a 740 foot Chunk. Thank you to all that participated, Sphere Chunkers, Punkinator, Resident Aliens, The “A” Team and Delaware Destroyers.  Last year we had five teams and this year with eight, I asked the folks in the audience how many would be coming back next year with a team and four groups  shouted out that they would be, I’ve also heard that a couple of those already involved will be coming back with two teams. Hold on to your HARD HATS Hayesville this is going to grow to be a huge event. We were told that we had our first ever traffic jam that didn’t include a farm tractor.

Oh and don’t forget the first ever Miss Chunkin Womanless Pageant, we had 7 beauties out there Saturday night to brave the cold in their sleeveless gowns & short skirts! The ladies worked the crowd to receive the votes; Crystal Chandelier (Blake Allen) was named Miss Chunkin 2009, first runner up Aurora Borealis (Jay Lyon). Thank you to those of you who participated, Miss Sweet Settawig (Arnold Couch), Betty the Beauty (Adam Ledford), Nameless & Clueless (Dwight Moss), Daisy Duke(Dalton Rickett), and Samantha (Sam Nichols) – thank you all for great fun – y’all are all GREAT SPORTS!

Finishing up the evening was the Street Dance with DJ Kit Hawk, we danced, played Cornhole and had a great time. The Cornhole competition and bake sale was to benefit Sarah Allen Burrell.

There are so many to thank for helping make this a success – I hope that I forget no one! Please read all because without your help this event would not have been as good as it was! First off Garland Hogsed for getting this started last year, and Bob LeKites for allowing the Chamber to take it over this year. All the participants with all the events, Bill Breakbill and the volunteer fire dept for parking, EMS standing by in case of emergency & blocking off the street for the Street Dance, Sam Sprinkles Surveying Inc. for use of the measuring equipment, James Payne for standing on the hill measuring, Jack Ramsey for coming up from GA Tech to stand out in the field to have Pumpkins hurled at you for the measurements. Living Word Revival Center for the use of sound system, Blue Ridge Mountain EMC for the tent, Mary’s Southern Grill donating prizes – two Breakfast for 2 and Breakfast for 7 for the team winners of the Catapult,  Doyle’s Cedar Hill Restaurant for donation of lunch for 7 for the winners of the Trebuchet. Fun World for the 7 - one hour play cards for the winners of the youth competition. Rosalyn Housley- Rustic Rose for the beautiful tiaras. Kit Hawk for bringing your music and DJing the evening for us. Judie Greenstone and Rich Wiegold for schlepping Saturday morning, Saturday night and Monday afternoon, as well as the use of your trucks! Carolyn Sims-Nantahala Bank for laminating our parking passes Bob Walters-Sunchaser Photography for capturing images throughout the day and evening, and Connor Wiegold for helping with the score board. Tighe White- allowing us to use Riverwalk as a venue, Julie Shaw- Sunrise Yoga Studios dressing room for the womanless pageant.

Kim McClure has been a tremendous help in keeping this event organized allowing me to get out and promote, thank you to all of our sponsors and to the following involved which was not hard - everyone has seen the potential of this festival and wants to help our students and Clay County:

All of the board members and members that came out to help, Mary & Butch Wiegold – Highway 69 Storage, Rich Wiegold-  ARC Sheet Metal, Linda Godwin-First Citizens Bank, Marla Mashburn- United Community Bank, Bryan Lunsford-Nantahala Bank, Dwayne Long- Blue Ridge Mountain EMC, Mike Faggard & Sandy Faggard-Southern Impressions, Jennifer Ray-Murphy Movers, Tony Wiegold-Signs Fast, Doug Taylor and his sister Pat Larsen-Doug Taylor Electric,  Liz Blaeuer-Café Touché, Sherry Rodriquez-Take-A-Break Portables.

If you would like more information on becoming involved with the Chamber and promoting your business, please feel free to give us a call 828-389-3704, or visit our website www.ncmtnchamber.com. Have a great week!

THINK LOCAL! SHOP LOCAL!

Marcile Smith, Executive Director

A special thank you to all of of our Punkin Chunkin Sponsors for helping to make this event a successful one!