CHAMBER NEWS

Formerly known as the Annual Trade Show, the Business After Hours Expo is a themed event where members can showcase their products and services to the community and network in an evening of fun, food, and drinks. With an expo-style set-up, businesses decorate their booths in accordance to theme. More information coming soon!

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Join us for this month’s meeting at the Heritage Station Visitors Center with Anna Adkins! Anna will discuss tourism and the importance of spending your dollars locally. 

A native of Ceredo-Kenova, Anna now calls Huntington home. She has been with the Huntington Area Convention & Visitors Bureau since 2013. She started as the Visitors Center Supervisor and was promoted to Sales Manager in less than a year. She graduated from Marshall University with a bachelor’s degree in Marketing and a master’s degree in Public Administration. She is a member of Huntington Young Professionals, Women’s Impact Network, and the Community Impact Committee of United Way of the River Cities. She also serves as an Ambassador for the Huntington Regional Chamber of Commerce and as Board Chair for Generation West Virginia. Anna was part of the first class of Leadership Huntington, a program designed to connect, develop, empower, and mobilize current and emerging leaders who are committed to making a difference in the Huntington region. She is passionately invested in improving her community and sharing the positive narrative experienced by so many proud West Virginians.

When: Thursday, May 23 | 5:30 - 6:30 p.m.

Where: Heritage Station Visitors Center | 210 11th Street, Huntington, WV

Light refreshments will be served. $5 for members and $10 for nonmembers.

MEMBER NEWS

Photo by The Herald-Dispatch

Officials with Marshall University, West Virginia University and the Joint Force Headquarters-Department of Defense Information Network, a component of the United States Cyber Command, among other government, academic and industry partners, today broke ground on the $45 million Marshall University Institute for Cyber Security, located at the corner of Hal Greer Boulevard and Fourth Avenue in Huntington.  

The groundbreaking event symbolizes the initial strides in establishing the National Center of Excellence for Cyber Security in Critical Infrastructure, hailed as the second center of its type in the country on a college campus. 

The facility will be approximately 78,000 square feet and house a state-of-the-art operations center modeled after JFHQ-DODIN Headquarters in Fort Meade, MD. It will have 13 labs, among which will be six cybersecurity labs for training purposes, an industrial control systems lab, an internet of things lab and an open-source lab.  

Located directly across Hal Greer Boulevard from the university’s Old Main, the building will serve as the west gateway to the Fourth Avenue Innovation corridor, currently under development by Fairmount Properties.   

It is estimated there are more than 500,000 cyber security job openings in the United States alone. 

Congratulations to Full Circle Gifts and Goods owners Noelle and Scott Horsfield on the expansion of their store with a new plant area!

Opened in 2016 and located in Heritage Station at 210 11th St Shop #12, Full Circle offers a diverse selection of items such as West Virginia themed items, eclectic greeting cards and gifts, and now various house plants.

"Sweet Tooth" the Ice Cream Truck is officially booking for events! Austin's Homemade Ice Cream offers catering for many types events including, but not limited to, corporate events, weddings, birthday parties, school, and church events. Prices will vary based on type of event, number of people that will be served, mileage and day of the week. Visit austinsicecream.com/catering for the pricing guide and/or fill out an inquiry form at the bottom of the page!

The storied Milton, WV company, Blenko Glass Company, is pleased to announce an exhibit of its contemporary designs (since 2020) at the Birke Art Gallery of Marshall University in downtown Huntington, WV, across from historic Pullman Square, from June 21-August 6, 2024. The Exhibit will feature the innovative and eye-catching designs the Company has incubated and cultivated since 2020, and the departure of the Company’s last formal Designers. The Exhibit tells a new story about Blenko’s design and inspiration – and features favorite recent pieces like the Flatwoods Monster Decanter and Mothman Bookends, the Company’s coveted West Virginia Day pieces, and a preview of 2024’s space-inspired Helios Water Bottle series. All in all, the Exhibit marks and celebrates the explosive growth and renewed interest in this one-hundred-year-old company and its glasswares.

The Company invites its fans and customers especially to the Exhibit’s Opening Night reception - free and open to the public – from 5-8pm on Friday, June 21.

City National Bank has been named the top bank in the country on the Forbes list of America’s Best Banks 2024. The 200 largest publicly-traded banks and thrifts by assets were eligible, and City National led the rankings at number 1.

The Forbes award comes on the heels of City National winning its fifth J.D. Power award in seven years. City ranked highest in customer satisfaction in J.D. Power’s 2024 Retail Banking Satisfaction study, beating out banks of all sizes in West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and Michigan. 

Forbes’ 15th annual America’s Best Banks list looks at 10 metrics measuring growth, credit quality and profitability for the 2023 calendar year, as well as stock performance in the 12 months through March 18, 2024. While S&P Global Market Intelligence provides the data, the rankings are done separately by Forbes. 

Mountwest is hosting a 2D Game Development Summer Jam Camp, June 24th-June 28th. Topics include game programming, character development and animation, level design, background and parallax scrolling, high score saving and more.

The cost for the camp is $150 pp and is geared toward 6th-8^th grade students.

The Cabell-Huntington Health Department will be conducting a series of evening vaccine clinics this summer. The dates are June 3, July 1, August 5, and September 9. The clinics will take place from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM at the department, located at 703 7^th Avenue. No appointment is necessary. 

All childhood vaccines will be available for children who are uninsured, underinsured, or covered under Medicaid or CHIP. The following vaccines will be available for children: Tdap, Polio, Meningococcal, and MMRV. Adult and travel vaccines will also be available.

Kathleen Napier, Director of Nursing for Cabell-Huntington Health Department, commented, “We understand it is sometimes difficult for parents or family members to get to our clinic during regular hours. We are happy to offer these extended vaccine clinics through the summer months as a convenience. Parents or guardians may also take advantage of these clinics to get their children caught up on required vaccinations before the back-to-school rush.”

For questions, please call the Cabell-Huntington Health Department at (304) 523-6483.

Valley Health is pleased to award $17,000 in scholarships to individuals who are pursuing careers in medicine, health sciences or health administration. The three winners of the $5,000 Minority Healthcare Scholarships are Jonathan Aya-Ay ( pronounced Eye-Eye) , a graduating senior from Huntington High School who plans to study premed at Marshall University; Dazia (pronounced Day-juh) Parsons, a nursing student from Collins Career Technical Center; and Melanese Benjamin, a student at North Carolina Central University in the pre-nursing major. This is the second year Benjamin has received the Minority Healthcare Scholarship. 

The recipient of the $2,000 2024 Cokey Muth Registered Nurse Scholarship is Kelsey Huffman. Huffman is enrolled in West Virginia University Institute of Technology and in the BSN program through the main WVU campus in Morgantown. The Cokey Muth Registered Nurse Scholarship was created in the fall of 2023 to honor the life and legacy of late Valley Health Systems Inc. Board member and registered nurse Cokey Muth.

This Friday at 9th Street Live 🎸

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Thank You to Our Trustee Members

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Please note that the deadline for submissions for "In the News" in the Monday Morning Memo is at 

4 p.m. each Wednesday for inclusion the following week. Submitted items will only appear one time in the memo unless discussed and agreed upon with Chamber staff.

Email all submissions to Rebecca Kasey, Director of Marketing, at rebecca@huntingtonchamber.org.

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