Chamber, MainStreet
continue to improve town
Page 4 • Wednesday, December 2, 2015 • The Hammonton Gazette
by Kevin Troilo
Gazette Staff Writer
HaMMONtON—MainStreet
Hammonton has seen major advancements in the past few years.
Not only are there new stores
flourishing in the downtown area,
but people are very excited and
thrilled to be a part of such uplifting progress. MainStreet has put
together a countless number of
events that both Hammontonians
and those from surrounding towns
can come to enjoy.
Some of the upcoming events
include the Christmas tree Lighting on December 2 and the latest
installment in the “third thursday” evening on December 17.
MainStreet works in conjunction with the Greater Hammonton
Chamber of Commerce. the
Chamber of Commerce works to
promote and protect the interests
of local businesses all throughout
Hammonton. they have worked
closely with both new and existing businesses in order to see them
begin and continue to thrive. President of MainStreet Hammonton
Benjamin Ott has proudly held the
position for three years. He realizes what the organization must
continue to do in order to remain
successful as time passes.
“We wanted to create a more
sustainable non-profit. One of the
biggest objectives for us in the
short term is to do more creative
fundraising to fund our operations. We want to be able to keep
funding our events. We had to
come up with different ways
through sponsorships, donations
and volunteerism to make this
more sustainable. a lot of stuff
was private donation when we got
started, but now, we’ve gotten a
lot of corporate sponsorship and
volunteers. We’re trying to increase our revenue in order to
keep us going … We also want to
improve our events as well as introduce new events. We want to
keep our visions on supporting the
arts. Specifically, things like the
eagle theater, the arts District,
the Noyes Museum and the teen
arts festival,” Ott said.
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MainStreet Hammonton executive Director Cassie iacovelli
would like to continue branching
out into organizations in Hammonton in order to grow.
“the overall goal i have had as
the executive Director for these
past years, and i see continuing
for the future, is to empower more
and more people to have
shared ownership for keeping the
downtown revitalized and hopefully thriving. i am committed
to developing meaningful partnerships with other Hammonton
civic organizations … if each year
more people care about the future
of the downtown and agree to be
a part of making it thrive, then i
think the MainStreet Hammonton
program is on track to be successful. this will always be our top
goal,” iacovelli said.
Greater Hammonton Chamber
of Commerce President Glen ann
Stoll and executive Director John
runfolo are working very hard to
make sure that the Chamber of
Commerce continues developing
itself in the short term and the
long term. Some of their short
term goals include: initiating and
completing the restoration of the
Chamber office’s building facade
located at the Historic Hammonton train Station on egg Harbor
road (also home to the offices of
MainStreet Hammonton), supporting the town and businesses
throughout the Sesquicentennial
Celebrations in 2016, supporting
town commerce and development
through monthly meetings, networking and events such as the
annual Beer & Wine expo and
30th annual red, White & Blueberry festival, which is scheduled
for June 26, 2016. all of these
things will occur within the next
year.
the Chamber representatives
also said the Chamber has a number of long