Clothing items featuring past versions of the Chamber's logo, displayed at the Red Deer Museum and Art Gallery. (rdnewsNOW/Ashley Lavallee-Koenig)

By Ashley Lavallee-Koenig

"CHARGING AHEAD"

Red Deer & District Chamber celebrates 130 years of operations

Jun 14, 2024 | 4:28 PM

The Red Deer & District Chamber held its Annual Chamber Barbecue on June 14, and celebrated 130 years of community involvement.

This year the event took place at Heritage Square so attendees could easily visit Red Deer Museum and Art Gallery next door, which will be showcasing an exhibit on the Chamber’s history until July 23, 2024.

“They put together a fantastic exhibit and we’re really thankful. There’s some really cool stuff, and information, and stories in there that we didn’t know about so its been very valuable for us,” said Scott Robinson, CEO of the Red Deer & District Chamber.

Robinson said that after 130 years in the community, aside from the logo, not much has changed as the organization’s role as a catalyst for change has been with it since day one.

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“If you go back in time and history, this organization has always been at the centre of trying to be a catalyst for change. Obviously the issues change and things are different that way, but for the most part we’ve been steadfast in being a community leader and being here to help champion the big opportunities and challenges a community faces,” he said.

Over his years with the Chamber, Robinson has recently been most proud of the Chamber’s homelessness task force which was created to help identify how the business community may be able to help with homelessness concerns in Red Deer. He shared that they have a few more large projects in the works as well.

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“We’re working with the City and Red Deer Polytechnic around trying to identify a better economic development model for the city. We think that we can do a better job of that, I think there’s opportunities there. We’re working with the business community on more of a collaborative ecosystem/environment, trying to get all of our organizations involved in serving the business community coming together more often in a way that would be beneficial to businesses,” he said.

The Chamber was founded by Raymond L. Gaetz, John Burch, and George W. Greene on March 17 in 1894 as the Red Deer Board of Trade. In 1901, the Board was instrumental in Red Deer’s designation as a town, after which it could encourage new businesses and members to come to the area. It changed its name to the Red Deer Chamber of Commerce in 1953.

“We’re charging ahead; we’ve got great history, but we’ve got lots to do,” said Robinson. “We have to do a better job of telling our story and coming together as a community around that story, but we’re excited about it. The Chamber has been here for a long time, but we’re going to continue to be here for a long time and really supporting the community.”

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