Category: News

The Antwerp Chamber of Commerce has closed out 2022.   We began by growing our membership to 50 businesses, 16 non-profits, 12 home-based businesses and 9 friends of the chamber memberships.  Our home-based businesses category ranges from local crafters to direct sales representatives. We also continued our Spotlight on area businesses by doing feature articles on United Way of Paulding County, Corner Café, Sam Switzer Realty,  Hormann’s Heating and Cooling and Ties and Bows. We had grand openings for 3 new businesses/business owners this year Puckerbrush of Antwerp, Phil’s One Stop, More Than Boutique and Ties & Bows.

For the fourth year we awarded our Antwerp Chamber scholarship to a deserving senior from Vantage Career Center, Jonathan Meyer. Jonathan graduated from Vantage in the Criminal Justice program. He is attending the Hocking College participating in the Natural Resources Law Enforcement program. Upon completion of this two-year degree, he intends to become a Game Warden in the State of Ohio. Our Cutie Pie Contest during Day in the Park supports our scholarship each year.

In May we celebrated Mother’s Day with a Ladies Day Out.  Community businesses ran specials and home-based businesses were open at the VFW.

With a little help from our local Girl Scout troop we continued with a fun activity this summer involving books. We took in donations of gently used books, placed them in plastic bags with a note, and hid them around town and out at the park.  Kids were encouraged to find a book, read it and then place it back in the bag and rehide it for someone else to find. Our hope is that the children enjoyed some reading time throughout the summer months. 

In July we sponsored a Kiddie Parade and Candy Bar Bingo for the kiddos with the theme of the 4^th of July.  The parade of decorated bikes, scooters, wagons and strollers proceeded through town ending at the VFW pavilion for a rousing game of Bingo with winners receiving candy bars donated by our own Gen Fed.

In August we sponsored an adult trivia night at the Oasis Bar & Grill with host, Josh Hahn.  This is a fun event held at a Chamber business that is always a great time.  Entry fee was split between the Chamber and the trivia winner.

Day in the Park was a huge success with theme, Island Vibes. The day began with a memorable parade and the park was filled with townsfolk eager to see the great entertainment, crafters and food vendors, games for the kids, Cutie Pie Contest and Silent Auction.  Musical entertainment was provided by the duo Island Vibe and our Gem of the Year was Barry Delong.  Our total profit from Day in the Park was $2083.00.  There was a three way tie for the winner of the parade traveling trophy.  The Holly Beach Splash Pad committee float, West Bend News and Krazy Krafters. We want to thank everyone who donated and participated in our big event.  New this year was a young Makers Market to encourage entrepreneurial spirit in our young people.

The Chamber held our first Munch & Meet at the September meeting.  There were guest speakers from Chamber members, Metalink and Geenex Solar.  Information was given to the group about the NOACC benefits and opportunities that are available to our members. 

In early November Chamber sponsored a wine bus trip on a cold Saturday morning.  All proceeds will go towards a future mural project on a downtown building. 

Small Business Saturday, held on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, was a huge success with many businesses having a very profitable day. A Bingo game was the activity of the morning as well as the Save Your Receipt drawing – both with prizes awarded in the form of Chamber Bucks to be used at any Chamber Business. Thank you to the VFW for allowing us to host the Welcome Station in their meeting room.

Next we held a Christmas Tree Lighting with a carol sing at Greenway Park next to the police station.  Many thanks the guys at Paulding Putnam Electric Cooperative for their help in getting the lights and the star on the big tree. Bill and Chris from the village of Antwerp helped to get our Nativity scene placed.

To encourage businesses to decorate for the holidays we hosted a contest for the best festive light display. We had 12 businesses join us and 13 people voted.  The winner was Small Town Bliss. They now can proudly display a life size version of the leg lamp from the Christmas Story movie.  The leg lamp is a traveling trophy and we can’t wait to crown a new winner in 2023.

Santa’s Secret Shop was again an enjoyable event for our kiddos and a chance for businesses to show off a few gifts.  For $5 per gift a child could shop in Santa’s Secret Shop for a small gift for their family members, teachers or friends. Once again, we were able to use the meeting room at the VFW for this event. All items are provided by our local businesses and all monies went back to the businesses. This year $1010.00 went back to local businesses.

We wrapped up 2022 with Santa’s mailbox set up next to the town hall.  Our busy little elves helped Santa answer over 100 letters to Santa!

Chamber Bucks continue to be a hit with gift givers.  Many businesses, groups and individuals purchased Chamber Bucks to show their appreciation. Remember, if you receive a Chamber Buck in your business, just flip it over and there is a phone number on the back.  Call Chamber treasurer, Sue Fowler, and she will stop in your business and reimburse you for the amount of the Chamber Buck. 

Chamber Gift Certificates are also available at the Antwerp Exchange Bank. Gift Certificates make a great gift or a nice way to pay it forward for a person or family in need. The certificate, in the form of a check, can be used anywhere in Antwerp.  The check cannot be used for cash.

 The Antwerp Chamber of Commerce continues to be committed to all the businesses in the Antwerp community.  We welcome any and all feedback from individuals or businesses with the purpose to promote business in Antwerp and we encourage members to join us at our monthly meetings.  You do not need to own a business to be a member of the Chamber.  We have an individual membership category as well so if you like the things we are doing, we invite you to join us. 

Thank you, businesses, for all that you do to support the Chamber.  We look forward to seeing all of you in 2023.

2021 Antwerp Chamber of Commerce

The Antwerp Chamber of Commerce has closed out an “almost back to normal” 2021.   We began by growing our membership to 49 businesses, 19 non-profits, 11 home-based businesses and 9 friends of the library chamber memberships.  This included a growth in our home-based businesses category.  These range from local crafters to direct sales representatives. We also continued our Spotlight on area businesses by doing feature articles on Krazy Krafters, Pond-a-River, Antwerp Manor, Antwerp Conservation Club, Leinard Mobile Home Court and Gen Fed Credit Union. We had grand openings for 3 new businesses/business owners this year.  The new Sub and Grub in the old Subway building, the new owner of Leinard Mobile Home Park, and recently for Antwerp Corner Café.

For the third year we awarded our Antwerp Chamber scholarship to a deserving senior from Vantage, Eli Molitor. Eli graduated from Vantage in the Ag and Industrial Power Technology program. He is attending the University of Northwestern Ohio majoring in Agricultural Diesel Technology. Upon completion of this two-year degree, he intends to continue farming as well as working in a shop repairing diesel engines. The Chamber paired Eli with Kyle Kauser, Transportation Director at Antwerp Local Schools. Kyle has tremendous experience in working with diesel engines through the bus garage and will be a tremendous asset to Eli as he works towards his professional goals.  Our Cutie Pie Contest during Day in the Park supports our scholarship each year.

In April and May we celebrated Mother’s Day with #antwerpshop4mom days.  Community businesses ran specials and home based businesses were open at the VFW and the old Papa Oley’s building.

In June we once again sponsored the Town-wide garage sales. Chamber was able to make a map of sales in the area and business sponsors on the back.   These were available for shoppers to pick up as they moved from sale to sale.

We also test drove the 3/50 project.  For every $100 spent in locally owned and independent stores, $68 stay in the community in the forms of taxes, payroll and other expenditure.  We challenged people to choose 3 businesses that they would miss if they were no longer here and to spend $50 in each business.  We did this for 4 months and each winner won $50 in Chamber Bucks.  Winners were Suz Bagley, Cyndy Bowers, Judy Sawyer and Brenda Copsey. Grab Your Neighbor and Explore Your Downtown was shortened to just the kiddie parade in July with bingo following at the VFW and the 3^rd annual dog show in August. Both were well attended despite having rain both days.  Many children turned out for the parade and bingo and about 12 dogs entered the dog show with Fergus being the winner.  Donations were taken up at the dog show for the Paulding County dog kennel.

With a little help from our local Girl Scout troop we continued with a fun activity this summer involving books. We took in donations of gently used books, placed them in plastic bags with a note, and hid them around town and out at the park.  Kids were encouraged to find a book, read it and then place it back in the bag and rehide it for someone else to find. Our hope is that the children enjoyed some reading time throughout the summer months. 

Day in the Park was a huge success with the theme being Best Vacation Ever.  The Park was filled with townsfolk eager to see the great entertainment, crafters, food vendors, parade, games for the kids, Cutie Pie Contest and silent auction.  Water to Wine provided our musical entertainment for the day and Laurel Hopkins was our Gem of the Year.  Our total profit from Day in the Park was $2083.00.  The Genesis House was the winner of the traveling trophy. We want to thank everyone who donated and participated in our big event.

In early November we partnered with the Holly Beach Splash Pad group and sponsored a wine bus trip on a beautiful Saturday morning.  All proceeds went directly to help fund the splash pad and we raised $3000.00 and had a tremendous amount of fun doing it.

Small Business Saturday, held on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, was a huge success with many businesses having a very profitable day. We had a Scavenger Hunt and a save your receipt raffle- both with prizes awarded in the form of Chamber Bucks to be used at any Chamber Business.  Thank you to the VFW for allowing us to host the welcome station in their meeting room.

Next we held a Christmas tree lighting/carol sing at Greenway Park next to the police station.  We have outgrown our large Christmas tree near the street so we have moved down to the arbor area behind the tennis court.  While we wait for our new tree to grow we lit up the arbor with our artificial tree and the nativity.

To encourage businesses to decorate for the holidays we had a contest for the best festive light display.  We had 13 businesses join us and 43 people voted.  The winner was Small Town Bliss. They now can proudly display a life size version of the leg lamp from the Christmas Story movie.  The leg lamp will become a traveling trophy and we can’t wait to crown a new winner in 2022.

Secret Santa Shop was again a fun time for our kiddos and a chance for businesses to show off a few gifts.  For $5 per gift a child could shop in our Santa shop where they purchased small gifts for their family. Once again, we were able to use the meeting room at the VFW for this event. All items are provided by our local businesses and all monies went back to the businesses. This year $1160.00 went back to local businesses.

We wrapped up 2021 with Santa’s mailbox set up next to the town hall.  Our busy little elf helps Santa answer between 100 and 125 letters to Santa each year.

Chamber Bucks continue to be a hit with gift givers.  Many businesses, groups and individuals purchased Chamber Bucks to show their appreciation.  Remember, if you receive a chamber buck in your business, just flip it over and there is a phone number on the back.  Call Sue Fowler and she will stop in your business and reimburse you for the amount of the chamber buck. 

Don’t forget about Chamber gift certificates that are available at the Antwerp Exchange Bank. Gift certificates make a great gift or a nice way to pay it forward for a person or family in need. The certificate, in the form of a check, can be used anywhere in our town.  The check cannot be used for cash.

 The Antwerp Chamber of Commerce continues to be committed to all the businesses in the Antwerp community.  We welcome any and all feedback and we encourage members to join us at our monthly meetings.  You do not need to own a business to be a member of the Chamber.  We have an individual membership category as well so if you like the things we are doing, we invite you to join us. 

Thank you, businesses, for all that you do to support the Chamber.  We look forward to seeing all of you in 2022.

Antwerp Chamber Of Commerce

PO Box 893

Antwerp, OH  45813

Greetings,

It’s that time again to join or renew your membership with the Antwerp Chamber of Commerce. Your ongoing financial contribution is vital to our ability to continue to deliver outstanding business support and events to promote our town.  We are focused and driven to promote, protect and preserve the businesses in our community.

2021 was a year of a somewhat return to normalcy after the Covid-19 epidemic. While the epidemic is still touching communities, ours has begun to thrive again.  A new year of membership brings opportunities to expand our businesses and grow our Chamber. Our strength and vitality comes from the unity within our businesses and our presence in the community. Much change has been in the air in the last year, and with that we have been inspired with new ideas and renewed excitement for 2022. We are looking forward to the “new” Chamber of 2022 and we anticipate a very successful year.

Why join the Antwerp Chamber of Commerce?

•    Advertising opportunities through the Chamber’s email list of members and on our Facebook page.

•    Gain visibility and drive traffic to your business through the Chamber’s social media campaigns and advertising opportunities throughout the year.

•    Tap into the power of networking through Chamber events.

•    Get featured in our Business Spotlight.

• Antwerp Chamber website now up and running.

•    Gain massive visibility and drive traffic to your business through the Chambers sponsored events like:   Day in the Park, Co-chair the Halloween parade with the Fire Department, Small Business Saturday, Chamber Bucks, Business Christmas lighting, Christmas Tree Lighting at the tennis court and Letters to Santa, Santa’s Secret Shop where children can shop for their parents with items from local businesses, Welcome to Antwerp Brochure, and Chamber Scholarship promotion.

The dues are minimal:        

Business membership                                  $60.00

     Service organizations and churches       $35.00

     Home-based businesses                             $25.00

     Friends of the chamber                                $20.00

New this year to help offset the membership dues and to encourage more participation by members in Chamber events, we have decided that if you participate in 2 or more Chamber events in 2022, you will get $10 in Chamber Bucks.

The Chamber of Commerce holds meetings on the third Wednesday of every month at 1:00 pm.  Location to be announced. We can notify you by email of our regular meetings on the Monday prior to the meetings.  We can also notify you of special events throughout the year.

It is our hope that you will want to be a part of this organization and support our efforts to promote and protect all local businesses and our great community.  We are open to hearing your suggestions on how we can make our Chamber more helpful and beneficial to its members and their businesses. If you have an idea, we want to hear from you. We can be reached by mail at the above address or email us at antwerpchamber@gmail.com.  Please like us on Facebook at Antwerp Chamber of Commerce. Our website is antwerpchamber.com

Let’s make our community a place where our children WANT to raise their children, a place where a business is welcome and a place where we all can grow old together.

“Great things are never done by one person. They are done by a team of people.”     Steve Jobs

Sincerely,

Antwerp Chamber of Commerce

The Antwerp Chamber of Commerce is pleased to announce that Eli Molitor is the recipient of this year’s Antwerp Chamber of Commerce Scholarship. The recipient of this scholarship must be a graduating senior of Vantage Career Center who is a resident of the Antwerp School district. The intent of this scholarship is to provide up to $500 for the student to purchase some of the basic tools of their trade in order to begin actively participating in the business community or costs associated with pursuing further education in their field. The Chamber also pairs the recipient with a local businessperson who is a member of the Antwerp Chamber of Commerce. This mentorship provides access for the student into the local business community, a networking opportunity, and the option to mentor under the businessperson. The monetary portion of the scholarship is supported by the proceeds received in the Cutie Pie Contest at the Antwerp Day in the Park. The Chamber’s desire is that this scholarship will not only encourage the student as they step out of school but will also help the student become established in the local business community. This year’s recipient, Eli Molitor, graduated from Vantage in the Ag and Industrial Power Technology program. He will attend the University of Northwestern Ohio in the fall majoring in Agricultural Diesel Technology. Upon completion of this two-year degree, he intends to continue farming as well as working in a shop repairing diesel engines. The Chamber paired Eli with Kyle Kauser, Transportation Director at Antwerp Local Schools. Kyle has tremendous experience in working with diesel engines through the bus garage and will be a tremendous asset to Eli as he works towards his professional goals. Pictured below is Mike Schneider, Antwerp Chamber of Commerce Scholarship Committee Chair, Eli Molitor, scholarship recipient, Kyle Kauser, Transportation Director at Antwerp Public Schools.

The Antwerp Chamber of Commerce announces the election results for the board of directors for 2022

President: Tom VanVlerah- Friend of the Chamber

Vice- President: Michelle Walker- Krazy Krafters

Secretary: Angel/ Bryce Steiner- West Bend News and Printing

Treasurer: Sue Fowler- Friend of the Chamber

Directors: Denise Coleman- Petals and Vines, Christy DeLong- Antwerp Pit Stop

Governance: Lora Lyons- Paulding County United Way, Michelle Walker- Krazy Krafters, Mandy Miller- Antwerp Pharmacy

Elections are held in November for the following year.

Updated 1/16/2022

The Antwerp Chamber of Commerce would like to present our 2^nd annual scholarship winner, Emily Wentland.  Emily attended Vantage Vocational Center for criminal justice and graduated this spring.  She is being awarded $500 towards her future education.

Emily is a very busy young lady.  She obtained outstanding grades while a student at Vantage garnering praise from her teachers for her excellent leadership skill and her positive attitude. She was a member of the National Technical Honor Society in which you must have a 3.5 GPA or higher, perfect attendance, no discipline problems and have passed all End of Course Exams. After that she wrote an essay, obtained 3 teacher recommendations and had to submit a resume to the committee of teachers and staff. Emily was then chosen as she represents the best of Vantage students.

Outside of the classroom, she was very active in 4-H representing Defiance County at The Ohio State Fair in 2019.  She did a tremendous job earning herself an Outstanding of the Day in Photography (top 20% of the class) in addition to earning multiple awards with her dogs.  Emily works diligently at training her dogs and has trained dogs for other people.

Emily works three days a week at a horse barn to work off her horse’s board. She cleans 14 stalls a day and feeds about 30 horses but her main hobby is dog training.    She has a goal to train them to qualify and compete at dog shows. 

Emily has been accepted at Defiance College to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice. After she graduates, she plans to attend the police academy and become a police officer.  She is especially interested in becoming a K9 officer.

The Chamber of Commerce scholarship is funded by the Cutie Pie contest that is held each year during Day in the Park.  Every bit of money that is raised by that contest goes to the scholarship fund.

We wish Emily all the best and who knows, perhaps someday we will see her back in Antwerp, dressed in police uniform with her trusted canine companion by her side.