Night of Nostalgia to introduce Ash Grove Chamber

Weekend event will be first for reformed Ash Grove Chamber of Commerce
The Ash Grove Chamber of Commerce is holding a special event that they call “A Night of Nostalgia” to help give Ash Grove residents more information about the chamber and the role it will play in the community. The affair will take place at the Tin Ceiling event venue on Main Street in Ash Grove on Saturday, April 30.

Event to provide Ash Grove residents with more information about the meeting

“It is going to be a dinner/informative meeting to basically let everybody know what the purpose (of the chamber) is,” said organizer Ronessa Williams, “and what we plan on doing, and what they can contribute to it. (We will) have a silent auction as well, so that we can kind of start raising some funds for the chamber.”
Williams said she hopes that the event will help to open new lines of communication across the Ash Grove community and help unify the city.
“I feel like that's kind of been a little bit of the downside of Ash Grove over the past several years,” she said. “It's just the lack of communication, but that doesn't really fall on … anybody. It's just a matter of where you know this chamber can just … help to … give those lines of communication and keep them open.”

Goal is to unite Ash Grove while maintaining small-town feel

While some people are excited about the chamber, Williams said, others are concerned that a chamber could create the growth like that seen in Republic, which would cause Ash Grove to lose its small-town atmosphere. Williams said that is not the intent of the chamber.
I know some people we talked to, they were like, ‘Well we really don't want to see Ash Grove get too big like Republic,’ she said. “And I'm like, ‘This is not going to do that.’ This is not going to be … what's going to happen, and … it's not our goal either. We want to just basically bring a tight knit unified feel to the town. Some of those other towns like Ava … have a really amazing little … town feel and the town square and everything. They have that … Mayberry feel still, and it's because they (and their chamber) have just run it the right way. We're not looking to bring in large businesses and franchises and all that. We still we just want to basically make what we have here even better and then … just kind of grow naturally from there, but you know, still (keep) that small town feel.”
Event details
The event will begin at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday. Tickets are $10 per person and admission includes an Italian-style dinner, catered by Maple Lane Bakery. In addition to the silent auction, there will also be a live auction and ticket raffle auctions.
For more information, go online to the Ash Grove Chamber of Commerce Facebook page.