At the February meeting of the Eastern Plains Chamber of Commerce, board of directors changes were announced and Joe Raso, new president and chief executive officer of the Colorado Springs Regional Business Alliance, was the feature speaker.Tom Cline, treasurer, is now the chairman of the board after Jason Gray resigned his position for health reasons. Kathy Bohannon of Ent Federal Credit Union was nominated to complete Cline’s term as treasurer.Membership director Kathleen Voss announced that Falcon School District 49 is hosting an anti-bullying concert open to the community on August 17. Rachel’s Challenge and Safe to Tell will be co-sponsoring the concert and fireworks show.Sand Creek High School is hosting this year’s Relay for Life fundraiser for the American Cancer Society June 7 and 8. This year’s event will also feature a late-night flag football tournament. Organizations that want to field football teams should contact Mindy Quinn at mquinn@d49.org.Dayna Jenkins, chamber secretary, is a finalist for Woman of the Year for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Foundation. She and other finalists for Woman of the Year and Man of the Year are leading fundraising events through April 12. Each dollar raised is counted as a ìvoteî for each candidate. ìThe reason I’m on this chamber is to see our community thrive,î Jenkins said. ìAnd one of the ways you can tell if a community is thriving is if they support organizations like the Leukemia and Lymphoma Foundation.îRaso talked about the CSRBA, a merger of the Greater Colorado Springs Area Chamber of Commerce and the Colorado Springs Economic Development Corp. ìIn order to compete for economic growth nationally and internationally, the chamber and EDC had to merge to combine resources,î Raso said. ìThe most important thing we can do for the region’s growth is to make sure those organizations that are bringing money into the region are being supported. Those businesses that are here can decide at any time they will be better served moving to Austin or anyplace else. The most important thing a chamber can do is make sure the dollars that are coming here from the outside keep coming here.îThe next meeting of the Eastern Plains chamber is March 6 at 7:30 a.m. at Grace Community Church in Falcon.
