Sheila Lowe of Union, an Employee Benefits Producer for Allen Insurance and Financial, has been elected as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Penobscot Bay Regional Chamber of Commerce for 2022. Other Officers elected to one-year officer terms for 2022 by the Chamber board include Vice Chair Jake Miller of First National Bank, Secretary Sandy Cox of The New England Real Estate Company, and Treasurer Steve Matteo of Camden National Bank. More...

Starting next week, the Chamber will feature one of our members here in our Friday Report e-newsletter (distributed to over 2,000 emails), and on our Facebook (6,000 followers) and Instagram (1,100 followers) pages. Featured Member posts will link directly to your profile page on the Chamber website.

Please click below to complete the two easy steps to be considered as a Featured Member. Featured Members will be chosen randomly from the submissions received. We invite you to take advantage of this great Chamber member benefit to promote your business.

The Maine State Legislature is back in session, and there are a number of bills being considered that have potential significant impacts for local businesses. Join us for a Zoom update from Greg Dugal, Director of Government Affairs for HospitalityMaine. Greg will touch on a variety of bills being considered in Augusta, including:

Join us to learn more and answer your questions about pending state and federal legislation.  This session is free, but participation is restricted to Chamber members. Pre-registration is required.

Valentine's Day is just a few weeks away! Chamber members are invited to add a free listing to our Valentine's Day webpage, where viewers can ponder the many ways to show their love.

The Chamber will promote the page via social media and here in our Friday Report, encouraging people to shop local this Valentine's Day.

Take a look at the great offers already out there, and post your free listing today:

Please note, your offers will be posted following Chamber staff approval, which normally occurs quickly, during our regular business hours.

Contact Amy@CamdenRockland.com if you need assistance.

Once again the Chamber will be creating a Blog full of activities taking place during School Vacation Week, February 21-25. If you have a family-friendly event or activity, please email the listing details to Amy@CamdenRockland.com. We will add submissions as they come in and promote the article on our social media platforms.

Join in the fun and help the Chamber raise some funds! For the second year in a row, the Chamber is sponsoring a ‘Football Squares’ contest in conjunction with the "Big Game". To enter this game of chance, you purchase one or more squares from a 10 x 10 grid. Each square costs $75. Individuals may purchase more than one square if desired.

January 25, 2022 – Governor Janet Mills announced today that the Maine Department of Labor is making available up to $12 million in grant funding for Maine businesses to significantly expand apprenticeships. These apprenticeships are part of a larger effort by the Mills Administration to address the longstanding workforce shortage issue in Maine.

Backed by $11 million in Federal funding from the Governor’s Maine Jobs & Recovery Plan and additional funding from U.S. Department of Labor’s State Apprenticeship Expansion, Equity, and Innovation (SAEEI) Grant, these new grants can be used by businesses, labor unions, community-based organizations or industry associations to partner with Maine Department of Labor’s Registered Apprenticeship Program to develop new apprenticeship programs and pre-apprenticeship programs or expand existing apprenticeship programs. More...

The Maine Office of Tourism invites you to join Director Steve Lyons for the first 2022 quarterly Tourism Industry Stakeholders.

Click here to register.

Topics to be covered include:

Submit your news releases to Amy@CamdenRockland.com.

Carving a crystal-clear block of ice is remarkably easy and rewarding! Camden Public Library invites ice-carving teams to create sparkling sculptures during Winterfest, on Saturday, February 5, 11:00 am to 2:00 pm. As part of the festivities, we will have hot food, a DJ with music, a Doggie Fashion Show, a Family Story Walk, and a Polar Plunge! And if the snow blesses us, there will be sledding and snowman-building. More...

While the identity of Otto the Cat, (the anonymous benefactor who established a recent challenge to benefit the Camden Area Christian Food Pantry) remains a mystery, his generosity has been on full display.

Otto offered to donate $2.00 for every $1.00 raised, up to a total of $10,000, for a set period in December 2021. The response was phenomenal with donations continuing even after the Challenge had ended. More...

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Mid-Maine received a generous $33,000 grant from the Unity Foundation that will enhance and expand its one-to-one youth mentoring services in Penobscot and Northern Waldo counties. The funding will provide support to its long-standing mentoring programs in the region, and more than triple the capacity to serve an additional 100 children in 2022. More...

More practical and creative opportunities await you at Mid-Coast School of Technology Adult Ed. Browse the pdf of our current course catalog to see everything offered. You can find the catalog and/or register for upcoming classes via our website, www.midcoastadulted.com. Or call our office (207-596-7752 x3) Mondays through Thursdays, 9:30-5:00, to register over the phone. More...

The Camden Public Library is delighted to announce that its archives of the Camden Herald newspaper are being digitized and posted online. Phase one of the project, or the first 125 years of the newspaper, are already online. Phase two, the balance of the project 1998 to 2020, is in the works. “We are more than delighted, we are overjoyed,” said Ken Gross, director of the Camden Public Library’s Walsh History Center. “This project will be an incredible boon to all researchers, historians, genealogists, students, and community members who can now read and search every issue of the Camden Herald.” More...

Our online calendar is your guide to live & virtual events in the Camden/Rockland Region. Click here to view.

Have an event to share? Members are invited to share events on the Chamber Calendar. Login to your Chamber Profile Page to get started.

Members are invited to email Amy@CamdenRockland.com with details of goods, programs, products, or services they would like to offer to their fellow members. Please limit your offer to headline + 75 words and include an end date not to exceed 1 month.