As we enter February, I wanted to remind you of the opportunities that have been made available to you in the past 12 months and will continue to be offered to you in the future. I encourage you to register for as many of the webinars or zoom meetings that interest you and especially the ones that are designed to help your business grow.
I was so happy to see many of you at Harold’s last month as we resumed our Business Breakfast meetings there. I have missed you. It was also great to welcome quite a few new members that have joined our Chamber since last March at the breakfast. Seating is limited due to accommodating for social distancing. Pre-registration is required, and attendance is capped at 50. Registration has already begun for February. Do not procrastinate! This event will sell out soon!
The Chamber has provided over 200 opportunities over the last nine months or so on a variety of topics via zoom and conference calls that included Congressmen, Senators, Governor Ducey, Small Business Development Center, Small Business Administration, attorneys from Snell & Wilmer and more. The topics have included PPP information, EIDL Loan information, Digital Marketing, Small Business Development Center and more. In case you missed these but would like an opportunity to re-visit them links to the recordings of these meetings can be found on the Arizona Commerce Authority website at https://www.azcommerce.com.
A unique series of conference calls involved Snell & Wilmer, one of the largest employment law firms in the west who donated hours and hours of their time to help business owners know what their rights are with the possibility of COVID-19 liability, employee rights dealing with sick family members, etc. If you missed this opportunity links to the recordings of the calls can be found on the Chamber website www.carefreecavecreek.org
In addition to businesses marketing themselves on the Chamber website, other marketing includes the Chamber Guide. We mail delivered 38,000 copies to seven zip codes in late September. All members are listed in the guide. We like and share our members posts on Facebook and Instagram, we have been adding our members to our YouTube channel and we send out a weekly e-blast to over 2500 people each week.
Advocacy never stops. Two important things that I have worked on personally was a letter offering guidance to the Governor back in May when he was reluctant to open our businesses. The letter had impact because he opened most of our business community up shortly after that. Most recently I was successful in persuading the Governor to lift the moratorium on Special Event Liquor Licenses. These are important to every non-profit in the state to help drive economic development and tourism…think Taste of Cave Creek. This event was not held this year due to the town not wanting to bring that many people together during a pandemic but without a Special Event Liquor License it could never be held at all.
Back in March we developed a comprehensive list of resources for our entire community, businesses, and residents. We keep that updated as things are added or not needed anymore. We also allowed all businesses to post their hours, curbside available, etc. on this resource page whether they were Chamber members or not. It was the right thing to do to help our community recover from being shut down by our Governor.
The Carefree Cave Creek Chamber of Commerce is here for our business community. Do not hesitate to reach out to us. If we do not have the answer, we will find it.
Respectfully,
Patty Villeneuve, President/CEO
|
|
Join your fellow Chamber Members for a a virtual tour and monthly opportunity to network!
Learn about the Distillery and tasting room. Q & A to follow video presentation.
Always the second Wednesday every month.
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 869 2530 3856
|
|
We have missed you! We are excited to offer an opportunity to get back together!
Come join your fellow Business Members for an informational monthly business breakfast presentation and early morning networking!
Deadline to Register; February 22, 2021
We cannot accommodate walk ins at this time.
At Harold's Cave Creek Corral, 6895 E Cave Creek Rd, Cave Creek, AZ 85331
7:30 AM- 9:30 AM
$12.00 Members $15.00 - General Admission
COVID-19 Guidelines - COVID-19 Guidelines - Once you have registered and paid we will send you a seat assignment. Harold's required that masks be worn when entering and moving about the premises. You will need to remain seated for a plated breakfast, (scrambled eggs, two bacon, sausage, potatoes, fruit and a side TBD), at your assigned table for the duration of the meeting. We appreciate your cooperation!
|
|
23 Years
MacDonalds Ranch
22 Years
Desert Foothills Library
20 Years
Kiwanis Carefree
10 Years
Desert Foothills Family YMCA
9 Years
Confluence
6 Years
Carefree Maintenance Group
4 Years
Carefree Church
JW Plumbing
NSDAR Black Mountain Foothills
Rancho Milagro Foundation
2 Years
LuCorp Marketing
Thunderbird Artist Gallery
1 Year
Boulder View Capital
BPeterson Design
Quail Run Behavioral Health
Welcome to the Chamber of Commerce community! We look forward to seeing you and getting to know you at our events.
Look At Me Now
AC By J
|
|
Okay, here we are in February again. Covid is still negatively affecting our Lifestyles but maybe we're turning the corner and can finally start getting back to normal. Town Meetings are still virtual and will remain so until the pandemic is over. I'm sure by now the majority of us know of someone who has had it or passed away from it. We also know people and businesses that have had their financial lives destroyed by it. Have we as a Society over reacted? Was there a better way to respond? I can't answer that but I do know that as Americans our attitudes about Personal Freedom have not helped to slow the spread. Covid is not a Liberal or Conservative virus. It doesn't care about your personal philosophy, only that you are a carbon based life form that it can infect. As the data so far confirms, there are age groups and people with comorbidities that are in much more danger of a bad outcome than others. So, be considerate and responsible and with any luck we can put this behind us. I'm personally looking forward to Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years all celebrated in the traditional fashion!
I'm sure we all remember the fires of May 2020. We still have the invasive Stinknet and Red Brome coupled with Spring rains. It is incumbent on us to make sure that our properties are safe from the ravages of wildfire when the weather turns hot and dry. Please pull, spray or do whatever you need to do to protect your properties.
I'll now get off of my soapbox and hopefully have a more upbeat article for March. Until then, Be Safe.
|
|
Kraig Nelson, Cave Creek Museum Historian
Approximately one tenth of a mile north of Stagecoach Village is one of the most architecturally unusual homes in Cave Creek or Carefree which was completed in 1950. The design was influenced by an individual who spent time at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West School of Architecture in Scottsdale. The custom-built residence was exalted in a prestigious publication called Architectural Forum. Are you able to guess who the architect was? Gerry Jones would be an excellent guess. Not only did Mr. Jones design the first home in Carefree, he also wrote the design guidelines for Carefree as well. As of 2021, and in his nineties, he is still designing homes from his Black Mountain home and studio. And yes, Gerry Jones spent seventeen years as a teacher (Fellow) at Taliesin West. So, for those of you who guessed Gerry Jones, congratulations on such an astute guess. Unfortunately, you are incorrect.
The distinctive and famous Cave Creek home is called the “Dome House.” The architects include Paolo Soleri (known for Cosanti in Scottsdale and Arcosanti seventy miles north of Phoenix) and Mark Mills (noted Carmel, California architect), both students of Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin West in Scottsdale. The home was designed, at the request of the owner, so one could lie in bed at night and enjoy the dark sky, replete with shimmering stars and meteors blasting through the heavens. The travels of the Moon and Planets provided seasoning to the nightly heavenly buffet. The glass dome encapsulates the only bedroom with the bed in the center, maximizing somnolent viewing.
The Dome House is well sequestered in that the street providing access accommodates other homes initially; eventually after traversing a desert arroyo, the distinctive glass dome appears. With discovery of this anomalous building one is immediately aware of something very special in the Cave Creek desert. This column will not divulge the address or precise directions to maintain privacy for the current gracious owners, Jeff and Liesl (last name withheld), who purchased this unique home in 2018 from Paolo Soleri’s daughter, Daniela.
So, who was the person who wanted to lie in bed and observe heavenly bodies? This iconoclastic person was a divorced socialite from Philadelphia, her name was Nora Woods. Her sister was Carolyn Cox who with her husband, J. Raffles Cox, owned the Black Mountain Inn in the 1950s. Today, the Black Mountain Inn is known as Oregano’s Pizza Bistro. Nora lived in the Dome House until 1984. Paolo Soleri married Nora’s daughter also named Carolyn but was known to the world as Colly. Colly passed in 1982 and Paolo passed in 2013, both are buried at Arcosanti.
If you would like to see the Dome House a model may be found in New York City in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
|
|
748 Easy St., P.O. Box 734
Carefree, AZ 85377
480-488-3381
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
