CANYS SELECTS THREE CHAMBERS AS 'ON THE MAP' GRANT WINNERS

ALBANY—Three New York State Chambers have been selected as winners of the first Chamber Alliance of New York State (CANYS) “On the Map” awards.

The Tonawandas Chamber of Commerce, the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce, and the Schoharie County Chamber of Commerce were selected from 15 applications in the statewide grant competition. The main sponsor of the grant awards was Altria Corporate Services, Inc. Each applicant was judged on the basis of its “destination marketing” initiative.

“The goal of this project was to find some 'best practices' in destination marketing among smaller chambers,” said Skye Heritage, the Council’s manager of regional affairs and coordinator of CANYS, a Business Council affiliate. “These grants give our winners a green light to grow.”

The $20,000 first-place grant was awarded to the Schoharie County Chamber of Commerce to develop a program that would offer visitors courses on agriculture, cultural heritage and behind-the-scenes farm tours. The chamber plans to offer courses on everything from how to run a small farm to how to grow the best tomatoes and garlic.

The Staten Island Chamber of Commerce is the second-place winner. The chamber will receive a $10,000 grant to create a cell phone walking tour of Staten Island sites. The tour would be accessible by dialing a phone number from a cell phone or PDA.

The third place winner, the Tonawandas Chamber of Commerce, received a $5,000 grant for its “visitor radio tour” initiative. The Chamber would like to install radio transmitters and site marker signs in Gateway Harbor Park that would identify and describe cultural and heritage sites. Visitors, following a map to each site, would be able to tune their car radio to a tour narrative.

Altria Corporate Services provided significant support for the grant awards. Altria Group, Inc. is the parent company of Kraft Foods, Philip Morris International and Philip Morris USA. The family of companies has many roots in small business: from the creation of a breakfast cereal in Battle Creek, Michigan, by C.W. Post; to a cheese company started in Chicago by James L. Kraft. The consumer packaged goods companies of the Altria family have created some of the world's most popular and valued trademarks, such as Nabisco, Oreo, Oscar Mayer, Marlboro, Post and Tang.

Heritage said this philosophy that all businesses were once small businesses dovetails with the project’s goals of spotlighting small communities. “Not only does this give small chambers a chance to fund innovative destination marketing programs, it gives other chambers a chance to learn about the best ideas in marketing. It’s a win-win situation with economic growth as the ultimate result.”

CANYS is an association of chamber executives from New York’s local and regional chambers of commerce committed to providing professional development opportunities for member executives and leveraging the power of chambers to promote state-government policies that will
improve New York’s business climate. CANYS is affiliated with, and administered by, The Business Council of New York State.