Looking Back at 2013

by Kate McAlister, President and CEO

The lights are up and the snow is on the ground; must be Holidays in Sandpoint.  As we bring our year to a close it is always fun to look back at what happened throughout the year.  I don’t know about you but I run so fast sometimes I forget to look back and remember. 

Let’s start with all the press we received last year.  We once again had a number of accolades in the national press, “Top 10 Emerging Ski Towns” – Nat Geo; “Snow Trax: My Own Private Idaho” – The New Mexican; “Top 5 Places in the World to Get Married” [Schweitzer Resort] – Birmingham Press U.K.; “10 Picture-Perfect Mountain Towns” – USA Today; “Idaho’s Hippest Mountain Town” – Men’s Journal; “Is This The Prettiest Town in America?” – Steve Winston for World Property Channels (seen in 120 countries).

In January we watched it snow as we continued to move into our new ‘old’ location out here on the highway.  We LOVE it here.  One day we promise we’ll have an open house but we have not stopped running since we moved.

February delivered one of the most successful Winter Carnival’s in a few years.  Town was alive with visitors and locals as well. With events and happenings going on in Jeff Jones square, the Granary District, and of course up at our favorite ski resort, Schweitzer, a good time was had by all.

Besides St. Patrick’s Day, March brought the Idaho Tourism Council (ITC) to town for their quarterly meeting.  Schweitzer hosted the three day event for this panel of governor appointed tourism specialists to showcase our wonderful area and all we have to offer.  This is the group who manages the Idaho Department of Commerce tourism grants of which we received $111,000 in 2012 to market our town outside of the area.  They were very impressed with us, as they should be.

Keeping with the tourism theme in April, Sandpoint hosted the North Idaho Tourism summit at the Sandpoint Events Centers and it was one of the best attended in a number of years.  Quite a few of our local restaurants and recreational businesses participated such as, Trinity, Pend Oreille Pasta, MickDuffs, Western Pleasure Guest Ranch, Scotchman’s Peak and others.

In May, we welcomed our favorite event “Lost in the 50’s” and all the prosperity it brings to our little town in the midst of the ‘shoulder’ season.  Thank you Carolyn Gleason for all your hard work and dedication for our community over all these years.

June kicked off the summer with the Chamber’s Summer Sampler, our ‘local’ kick-off to summer event.  We enjoyed wonderful food from restaurants and caterers, from Sagle to Ponderay, as well as another rousing Chef Cook-Off sponsored by one of our local favorites, Litehouse.  Reese Warren from Eichardt’s took the title home for the second year.  Next year, hopefully in April, we are going to put him up against a chef from our Sister City, Nelson B.C., when we sponsor the first International Chef Cook-off.  I’m betting on Reese.

If you love a parade, then of course our annual Lions Club, 4^th of July parade is for you.  The community came out in droves and lined the downtown streets for the parade.  We also hosted another very successful Wooden Boat Show and I was honored to participate in the Friday night boat parade.  It was spectacular with all those beautiful boats out on the water with their noses up and carving through the water. Can’t wait until next year!

August rode in with 350 bicycle riders in the Ride Idaho group.  Our area showed them a great time and they spent their free day enjoying our area and all we have to offer. 

We were honored in September to have the Idaho Community Review team here from the state of Idaho and for three days we listened to our community as we held focus groups and listening sessions all over the area.  This team of experts came here after the City of Sandpoint wrote and received a grant from the Idaho Rural Partnership to come and assess our area and add to our comp plan.  It was an enlightening three days.  The state team took all the information and have been analyzing and putting together a presentation with their recommendations and will be giving us the full report in early January.  This report will also include other grant opportunities for small towns like ours and other possible partnerships. 

The Scenic Half also took place in September with over 1,000 runners participating.  Only a little more than one-fourth of the runners were local.  Thirteen states and two countries were represented and again it was a stellar September day for the run and to showcase our beautiful area.

October was a big month for the Chamber, we officially took on the administrative management of the Sandpoint Business Improvement District and hired Kim Queen as the new manager.  It is a big undertaking and the Chamber staff will be working very hard to make this a success for all concerned. 

November and December brought holiday decorating all over town, the annual Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony, Saturdays with Santa on Cedar Street Bridge, and so much more.

The Chamber, well Mack, held quite a few well-attended Social Media classes at the Holiday Inn Express in Ponderay and we will continue to do so in 2014.  If there are other classes you would like to see, let us know.

All in all it was a jam packed year of great success.  Starting in January the Chamber will start holding every other luncheon at the Ponderay Events Center and we encourage everyone to attend.

As we say good bye to 2013 we can say it was a good year, and we look forward to 2014 and all it will bring our way. I hope the new year will bring you and yours great opportunities, prosperity and fun.  Don’t forget the fun.  Take care, see you in 2014.