In 2014, the Middletown Chamber of Commerce began under the fierce leadership and direction of Freda Chapman. She and her spouse, Middletown Mayor Byron Chapman, created a strong partnership, focusing on growth between the City of Middletown and the Middletown Chamber, its business owners, and residents, as they strived together to improve community outreach.
The Middletown Chamber began with zero members, and within a year established 100 members. Freda Chapman, past executive director, remembers when the City of Middletown asked her to take the Middletown Chamber of Commerce over, and it was a new beginning. It then grew rapidly to 285 strong.
“The chamber is a viable source to the City of Middletown because of its rapid growth in new businesses, which the chamber reaches out to for support,” she says.
She remained solo until the recruitment of Laura Wright as assistant executive director in 2016. “Laura has taken the chamber to an exciting new level,” Chapman says.
The chamber focuses on building solid business-to-business relationships, with programs that promote the success of those businesses. The Middletown Chamber of Commerce provides various events as well as networking and learning opportunities, including the Business Expo, the popular annual Golf Scramble in May, monthly luncheons, Networking Happy Hours, the New Leads at Lunch program, Coffee Chit Chat, and focus groups like Sr. Synergy, the Young Professionals, and Women Business Networking, to name a few.
The Middletown Chamber of Commerce is fortunate to have the strong leadership of Tom Stone of Stone Legal Group, PLLC as president.
“The Middletown Chamber is an exciting, vibrant and growing organization,” Stone says. “In just nine years since it was restarted, the membership has grown to 580 members. The membership is a diverse group of businesses, many of them small businesses. Through the efforts of Freda Chapman, who was the first executive director and responsible for getting the chamber up and running, and Laura Wright, the current executive director, and staff, the members of the chamber have had a strong advocate and partner to help them grow their businesses. The current board of directors have been proactive and forward thinking to ensure that growing membership will continue in the future to be supported, as members seek to increase their connections and business with other members of the chamber through the networking opportunities the chamber continues to provide.”
The chamber is active in community events such as the annual Easter Egg Hunt, Halloween Trick or Treat, Light Up Middletown and the Middletown Family Fun Festival. A new quarterly event called the Middletown Market is coming soon.
With the exciting growth of the chamber daily, it operates now with a dedicated and growing staff including Executive Director Laura Wright, Assistant Executive Director Debbie Walthall and Executive Assistant Deanne McQuaide.
To this day the chamber continues to thrive, and operates in the same building at Middletown City Hall at 11803 Old Shelbyville Road.
Come and be a part of the thriving Middletown Chamber of Commerce, as it has something for everyone. For more information, contact 502-245-0404. To see a calendar of upcoming events and for more info on all the programs offered, go to middletownchamberky.com.
