The Cascade Area Chamber of Commerce Annual Dinner was a success!

The Cascade Chamber's Annual Dinner was held at the Legion Hall in Cascade on the evening of Wednesday, March 20th, 2024. There were over 140 attendees, representing 45 different companies and organizations that are members of the Chamber. In case you missed it, here are some of the highlights!

The Venue - The American Legion Hall was the perfect spot for our dinner. They ran the bar, and made sure we had everything we needed for set up. The Chamber board arrived early to get the room set up. Each table had some programs and name cards for each attendee, and all 18 tables had a beautiful centerpiece thanks to the talented folks at Hollow Tree Gifts and Floral.

The Food - The dinner was the result of a great group effort among some chamber members, with the delicious main dishes and sides being provided by Lois' Catering, the tasty salads and bread provided by Cheryl's Flour Garden Bakery and Coffee Bar, and an array of wonderful sweet treats provided by Koppes Kreations. 

The Entertainment - We were lucky to have the Trivial Dudes join us as the entertainment for the night. They put together a great program featuring questions about and inspired by Cascade specifically, as well as the rest of the State. Thanks to their questions, the room learned some things! For example, the Western Dubuque School District covers more square mileage than any other district in the State, Elijah Wood and Jonny Carson are both originally from Iowa, a group of cats is called a "Clowder," and Fran McCaffrey is one of the top 5 all time highest scoring coaches of the Iowa Hawkeyes Basketball team. Who Knew?!

Roody the Rooster - Roody has been happily residing at Moski's BBQ since the last Chamber Dinner, and with a new dinner came the need for a new home for Roody to Roost! He's not moving too far down the road though, and we are sure that droves of people will "flock" to see him at his newest abode - The Corner Taproom.

The Goods - We thanked several new members that had joined the chamber since the last Chamber dinner, and presented each of them with a plaque. New members included Kerp's Service Center, Creative Touch Massage & Wellness, Bridge Business Resources, The Butcher Block, and Aronia Essentials. 

We also had some great items up for auction! Thanks to a donation from the City of Cascade, we were able to auction off 2 prints featuring artwork from Cascade's new mural, numbered and signed by artist Ben Schuh. We also had 2 canvas prints featuring some great ariel images provided by photographer Levi Stevenson with Twisted Cedar Studios, and both of those were also auctioned off. We also raised enough in the split the pot raffle drawing to award $265 to the winner, and the lucky winner of the Heads / Tails game received an envelope with $50 in Chamber Bucks inside! 

The Awards - For years, the Chamber has recognized one business at every dinner as the Business of the Year. This year, we decided to expand that. In addition to asking for nominations for the business of the year, we also asked for nominations for the Pioneer Award, the Legacy Award, and the Extra Mile Award. Our board reviewed all nominations, and chose 3 worthy winners -

Business of the Year - Cascade Customs by JKP

The Legacy Award - Weber Construction

The Pioneer Award - RISE Counseling & Consulting

All in all, it was a great night!