A trip down memory lane
The Industrial Revolution helped transform our region: Burlington was home to 82 manufacturers, employing almost 2,400 workers. And with all the transformation occuring at home and throughout the country, the Burlington Merchants Protective Association was created.
Chamber secretary James Taylor, WWI pilot and future Mayor of Burlington, Johnny Burns, and Aviation Commissioner Mason Beebe raised funds to purchase BTV Airport land and transform the field into a landing strip
Prolonged heavy rain combined with large-scale deforestation in northern Vermont resulted in catastrophic flooding of the Winooski River and its tributaries.
The 1929 stock market crash and the Great Depression of the 1930s demonstrated the region’s economic ties to the nation, leaving many workers idle and stalling the region’s growth for a decade.
Chamber of Commerce officers and executives resign in a harmonious move to reorganize into the development of a modern, aggressive chamber program
A “Community Chest” fundraising program for social services is proposed
The Burlington Merchants Association is rebranded to the Burlington Chamber of Commerce
Waterama, an event featuring swim competitions, sailboat races and waterskiing is held on the waterfront
By the mid-1950s the region again was experiencing major unemployment, due in large part to the continued shifting of textile jobs from New England to the South and the decline in defense production at the end of the Korean Conflict.
The textile industry’s employment alone dropped from about 2,000 in 1951 to less than 200 in 1958, with the mills closing completely in 1965.
Ronald Reagan speaks at a Burlington-LC Chamber membership meeting. Reagan was the program supervisor for General Electric Theatre.
The Chamber assists in luring the New York Giants football team to train in Chittenden County
The Chamber moves offices to 325 Main Street between Willard and Union Streets in a building now occupied by Champlain College.
In the mid-1960s, the completion I-89 provided for increased auto and truck access to the County, and between this region and other parts of Vermont and the United States. During this period, the County enjoyed lower unemployment and higher wages than the rest of Vermont. Prosperity spawned new housing and nonresidential development, increasingly in the suburban communities around the County’s historic urban core.
As the Chamber expands across Northwest Vermont, it adopts a new name: the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce
The Chamber at this time became much more active in building a stronger community by becoming engaged in community events. The Chamber sponsored such things as an Aviation Weekend Show and a Transportation Week with a Vermont truck rodeo, helicopter rides, and the US Air Force Thunderbirds. This is the time that the Chamber also began its connection with our regional non-profits.
The Chamber database becomes computerized and IBM PCs are purchased creating the Chamber’s first computer network.
First Chamber Annual Fall Foliage Antiques Show is launched, attracting hundreds of tourists and locals.
First government relations lobbyist is hired.
Leadership Champlain is created
The Vermont Convention Bureau is created
A Government Relations department is created and a full-time government relations director is hired.
Answering the call of the business community for a better prepared workforce, the Chamber adopts Project Assist, the first business-K-12 education partnership in Vermont.
The Chamber elects its first female Board Chair, Hinda Miller
The Chamber moves to its current home at 60 Main Street co-locating with GBIC and SBDC.
The Chamber secures www.vermont.org as a web domain and launches its first web site
The Chamber receives federal school-to-work funding and establishes the Lake Champlain Regional School-to-Work Collaborative, to provide grants to K-12 schools through Chittenden County.
The Lake Champlain Workforce Investment Board is established with support from the state’s Department of Labor creating the first WIB in Vermont.
The Chamber assumes operation of the Williston I-89 North rest area and information booth at the Burlington International Airport.
The Chamber receives funding from the VT Department of Education to create a technical education pilot project.
Chamber coordinates effort to attract jetBlue to serve Burlington
The Chamber coordinates public outreach in support of a bond vote for a Regional Technical Center
After 20 years, Wayne Roberts retires as president of the Chamber.
The Chamber parted company with the Governor and lost some community support by testifying in support of same-sex marriage.
The Chamber launches Burlington Young Professionals
LaunchVT is created
TIPS is launched to partner motivated high school students with internships
The professional mentoring program is created
Hello Burlington, our region's first (unofficial) destination marketing organization, is created
The State of the Greater Burlington Young Professional Community Survey gathers important data to guide policy and decision makers
The Chamber becomes instrumental in helping businesses navigate the pandemic, coordinating the largest coalition of Vermont organizations to-date to prevent the taxation of forgiven PPP loans.
The Chamber rebrands to better showcase its bold, spirited, innovative and accomplished identity
Cathy Davis becomes president of the Chamber, the first woman leader in decades.