Southern Mid-Coast Maine Chamber awards are March 9

BRUNSWICK — The Southern Mid-Coast Maine Chamber will hold its annual Big Night Out awards event 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, March 9, at the L.L. Bean Learning Commons on the Southern Maine Community College Mid-coast Campus at Brunswick Landing.
The main focus of the night will be celebrating the annual award winners.

The Joshua L. Chamberlain Award goes to an individual who has had a significant impact in broadening the relationship between the communities and the military in our region.
Other awards include Small Business of the Year, Large Business of the Year, President’s Award for Excellence in Entrepreneurship, Young Professional of the Year, Citizen of the Year and the Harry C. Crooker Lifetime Achievement Award.
SMMC will also roll out a new program that night and also have updates for upcoming activities and events to share.
The 2018 Chamber Guest Guide, formerly known as the Allure of the Coast, is undergoing a makeover to create one of the most unique guides in the state. New content, new maps and a new name will give a brand-new feel to the publication while still promoting its members. More than just a snapshot of the region, the new guide will have the need-to-know information travelers and re-locators need. With a focus on the traveler, this piece becomes more of a companion guide then simply a promotional piece.
For example instead of having a mileage chart for how far it is from one community to another, it will have a matrix of driving times by season. For someone going from Bath to Boothbay Harbor, the fact that it is 23 miles is of little concern. What is more helpful is that in November to April you can make the trip in 35 minutes, but in July that same trip takes one hour and seven minutes. As a traveler, knowing the time factor is more beneficial.
Any business can advertise in the SMMC guest guide; members get a directory listing for their membership, but even non-members can buy an ad.
SMMC has also launched its new women’s networking group called WILL Power — WILL stands for Women in Local Leadership. After great work by the WILL Power planning meeting, mde up of more than a dozen local business leaders, the SMMC hosted a Valentine’s Kickoff Breakfast event at the The Brunswick Hotel & Tavern. The room was nearly at capacity to hear about the next two 2018 WILL Power events and two additional events were decided on. Audrey Lovering of Ka Ora Bracelets helped facilitate the group. The Valentine’s Kickoff Breakfast and every 2018 WILL Power event is supported by the Rotary Club’s 2018 Series Sponsor –Legacy Investments & Wealth Management, LLC.
For more information about any of these programs, contact the SMMC office, 207-725-8797.