It’s really amazing to hear from people across the United States explain why they are interested in visiting or moving to the Silver City are.

“It’s too hot.” “It’s too cold.” “It’s too humid.” “There’s too many trees.” It really is funny listening to people explain why they want to visit us or why they are considering a move to southwest New Mexico. The neat thing about my job is to find out what the person is actually searching for. It’s almost like a game or a dance. I’m constantly asking questions, moving one direction then another, to get to the nitty gritty of what the person in truly interested in.

Many times, people will call simply wanting to learn more about our area. For people who live structured lives, that lived with the belief that before you do anything… be clear of why you want to do it. As a movie buff, I’m reminded of a scene in the movie All the Kings Men when the main character tells a group of people, “to find something, anything, a great truth or a lost pair of glasses, you must first believe there will be some advantage in finding it”. Well, that is sort of what my job is all about. We help people understand the advantage of visiting or moving to Grant County, New Mexico. We help people understand why renting space in the Grant County Conference Center can make their event a success. It sounds pretty easy, yet sometimes it can be hard to find that one thing that gets the person on the other end of the phone to make the commitment to visit our area.

You have to admit, we live in a pretty special place.

This Saturday, one of our Chamber Members is celebrating a move to a new location. Townsend Allstate Insurance Agency will have a ribbon cutting and open house at their new location across the street from Gough Park, at 1123 North Pope Street in Silver City. The ribbon cutting will be held at 11:00 a.m. and the open house will run from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Allen Townsend and his staff will be happy to show you around their new offices. While you are visiting, you can enjoy something to drink, something to eat, and maybe even take home a door prize. By the way, Allen is a really good cook, so we’re looking forward to sampling some of his smoked meats. So please consider this as your personal invitation to visit Townsend Allstate Insurance Agency this Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

A large event that benefits so many organizations in the area will be held this Saturday – May 5. Give Grandly! Give Local! The Give Grandly Celebration will be held on 7th and Bullard Streets, next to the Silver City Farmers’ Market on Saturday, May 5, from 8:30 a.m.- 2:30 p.m. Participating non-profits will have tables with staff and volunteers to highlight their work on behalf of southwest New Mexico, answer your questions, and accept donations by cash, check or credit cards. There will be musical entertainment, and refreshments will be available. And anyone anywhere will be able to donate online at www.givegrandly.org anytime between 12:01 am and 11:59 pm on May 5. Whatever cause you care most about, May 5th is the best day of the year to give back to the community! Donations have totaled more than $350,000 over the past 4 years - the goal for 2018 is to reach $500,000 for 5 years! We hope you will help meet this goal.

Next week, the Chamber of Commerce will begin a project to produce a Grant County map. We have contracted with a company called Novoprint, to help us sell ads on the map and get the most up-to-date cartography for this county-wide map. It will be a map that you can keep in your car, home, or office. We get requests frequently for a map of Grant county. Well, we will soon have one available for you and the visitors to Grant County. If you have questions about this or other Chamber of Commerce projects, please call me at (575) 538-3785.