by Judy E. Bushy May 20, 2020

Last week the Happy Camp Chamber of Commerce enjoyed a telephone visit with our District 1 congressman, Doug LaMalfa. He mentioned eating at the Pizza House last time he was in Happy Camp, maybe he will be back and visit Partner’s Deli as well.He has visited Happy Camp during some of our worst fire situations.

We weren’t the only ones on the conference call, but the rest were from quite larger Chambers than Happy Camp, like Redding. Let’s see now, Redding’s population is about 91,772 people within about 81 square miles of land in Shasta County. That comes out to around 1, 530 people per mile. Happy Camp, however, had a population of 1,190 people in about 12 square miles. That makes out population density about 81 persons per square mile.. Quite a difference!

Love Happy Camp, especially that we have beautiful wide open spaces to enjoy!!

The men that we were discussing their Chamber concerns with Representative LaMalfa mentioned the harsh pandemic experience of the business community. Because the Redding Chamber couldn’t hold the Cool April Nights event, they lost $30,000. Maybe they will be able to have a Hot August Night or some other event when things are open again.

Happy Camp hasn’t had the Rollin’ on the River motorcycle weekend since 2010, when we made enough to donate $3,000 to the Happy Camp Community Services District for River Park Improvements! That was thrilling for us! Over the preceding ten years, we’d made donations and improvements had been made adding electric and plumbing services to the River Park. The Chamber enjoyed being able to do that and it made the River Park area better for holding future events as well.

Since some Redding businesses told their Chamber that they were unable to contribute their Chamber dues investment this year, they made allowances. They didn’t want to eliminate any faithful members if they had been suffering through the recent sheltering in place problems! Their dues start at $300 a year for businesses, but $500 is their most popular membership investment and it goes up from there, except a $200 civic membership category. With their new policy, they have received 200 new members which increased the membership rolls to 1,000 it had been in the hay-day!! the Website for the Yreka Chamber says that they are offering 15-30% reductions in dues this year as well.

Every other Chamber that we are aware of in the area has much higher membership investments than the Happy Camp. Our dues started in 1986 at $50 each and they haven’t increased for those who were home businesses, or civic members. Annual dues were increased to $100 each for “brick and mortar businesses” and those who wish to plan ahead may invest $500 for a lifetime membership. At the next regular Chamber meeting we will be discussing a suggestion made that we should offer 50% off this year with the difficulty that local businesses have experienced.

What does a Chamber of Commerce do? It is an advocacy group for local business and the community, as such it provides networking and event development, resource development and relationships to last a lifetime. In Happy Camp we have a greater number of non-profit businesses than traditional for profit businesses. Small businesses are vital to our community and Chamber encourages keeping your business local as much as is possible as those are the businesses that contribute to the health of our community!

The Happy Camp Chamber receives many calls on the telephone,(530-493-2900) and seeks to help the callers whatever their question. We don
t know all the answers, but when stumped we will check it out and get back to them or refer them where they can find information. When our businesses post a notice of an event or of community interest on Facebook, we share to all our community. Our calendar has been a bit sparse lately, due to shelter-in-place, but we regularly make the community calendar available on line. We also get mail, and answer those letters and email as well.

We have a Happy Camp & Klamath River Directory with map and basic information. We try to include at least the business name, under the type of business, and phone number and address or website address if it is an online business.

Even the litter pick-ups at the “Friends of Dear Mad’m“ area of Highway 96 has been postponed. First the access to the area was complicated with the slide that closed a lane at times, and then the CalTrans office let us know that they didn’t want litter pick-ups made during the Corona-Virus situation. It is a beautiful walk along the River and Highway 96 for just two miles to just east of Independence rest area, It includes the area where we soon hope that we will be able to get E Clampus Vitus to erect a monument to Dear Mad’m, Stella W. Patterson. In her memory we have held Happy Camp events and programs at the Siskiyou County Museum. .

Thanks to Naturegraph publishers in Happy Camp,Dear Mad’m, the book is still available to those who need a new copy of an old favorite or their first copy as someone has recommended it! Contact them at Nature (at sign)sisqtel.net

We are so grateful to our faithful members!! Our needs are simple because all the work is done by volunteers. We’ve had great volunteers for decades, thay step up to help out for many purposes, members and non-members!!

We had no nominations for the officers or board members this year. We would be delighted to invite those who are interested in Happy Camp community wellbeing to join the Chamber to promote Happy Camp. You may contact the Chamber secretary at happycampchamber com or by mail. P. O. Box 1188, Happy Camp, CA 96039.