After a year hiatus, the West Bend Area Chamber of Commerce Home Show is back at the Washington County Fair Park. Except, the show is now called the Home, Hobbies, and Wellness show! The Chamber’s President and CEO, Toni Gumina, joins me this week to talk about the show and what you can expect!
The show will take place Friday, March 11th through Sunday, March 13th, 2022.
Fuzz Martin 0:09
Welcome to another exciting episode of 15 minutes with Fuzz. I’m your host Fuzz Martin and I am so glad that you are here. This week Toni Gumina, the President and CEO of the West Bend area Chamber of Commerce joins me to talk all about the upcoming Home Hobbies and Wellness Show, which is coming up on Friday, March 11. through Sunday, March 13 2022. It’s gonna be a great show. I mean, their show this show will be great too. But the home hobbies and wellness show will be a greater show. And everyone is glad to be coming back to the Washington County Fair Park after a pandemic hiatus. And with that, here are 15 minutes on the Home Hobbies and Wellness Show right here on 15 minutes with Fuzz.
Toni, thanks for joining me today here in the studio. I appreciate you coming in now you’re the president and CEO of the West Bend Area Chamber of Commerce. You took this role at the most optimal time ever, which was in June of 2021. Yes, coming into the second year of the pandemic, the Home Show hadn’t happened. All that stuff. But here we are. We’re back. We’re in 2022 now and we’re getting to a good place. Correct?
Toni Gumina 1:35
Correct. It’s been a really great and interesting eight months since I came on board started towards the end of June. And yeah, to your point, I think everyone we had a real interesting in 2020. Yeah, that 2021 would bring a little joy activity, whatever you want to call, it just tended to be a little bit of a continuation, but I think everyone found their groove. I think for me, what was really interesting coming into the chamber is that the West Bend Chamber remained remote for a very long time. And so staff had just come back into the office June 1.
Fuzz Martin 2:13
Okay, so back to the office and a new boss and surprise!
Toni Gumina 2:17
Correct? Correct. But things are good, because they’re good. You know,
Fuzz Martin 2:23
What are you what are you enjoying most right now, but the West Bend Chamber?
Toni Gumina 2:26
I think first I’m really enjoying getting to know my team at the chamber. It’s myself and three other really great ladies we have Debbie Santopoalo is our finance manager. She’s the anchor. She’s been there for 10 years, and has really helped to navigate, you know, navigate the entire new staff sure to bring us towards success. We have brought on Nicole Fisher, who’s our new events and programs manager. Nicole comes to us with 15 years of experience with destination Kohler. So you know, planning events. She’s also facilitating our leadership program, doing a fantastic job. And then we have Angelica Ignaitis. She was our final piece to the puzzle came on. She’s been there for approximately three months now. And she’s our office coordinator. So I think one it’s just been really great building that team and getting to know everyone. Other than that it’s been absolutely fantastic getting to know the member businesses, their 500 businesses that are members of the Chamber of Commerce. But beyond that, getting to know the businesses downtown, getting to know our local government officials and our county government and just really starting to dive deep into West Bend.
Fuzz Martin 3:43
Sure. Yeah. This isn’t your first chamber you were at Menomonee Falls before that.
Toni Gumina 3:48
Correct. I was with the Menomonee Falls Chamber of Commerce for 14 years prior to coming up to West Bend. I actually moved to West Bend back in 2019. My husband and I relocated here. I sort of K in Menomonee Falls, Pewaukee, Slinger. Okay, West Bend. So that was sort of my route moved about three times in 18 months. It was fantastic. But have settled here in West Bend. And actually one of the first things I did when I moved to West Bend was met and met with the Chamber of Commerce just to learn a little bit about the community that I was now calling home. Sure. And got to learn a little bit about the chamber not knowing that Craig Farrell, my predecessor was going to be retiring. Then in 2021 heard that Craig was retiring. And I thought to myself, Well,
Fuzz Martin 4:39
hey, I’m here, you’re here. The space is here. The space is here.
Toni Gumina 4:42
I really had an amazing experience down in the Falls absolutely love what we like to call chamber life working within this industry, and have accomplished just really accomplished quite a bit down in the falls. But I thought that this was really a great opportunity and so I think even before the job, I know before the job was even posted, I was emailing Craig. Just to say I would like to submit my resume, please. Yeah, that’s great. Yeah. So and no regrets. It’s been fantastic.
Fuzz Martin 5:14
So you talked about when you moved to West Bend that you got, you went to the chamber to find out about the community and stuff. What do people use the Chamber of Commerce for? Because not everybody knows, but pretty much cities the size of West Bend, and others have chambers that even smaller municipalities do, too. But what what do you use the chamber for?
Toni Gumina 5:34
Well, first and foremost, the chamber, as I know you’re aware, is a business membership organization. And so our primary mission is to support our member businesses. But those member businesses do business in the West Bend area. And so our goal is to keep those businesses strong through promotion, advocacy, creating connections and education, business education. And so by us working to keep those businesses strong, it keeps the community structure from the Community Focus. couple points. One of the things that I think the chamber does that has a direct impact on community is our chamber check program. Sure, if people aren’t aware of it, the Chamber sells anywhere between 70 to $90,000 worth of chamber checks a year. And those are dollars that are spent directly in this community. They’re accepted by chamber member businesses, there are over 500 of them that are accepting those dollars. So that’s a real direct impact. I think, as I said, I went to go visit the chamber, we have people on a daily basis that are either calling or stopping in the chamber office to get information about what’s going on in town. What are what are the sites to see, we also keep a calendar of events of what’s going on around town. So we really strive at the office to make sure that we know what’s going on around town, because we’re always going to get the questions.
Fuzz Martin 6:59
Yep, certainly. So if somebody’s moving to town like you did, or if they’re a business that’s looking to open up a new business, or open the location here to get more information about the community, how it’s supported, right,
Toni Gumina 7:10
exactly. From the school districts, you know, we try and make sure we have a good understanding of what’s happening with schools for those families that are relocating, whether it’s business focused, or just an individual coming in on their own.
Fuzz Martin 7:23
So you guys do a lot, and it’s great. And we’re, we’re, we’re a member, I’m a member of the Board of Directors, but we find a lot of opportunities to meet businesses we wouldn’t otherwise meet with in business owners, we wouldn’t otherwise have a chance to speak with and not only in West Bend, but also when you guys do some intermingling with some of the other chambers like Germantown in Hartford and such. So we’re here in 2022. And we’re coming into the spring and the there is a home show that’s going to happen, but it’s got a new name this year. And it does.
Toni Gumina 7:55
The new name is Home Hobbies and Wellness show. And why did we name it the home? Why did we really but you may be wondering, really, it’s a result of the pandemic and everything that we went through in 2020. And now 2021 As we all stay at home, you know, people started renovating their homes, people found new hobbies, you know, bike industry, golf industry, you know, things took off fitness equipment, all that exactly. And wellness, wellness is front of mind. And so we just thought that it was a way not just to Steven, talk about your own personal wellness, but your home wellness, your, you know, your mental mental wellness. And so we just thought it was very appropriate to broaden that to speak to what’s been front of mind.
Fuzz Martin 8:40
I’m going to be there teaching a course on sourdough bread, baking, drinking boxed wine and my hobbies
Toni Gumina 8:48
We’ll sign you up.
Fuzz Martin 8:52
And then try to make myself feel better about that. From the home side of it, can we still expect a lot of the things that we used to expect like the home renovation vendors and things like that?
Toni Gumina 9:03
Yes, absolutely. We have a home improvement construction firms there. Windows, things of that nature.
Fuzz Martin 9:10
Sure. siding, roofing, like making space look great. We did. Let’s see, during the pandemic we did our floors, our ceiling, our countertops, like Yeah, that’s like a lot of people are in the same space where they’re sitting in their home for many, many days in a row thinking I’m sick of looking at that and I’m going to fix it now.
Toni Gumina 9:32
100% I’m going through it right now. I’m doing the exact same things don’t move again. No, no, I this this is this is home for us.
Fuzz Martin 9:41
All right, good. Good. Good. For the hobby side. What kind of things do you see there
Toni Gumina 9:45
From the hobby side of things Cabela’s will be represented. We have someone coming in to talk about beekeeping. We have cooking demonstrations that are going to be going on actually regal ware is going to be sponsoring a cooking day. demo area. Excellent. I’ll put a little shout out, we do have a couple of spots open still for some chefs to come in and do some of those demos on Saturday. But we’re really looking forward to that. We also have class the artists box coming in cool to just talk about painting grid and how to get involved with that.
Fuzz Martin 10:20
That’s excellent. And then on the wellness side, so people helping with health and wellness.
Toni Gumina 10:24
Absolutely. On the side of like keeping your home healthy. We have organizations like Norwax, Orangetheory Fitness.
Fuzz Martin 10:33
So just a great mix of of different health and wellness providers that are going to be there. I know that you have a long list of different vendors that are going to be there already signed up for the shows. So signups appear to be going very well for the show coming back, right? Correct.
Toni Gumina 10:46
And yeah, sorry for my hesitation because there are so many great ones running through my mind right now. But yeah, we have well over 40 booths already registered. I would say that if anyone is interested and hopping on board, and is interested in learning more about being a vendor at the event, that at this point in time, it would be best to reach out directly to Nicole Fisher at the Chamber office. Nicole’s email addresses Nicole at WBA chamber.org. She can set you right up with the information that you would need. One of the other new things that I’m really excited about for the show this year, too is we’ve been working to create experience zones. I already mentioned one of them the cooking demonstration area, but we have adventure rat coming in with a rock climbing wall. There’s no fees to you know, experience that we have a beer garden that will be there. We have a kid zone that will have bounce houses and then we just last week have included a cornhole tournament on Saturday,
Fuzz Martin 11:52
and you can compete in the cornhole tournament if you want, right. Absolutely.
Toni Gumina 11:57
We are we are looking for teams. It’s $40 per team to join, situated very nicely next to the beer garden
Fuzz Martin 12:04
nice. And there’s a pretty hefty prize too for the winners, right?
Toni Gumina 12:10
Yep. Where it’s going to be cash prizes. Okay, well, we haven’t totally we’re waiting to see what our registration is there. But there will be cash prizes for the winners of the tournaments. Great.
Fuzz Martin 12:19
So if you are a great cornhole or bags team come sign up. Where can people sign up for the cornhole tournament?
Toni Gumina 12:27
Great. You can go to the chamber website, which is WBA chamber.org and go to events. There is a separate registration form for the cornhole tournament. And you can actually find information on the home hobbies and wellness show on the website or on the Chamber’s Facebook page.
Fuzz Martin 12:45
Okay, again, the dates for this show. Friday, March 11. through Sunday, March 13. Which day is the cornhole tournament.
Toni Gumina 12:51
That is going to be on Saturday. Okay, very good.
Fuzz Martin 12:53
So this is all taking place at the Ziegler building at the Washington County Fair Park, Friday, March 11th, four to 8pm. Saturday, March 12, from 10 to four and Sunday, March 13. From 10 till three, how much are tickets for people who want to go to the event?
Toni Gumina 13:07
Great question. Tickets are $5 to enter. Or you can bring in a non perishable food item for the full shelf food pantry and then it’s free to get in with the with the donation of food.
Fuzz Martin 13:18
Okay, and then the entry fee is that for adults are 17 or 17. Older. Okay, very good. And again, the website if people want to find more information is WBA chamber.org WBA chamber.org. And if you want to become a vendor do so right now because we’re getting really close. So it’s Nicole at WBA chamber.org to get signed up for that Correct? Correct, Toni, it looks like it’s gonna be great events. I know a lot of people are so happy that the home hobbies and wellness Show is Back at the Washington County Fair Park. And we’re excited for you to be run in your first home hobbies and wellness show. Congratulations. Thank you and good luck and we’ll talk soon appreciate it.
Toni Gumina 13:55
Thank you
Fuzz Martin 14:05
Thank you again to Toni Gumina of the Western Area Chamber of Commerce for joining us on the show today. If you ever have an idea for an episode, shoot me a message [email protected] Be sure to spell out the word Fifteen. Don’t use the numbers. [email protected]. And be sure to subscribe at Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts. New episodes launch every Monday at midnight. I got dangerously close to missing the deadline today. That’s what coffee is for tomorrow. Thanks again for listening and we’ll talk to you next time right here on Fifteen minutes with Fuzz
