Spring has sprung and Wisconsin is in bloom. You might not know, but May is a very busy month. For instance, May is American Cheese Month, Beef Month, Correct Your Posture Month, International Drum Month, National Asparagus Month, National Motorcycle Awareness Month, National Returning Youth Month, Sturge-Weber Syndrome Awareness, National Mental Health Awareness Month, National Wildfire Awareness Month, National Brain Cancer and Brain Tumor Awareness Month, Date Your Mate Month… you get the point!
There are myriad reasons for festivities, with specific weeks in May set aside for celebration, such as National Small Business Week. However, our most cherished week in May is Economic Development Week (May 6-10, 2024), when communities throughout Wisconsin honor the efforts of professional economic developers in enhancing the economic vitality and quality of life. This week serves as a time for Chippewa Economic Development Corporation to express gratitude and recognition to the dedicated staff, volunteers, and investors who work tirelessly to foster prosperity in our community by helping us with our prospect site visits, our BEAR Lunch & Learns and other programs. Through their ongoing endeavors, we forge our local communities to be both economically robust and enjoyable to live in.
“Each year in May we come together to have a week of celebration where we highlight the best of entrepreneurs and the best of expanding businesses,” Walker said. “This year is important in how we approach coming together, because the last month and a half has been a pause in our economic development mindset due to the recent announcement centered around the closure of HSHS. And so we’re appreciating the upcoming week, knowing that together we can reignite and kickstart a different approach to economic development that learns from the past, but more importantly embraces the opportunities of the future and how we all work together to grow, create jobs, creative wealth, sustain the tax base, and renew with new talent and new business ideas. That’s what Economic Development Week is all about.”
Being the only professionally staffed economic development agency in Chippewa County that works continuously with our budding entrepreneurs, our existing businesses, and our talent pipelines, CEDC utilizes the week to not only pat ourselves on the back but to congratulate our partners, collaborators, and colleagues. It is always productive to take a moment to reflect on the accomplishments and gather together to network and rejuvenate each other so the mission of economic development can continue.