The Inside Press

By Lori Sachare

At 7 a.m. on a rainy Monday, Chappaqua’s Rob Greenstein darted into Starbucks with the energy of someone who just consumed a Venti espresso–and that was before he got his coffee. He had been up since 4:30 a.m. and already had exercised in his home gym and completed some work for his self-owned law firm.

As fiercely organized as he is motivated, Greenstein runs his personal injury practice, coaches his sons’ baseball teams, and has managed to launch the Chappaqua/Millwood Chamber of Commerce, (along with co-founder Christine Yeres, managing editor of NewCastleNOW.org), which boasted over 100 members as of August.

Greenstein originally became involved in New Castle issues when he wrote frequent letters to the editor of NewCastleNOW.org on an issue he was passionate about: the Chappaqua Crossing project. He later realized that since he had developed name recognition, he could parlay that into another passion of his–helping the Town of New Castle and its merchants– and decided to run for a position on the Town Board.

It was a desire for life in a small town that in 2003 brought Greenstein and his wife of 14 years, Cindy, to Chappaqua from Manhattan. “We love small towns. We go to small towns on vacation,” he noted. Since then, his 8-year daughter Jessie, her twin brother Mason and their 10-year-old brother Daniel have benefited from the fine schools that were one of the reasons for the Greensteins’ move, and Cindy has served as chair of the Westorchard PTA.

Although he enjoys country living, Greenstein saw room for improvement. “This town has potential, but it’s not what it could be,” he commented. He believed the Town Board was on the right track in planning improvements, and decided to run so that he could help. Although he lost the election, he still wanted to assist local merchants.

“We needed a Chamber of Commerce,” he said. And in his get-it-done fashion, Greenstein went about creating a volunteer board whose members, as of July, had no formal titles. The board works alongside a paid administrator, Linda Degelsmith, to put forward the mission of the Chappaqua/Millwood Chamber of Commerce, which is “dedicated to fostering economic growth and to advancing the commercial well-being of the community through strong and vibrant business districts,” according to its website, Chappaqua-MillwoodChamber.org

As a partner for 17 years in his own law firm (Greenstein & Milbauer, LLP), Greenstein said he understands small businesses. “We have rent to pay, we have a payroll,” he explained. He uses this knowledge to help the chamber with their directive of “connections, commerce and community service.” The chamber was officially introduced in June, and in the same month it arranged for merchants to sell food at the Gazebo concert sponsored by the Town of New Castle and Music In Chappaqua.

Greenstein is proud that the Chamber inaugurated A Taste of Chappaqua this past summer, where local businesses could showcase their food to the public. This fall, Greenstein would like to involve merchants with the Town of New Castle’s Ragamuffin Parade.

The Chappaqua/Millwood Chamber of Commerce is run by five provisional volunteer board members, who work with Linda Degelsmith, a paid administrator. Elections will be held at a later date.

The Gazebo was chosen for the logo of the Chappaqua/Millwood Chamber of Commerce, because Rob Greenstein feels it is a very special place. He would like the Chamber to facilitate the planning of many more fun events there for New Castle residents.

Will Greenstein run again for Town Board? “Maybe,” he responded. Stay tuned.

Lori Sachare is a freelance writer living in Chappaqua.

Chappaqua-Millwood Chamber of Commerce off To An Auspicious Start

By Debra Hand

After years of unsuccessful attempts, New Castle finally has a Chamber of Commerce that in its first few months has already lived up to its motto of “Growing Commerce, Connections and Community.”

By early July, the new Chappaqua-Millwood Chamber of Commerce had already signed up 79 members, in only one month, with the number growing daily. According to Chamber Executive Director Linda Degelsmith, support from both merchants and the community has “simply been wonderful,” with everyone excited about the potential improvements to town that a unified group can accomplish. The Saturday morning Farmer’s Market has even given the Chamber a center table, attended by Degelsmith, to promote its goals and town businesses.

“This Chamber will be different [than earlier attempts] because of the passion to make this community a community, to get people to come downtown to stroll, to make Chappaqua a destination,” said Degelsmith.

Membership and Summer Events
In early July, the Chamber was looking forward to adding a little more excitement to some existing townwide summertime events. For the first time, the Wednesday night concerts at Recreation Field also featured food vendors; for example, Le Jardin du Roi was planning on offering barbeque offerings, while Gail Patrick’s was making sure that younger concert-goers found kid-friendly food as well. And Chappaqua’s traditional Sidewalk Sales, always a big draw for bargain hunters, featured local cuisine as well. Working with the Chappaqua-Millwood Business Association and town restaurants, the Chamber promoted the new component “A Taste of Chappaqua” to offer culinary samples during the Sale.

Bringing Community Together
The Chamber’s first order of business upon its creation in late spring was to focus on “branding” and making both merchants and community members aware of the group’s potential. Part of this effort was to work on ideas to promote Millwood as well; one such idea may bring concerts to the two parks on the west side of town (Gedney and Millwood) and also to bring residents to Millwood and to its merchants. The Chamber is not only about planning events; its other goal is to show small business how they can support each other via networking and other opportunities. To that end, plans were being made to offer workshops on everything from signage to using social media like Facebook and Twitter to engage and inform customers and the community at large.

The Chamber’s roster of members appeared to have easily surpassed the 100 mark at press time. It reflected the hidden diversity of New Castle. After obtaining a list of 400 local business, Degelsmith visited or cold-called many, from stores to photography studios, non-profit organizations, and home businesses. Most were eager to attend the Chamber’s first meeting, and word of mouth helped too.
Member businesses each pay annual dues of $150-$500 (depending on number of employees). At the moment, rather than have its own website, the Chamber is being “hosted” by NewCastleNow.org, because of the large number of residents it reaches on a weekly basis. Degelsmith is the only salaried employee (see sidebar); the Chamber’s Board of Directors is made up of residents and merchants Rob Greenstein, Tara Mikolay, Christine Yeres, Robin Murphy and Rich Glotzer.

Future Projects
This summer, the Chamber was reaching out to both the Town Board and the Chappaqua Central School District Board of Education and PTA to foster good working relationships and hopefully plan future events in conjunction with one another. Possible autumn events being discussed, according to Degelsmith, included a pumpkin carving contest, and having middle school students prepare Halloween artwork at school for display around town. There are also discussions about keeping downtown stores open late once per week to draw more shoppers.

Further down the road, the Chamber is working on a “winter stroll,” complete with ice carving, for the colder months, and even a pet parade and scavenger hunt next Spring. What is clear is that there is no shortage of enthusiasm or suggestions as to how to draw people, from New Castle and elsewhere, to Chappaqua and Millwood. According to Degelsmith, the excitement is palpable.

“It’s been really nice because all of the different organizations in town really seem to be supportive. If we all work together, the financial resources will come together as well to make a lot of things happen,” she said. As one local resident has famously said, it takes a village.

For more information, search ChamberChat or Chappaqua-Millwood Chamber of Commerce at newcastle
NOW.org, “like” the Chamber on Facebook or “follow” it on Twitter, or contact Degelsmith at Linda@chappaqua-millwoodchamber.org.

Debra Hand is a frequent contributor and editor of Inside Chappaqua, who is looking forward to all of the exciting events the Chamber has planned.

[stextbox id=”info” caption=”Linda Degelsmith: The Chamber’s Executive Director Jumps Right in”]

Chappaqua resident Linda Degelsmith didn’t seek out the position of Chamber of Commerce Executive Director; rather, it sought her. Degelsmith’s varied background–from local performer with a master’s in vocal performance, to kidney/liver transplant nurse in Valhalla and per diem nurse at Mount Kisco Medical Group, to Ambulance Corps volunteer and small business owner of health assessment and maintenance company DiscoverMoreNow–didn’t necessarily steer her in the direction of running a local Chamber of Commerce, but it did make her eminently qualified in many ways and the perfect person for the job.

After investigating various Chambers in comparable towns, Chamber founders Christine Yeres and Rob Greenstein found that success really depended on a paid administrator that would be able to handle the day-to-day responsibilities that business owners otherwise might have difficulty finding the time to focus on. Yeres, Degelsmith’s co-Ambulance Corps volunteer, approached Degelsmith with the opportunity, noting that she not only understood the needs of small businesses, but had the personable manner to make a local Chamber of Commerce succeed.

“It felt like a new door was opening for me,” said Degelsmith. “It’s fun, a little intimidating at times, but I jumped right in.”

These days, Degelsmith can be found every Saturday morning at the Chappaqua Farmer’s Market promoting the Chamber, and supplying refreshing ice water on hot days along with information and even some giveaways about and from town businesses. Stop by and say hello!

[/stextbox]