By John Bwarie, CEO at the Alhambra Chamber of Commerce
This summer, change is coming to Alhambra, and our community is better for it. We continue to see new businesses choosing Alhambra as their home. And as you find new places to shop and support, whether at the new Happy Humble Hub that is helping to revitalize the eastern stretch of Downtown Alhambra or at any number of the new restaurants opening across the city, it’s time to make sure to shop local. With every new business owner that chooses to open in Alhambra, they are working to earn your business and patronage. It’s up to all of us to choose to support the businesses that support our community so they can flourish here.
This comes in many forms, and one way is to support the business leaders who volunteer their time to make our community stronger. One change coming to the Chamber starting this month is a new program to recognize local real estate professionals who are truly part of the Alhambra community. Many real estate agents represent that they know or understand our community, but those that are actively involved are more likely to know exactly how to help the buyers and sellers they represent. This is why we created the Alhambra Community Real Estate Professional designation for individuals who are truly committed to our community.
A great example of this is one of our outgoing Chamber board members: Past-President Suzi Dunkel-Soto. For years, she has served on the Chamber board, having just completed more than 5 years as an executive board member and more than that as a regular board member. But she also volunteers her time as a City Commissioner. Currently, she serves as a Recreation and Parks Commissioner, and she also spent years as a Planning Commissioner. All of this means she knows the community, she is directly connected to those who can make living here even better, and she is giving of her own time to make change. We thank Suzi for her decades of Chamber service and look forward to her continued efforts to make Alhambra event better.
Another great change at the Chamber starting July 1st is the new board members joining the board. The membership voted to add three new business leaders to the esteemed group currently leading the business community: Evelyn Ku, CEO of Alhambra Hospital; Jamie Alvarez, Owner and Founder of Baja Cali; and Herman Whitaker, Director of Admissions atPlatt College. These three individuals join a group of impressive leaders from various sectors who are helping to support economic growth and business success, as well as working to strengthen the community overall in the changing landscape of operating a business in 2024. We welcome these new additions, as well as the elevation of Maria Gao of Evike.com as our new president and Wing Ho of TAG Design Works as president-elect. With these new leaders, the Chamber will continue to be on a trajectory for stability, growth, and relevance to serve our members, businesses in the city, and the community as a whole.
The last exciting change coming this summer is an update to Around Alhambra as a news source and community asset. As you see in this issue, we will now be publishing every other month with direct mailing to every household in Alhambra and distribution locations across the community. Since online sources continue to be the primary source of news and information for our community, we are investing in a new, robust news site to be updated on a daily basis to make sure critical information and news can be shared more timely. This will also be a place for a comprehensive and regularly updated community calendar, as well as video and other digital content to achieve the mission of Around Alhambra: to inform, connect, and activate the greater Alhambra community. We invite you to visit AroundAlhambra.com this month as it takes shape. Come back often to see new digital features, assets, and resources, as well as insights on what is happening in and around our community. We invite you to share your stories and news with us so that we can tell a more complete and timely story about our diverse and dynamic community by simply emailing us at [email protected].
As these changes shape the future of our community, we will continue to work on behalf of a more vibrant and resilient community. We invite you to join us in this effort – simply contact us at [email protected] to connect with us on this community journey.
