The Chamber sign at the Greenwood town square is seen by hundreds each day. Area organizations utilize it to inform the public of their special events. The sign has served its' purpose well over the past 18 years, however, it is time to retire the old plastic letters that have to be put up by hand and move to digital technology. The Greenwood Chamber of Commerce has started a campaign to raise funds for a new sign.
The Greenwood Rotary Club is donating $100 to the Chamber for the sign and is issuing a challenge to all non-profit organizations, clubs, school groups and churches to do the same.
"Because the sign is used by many of our organizations, including the Rotary Club, we want to help the Chamber. We appreciate that the Chamber does what they can to assist us (clubs and organizations) in getting information out about our events.
This is a cost that the chamber cannot handle on their own, however with everyone's participation, even in a small way, the Chamber will be able to afford the upgrade," said Theresa Burtchett, Rotary Publicity Chair.
Rozanne Sterling, Chamber vice president, estimates the upgraded digital sign will cost an estimated $8000 - $9,000. Sterling began the project in 2007 because of the high demand for the sign. The current sign limits the amount of information that can be placed and is updated by Jan Gates, chamber office manager. Often important community events are left off the sign because of the space and time limitation.
Gates indicates that the sign is booked weeks in advance, and she often has to turn down organizations who call at the last minute to get their event posted. During very busy times, volunteers and employees have donated their time to change the sign after hours.
"I know for a fact that Mayor Ken Edwards, when he was at the chamber, would change the sign two and three times during the weekend, no matter how late it was. I've seen Jan out there recently before and after church on Sundays changing the sign, and that is on her own time. The Chamber does that to try to accommodate as many as they can, but it is not something that we can always count on. I know most do not have a clue what a task that is for the Chamber. The electronic sign will ease that burden and help the community as well," added Burtchett. "It is one of the best community informational systems we have."
"People don't understand what a challenge it is to condense a message down to three lines using no more than 15 letters per line; and do that in all types of weather," said Gates.
Sterling hopes the Chamber will raise the funds so the new sign will be in place for the start of the new school year in August when the school events begin again and all of the fall community-wide events start back up.
Sterling said an electronic sign will allow the chamber to have more than one event listed at a time. Best of all, the sign can be changed via computer in the chamber office.
The sign's purpose is to first list chamber activities and events, inform the public of important safety and community-wide announcements by the city.
It is then used to highlight community-wide events by Greenwood non-profit organizations and schools. The sign is restricted and is not used for birthdays, anniversaries, commercial advertising, non-public events and general messages.
For more information contact the Chamber at 479-996-6357. Donations can be made to the Greenwood Chamber, PO Box 511, Greenwood, AR 72936, note Sign Fund on the check.
