Annual Community Benefit postponed

The Lincoln Valley Chamber of Commerce has decided to postpone their annual Community Benefit, which is usually held the first weekend in November.

This is the second year that the Community Benefit has been disrupted by COVID-19 concerns.

In pre-pandemic years, the event consisted of dinner served during a play performed by the Lincoln Community Players, as well as an auction and the annual "Chair Game," which raises funds for a local nonprofit and offers event attendees the chance at winning up to $6000.

Last year, the LVCC attempted to move the entire event online, but when they were unable to sell enough tickets to fund the chair game, they shifted instead to only offering the auction. This year, the LVCC plans to hold the benefit at a later date.

"We are targeting spring to have the Community Benefit in lieu of the one we normally have in November," said Chamber President Laurie Welty.

When the Community Players gave the LVCC notice that they weren't going to be available for the benefit this year, LVCC board members took some time to consider other options for the event.

"Because they're such a draw for the benefit and because the board did have some concerns on the rising cases of the Delta variant, we questioned how prudent it would be to be serving dinner and the proximity of people. We decided the community would be better served to postpone the benefit to the spring," said Welty.

The benefit serves as the major annual LVCC fundraiser. Those funds help pay for the Fourth of July fireworks show and the LVCC scholarship.

"It's actually the largest fundraiser the Chamber has every year. A good share of the proceeds go toward funding the fireworks, which are running the Chamber $7500 a year. There's really no way that Chamber memberships and the other smaller events we do are going to cover that," said Welty.

Another key aspect of the event is the funds donated to a local nonprofit, which are raised through the "Chair Game." In the past, the "11th Chair" has been auctioned off to the highest bidder, and then that bid has been matched by generous local businesses. The Lincoln Senior Center Association received $2000 in funds from the 2018 benefit. The Upper Blackfoot Valley Historical Society received $4600 from the following year's event.

"We like playing that role and being able to gift a nonprofit with that amount of money and people's generosity," said Welty, adding, "It truly is a community benefit. We don't like the idea of giving up the gift we normally do for a nonprofit in November. We are looking at doing some sort of pledge drive, where you can gift any increment you like, where the proceeds would be used strictly for the purchase of fireworks. A designated percentage of those pledges would would then go toward a nonprofit in town."

Welty said that while the board is still working out the details of this and a spring benefit, "The Chamber welcomes any and all ideas for either interim fundraisers or suggestions regarding the spring benefit."