Blogs

2023 Snowman Contest Winners

HAMILTON COUNTY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE ANNUAL DINNER

6th Annual Hamilton County Food and Brew - A great time was had by all! 

Thank you to our sponsors: DANA Communications, Trackers Lodge, Peoples National Bank, Hamilton Memorial Hospital, Sea Service Family Consulting, Banterra Bank, The Liquor Hut, Fred Vallowe - McLeansboro City Clerk and CounterTop Creations. Your kind sponsorships made this awesome event happen! Thank you again to all who attended and took the time to learn about all the good food and brews in our area! The competition was fierce in both the Food and Brew categories. We saw some returning restaurants, as well as some new faces. And the offerings were diverse—everything from BBQ (Lil Buddies BBQ) to traditional American (Foxy, Gottzz's, and Huck's), Tex-Mex (Guero's), Upscale offerings (Rend Lake College Culinary Arts), Pasture-Raised Meats (Gage Agricultural Designs), with Appetizers and sweet Desserts (Alicia's Sweets, Dairy Queen, and Carbon Forge Design) to cap it all off. The Brews were also outstanding, with something for everyone (but minors of course). From lighter Ales to Stouts, from Hefeweizens to IPAs--and some Ciders to sweeten things a bit. ​And although the vote count was very tight in both categories, here is how the voting shook out: FOOD Category: 1st Place: Foxy (McLeansboro) 2nd Place: Guero's Mexican Restaurant (Mt. Vernon) 3rd Place: Gage Agricultural Designs (Dahlgren) BREW Category: 1st Place: Lois Van Winkle 2nd Place: Kevin Braden & Brad Grubb​ 3rd Place: Danny Hopfinger Below are our winners, as well as, pictures of SOME of our vendors and door prize winners.

The Chamber continued their tradition of a social hour that included hor d'oeuvres, beer and wine. Thank you to our Social Hour Sponsor - The Liquor Hut. Back again by popular demand was our Hidden Gems jewelry event, sponsored by Irvin's Jewelry. Thank you to our Silent Auction donors for all the special items. And a special thanks to the Special Events committee for all your hard work and planning to provide such a nice evening. Entertainment this evening was provided by Chris Egleston.

Our speaker was Tyler Feller. Tyler has many years of experience in digital marketing and shared some of his tips and tricks for email marketing to your customers. Breakfast was catered by chamber member, Hamson's Trading Post. 

We want to give a huge shout out to the businesses who contributed to our Silent Auction and also the participants who participated by bidding on and purchasing these great items.

On Wednesday, the Chamber held another great quarterly luncheon. A special thanks to TRADE Industries (for sponsoring the lunch), Foxy (for providing first-rate food), and Nick Burke--for offering an excellent primer on using social media for marketing.

Thank you to everyone who attended. The Chamber stepped up their game this year and brought some new things to the event including a social hour, a Hidden Gems jewelry event and a Silent Auction . Thank you to all of our silent auction donors and Irvin's Jewelry for sponsoring Hidden Gems. And a special thanks to the Special Events committee for all your hard work and planning to provide such a nice evening.