News

 Lives or Livelihoods? Both.   The dichotomy between public health and economic health, I believe, will go down in history as the most divisive debate of the century. Restarting the economy to protect livelihoods is being placed in direct competition with protecting lives from this highly contagious and at times, fatal disease.  Coronavirus-19 has wreaked havoc and caused major damage, some of ...read more

Catawba County United Way establishes COVID-19 response fund   For more than 75 years, donor gifts to the Catawba County United Way have supported community resources that serve struggling families across our county. Because of the economic pressures created by the current COVID-19 outbreak, workers are losing wages and tips due to event cancellations and business closures. Children who rely on ...read more

Catalyst (cat·a·lyst):An agent that provokes or speeds significant change or action.    Sparking community transformation takes action and vision. Your Chamber, alongside of our collaborative partners, serves as a game changer for business and a driver for economic growth and advancement.  Over the past eighteen months, I’ve had the pleasure of regularly convening a group called, “The Catalyst.”  ...read more

The following was written by Emily Kiziah, Intern, at the Catawba County Chamber of Commerce. In the six months that I have been with the Chamber, I can easily say that I have developed into a better professional and citizen. Through my time serving as intern, I have been engaged in transformative experiences that have pushed me out of my comfort zone into areas that I would have never navigated ...read more

Last Monday, we hosted the Tapping Into Talent Symposium in partnership with the Catawba County EDC, K-64, Catawba Valley Community College and Lenoir-Rhyne University.  We brought together leaders in business and education to spotlight local resources and best practice efforts by companies in the region regards to talent attraction, retention and development.  Topics included work-based learning ...read more

If you were to set out on a kamikaze rampage to “kill your community” how would you do it?  Doug Griffith, educator and author of, “13 Ways to Kill Your Community”, committed himself and his research to identifying common behaviors or even dysfunctions which overtime contribute to the success or demise of communities across the country.  He uses “reverse psychology” to prove his point that ...read more

Inside the Chamber: “Tapping Into Talent”  Employers continue to be challenged with turning to more unconventional or innovative solutions to meet their needs for qualified talent to fill their open positions.  Weekly, my team, along with our collaborative partners at the Economic Development Corporation, K-64 and Catawba Valley Community College stand in the gap with ideas and local resources to ...read more

Chamber intern welcomes challenges, more  Note: The July 1st column in the Hickory Daily Record was written by Emily Kiziah, an intern at the Catawba County Chamber of Commerce. Kiziah is a senior at Lenoir-Rhyne University majoring in multimedia communication and will intern with the Catawba County Chamber for the summer and fall 2019 semesters. During her time at Lenoir-Rhyne University, ...read more

Inside the Chamber:  Mid-Year Return on Impact   Catawba County Chamber Shareholders and Investors, please accept our sincere gratitude for your investment that provides resources and influence which enables your Chamber to tackle the most critical issues impacting business in Catawba County.    Through the work of your Chamber team, volunteer leadership and collaborative partners throughout ...read more

Inside the Chamber:  June 6, 2019  I once heard a poem written by Charles Franklin Benvegar, titled “Builders and Wreckers” and I’ve kept it in my desk drawer ever since. It goes like this….”As I watched them tear a building down, a gang of men in a busy town. With a ho-heave-ho, and a lusty yell, they swung a beam and the side wall fell. I asked the foreman, “Are these men skilled, and the men ...read more