Executive Director
Welcome to 2019!
Wow! Can you believe it? 2019! It seems like just a few years ago we were talking about the new millennium!
It is the start of a new year, and I could not be more proud of how far the Chamber has come since I started in April 2018.
We have grown our outreach, community engagement, marketing, membership, and event sponsorships.
Events such as Music in the Park saw crowds from 800-1,000 people each Thursday evening in the summer. We had businesses out there promoting themselves and engaging the community in their mission. Our Color Cruise Festival this past year had a record attendance of close to 10,000 people coming through the gate and was our largest revenue event of the year. Most recently the hour-long Night Lights Christmas Parade doubled in capacity from 2017 and rivaled some of the larger city parades.
Our membership has grown to 172 members to date, and our social media presence has almost doubled in the past year to 2,400 followers. Our website consistently has 3,500 viewers each month.
The Chamber has a dedicated group of volunteers who make up our Board of Directors and Event Committees, and I could not do my job without them! I am blessed to serve this community as the Executive Director of the Chamber and excited to see what 2019 brings.
I want to thank this community for embracing this southern girl who is now fully entrenched in the Midwest and proud to call Grand Ledge… home!
Feel free to come see me at the Chamber office at 310 Greenwood Street. I am here Monday-Friday generally from 9am-2pm. When I am not here, I am likely running my daughters around town to one of their activities whether it is dance, Girl Scouts, or gymnastics.
Thank you for entrusting the Chamber to care about you and your business, and we look forward to a prosperous new year for everyone!
Amy Hoyes
Chamber Welcomes Its New Executive Director
The Grand Ledge Chamber of Commerce was pleased to announce they hired a new Executive Director. Amy Hoyes began as the Executive Director on April 16, 2018.
“I am thrilled to be working with local businesses and community members to grow chamber engagement in Grand Ledge,” Hoyes said.
Hoyes comes to the chamber most recently as Development Director for the American Heart Association. Previously she was Vice President of Development for a nonprofit in South Carolina where she was responsible for raising more than $1 million in corporate and community engagement through events, sponsorships, and donations.
“I love seeing local businesses working together to collaborate and thrive in communities,” Hoyes said. “At my core, I am a community engagement and outreach person who loves to network and connect people for a common mission. My family chose to live in Grand Ledge, and I am excited to see this family-friendly town come together to not only grow commerce, but lead new families moving into the region to all the great annual events and support that the chamber provides,” Hoyes said.
With more than 11 years of nonprofit experience, along with advertising sales, a stint as a television producer and a newspaper reporter, Hoyes brings ideas and energy to this position. She was a chamber ambassador for several years and was accepted into two different Chamber leadership programs in the Carolinas.
A graduate of Elon University in North Carolina with journalism and business degrees, Hoyes will be running the day to day operations of the Chamber as well as fundraising and marketing in the community.
She has been married to her husband Dale for 16 years, and they have two daughters in Grand Ledge Schools. Madison is in 8th grade at Hayes Middle School, and Camden is in 2nd grade at Willow Ridge Elementary. Her family would not be complete without her two fur babies, Max and Marley, who are rescues from an animal shelter.
In her spare time, Hoyes loves to walk her dogs, play board games with her kids, watch movies, and swim at the YMCA. Spending most of her life in the South, she’s excited for the Michigan adventures she plans to have with their camper in the Great Lakes state!
You can connect with Hoyes at the Chamber office Monday-Friday from 9:00 AM - 2:00 PM or email her at info@grandledgechamber.com.
“Together we can make the Grand Ledge Chamber of Commerce a valuable resource for all residents and businesses in this community,” Hoyes said.
