Greater Odenville Chamber of Commerce to Host April Meeting Featuring Farm-City Speakers

The Greater Odenville Chamber of Commerce is pleased to invite members, local business professionals, and community leaders to our upcoming February Chamber Meeting on Monday, April 14, 2025, from 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM at Calvary Baptist Church, located at 77 Calvary Drive, Odenville.

This month’s featured speakers will be Courtney Wrenn and Jayme Anderson with Farm City and the St. Clair County Extension, who will share valuable insights into the vital connection between agriculture and our communities.

Farm-City is a statewide outreach program under the Alabama Farmers Federation with a mission to bridge the gap between rural farmers and urban workers through education and awareness. Each Alabama county has its own Farm-City Committee, and the St. Clair County team is active in engaging youth and community members with programs, classroom curriculum, and annual events that celebrate and elevate the importance of agriculture in everyday life.

About the Speakers:

Courtney Wrenn
Courtney Wrenn has served on the Farm-City Committee since 2023 and is a passionate advocate for agriculture. With a strong equine background, she is a certified therapeutic horseback riding instructor through PATH Intl. and has taught professionally since 2010. After transitioning to part-time instruction in 2017 to homeschool her six children, she became increasingly active in the agricultural community. Her family raises show lambs and dairy animals, and she currently serves on the St. Clair Farmers Federation Board, the St. Clair County Fair Board, and other ag-related initiatives across the region.

Jayme Anderson
Jayme Anderson is a proud mother of three and has worked with the St. Clair County Extension for the past three years. She is also pursuing her Master’s degree in Social Work, which she will complete in May. Jayme and her children operate a calf-cow production farm, raising Hereford and Angus cross cattle. She serves as co-chair of the Farm City Committee, is a member of the St. Clair Fair Committee, and sits on the advisory board for Pell City Career Technical Programs. Each month, she visits 4th-grade classrooms in the county to deliver 4-H curriculum focused on Alabama’s top agricultural commodities.

This informative session will be a great opportunity to learn more about how Farm City and the St. Clair County Extension are working to connect the community with Alabama’s rich agricultural heritage.

This event is $15 for members and $20 for non-members and late RSVPs. Lunch will be provided. To attend, please RSVP by Thursday, April 8, 2025, at https://odenvillechamber.com/events, so we may have an accurate food count.

Event Summary:

Greater Odenville Chamber April Meeting
Monday, April 14, 2025
11:30 AM – 1:00 PM
Calvary Baptist Church | 77 Calvary Drive, Odenville

Don’t miss this chance to network with fellow business professionals, enjoy a delicious lunch, and gain insight into the critical role agriculture plays in our community and economy.

The Greater Odenville Chamber of Commerce held its monthly meeting on March 10, 2025, at Calvary Baptist Church, welcoming over 30 attendees for an engaging and informative session. Guests enjoyed a delicious roast beef lunch catered by Katering 101 while networking and gaining valuable insights into county developments.

A special thank you to St. Clair County Commissioner Stan Batemon for speaking to our group about the county’s workforce needs and strategies to attract and sustain industries. His insights underscored the importance of workforce development to ensure economic growth and business success in our region. He also emphasized the need to teach young people a strong work ethic, ensuring they can effectively hold down a job in addition to acquiring the necessary job skills for companies to manufacture and provide their goods and services.

We also appreciate Ashley Hay with the St. Clair County Commission for sharing updates on the St. Clair Agriculture & Multi-Event Center in Odenville. Ashley provided details on rental availability, membership opportunities, sponsorships, and upcoming events at the center, highlighting its impact on the community and local businesses.

The Greater Odenville Chamber of Commerce extends its gratitude to all attendees and speakers for making this meeting a success. We look forward to seeing everyone at our next gathering!

For more information about upcoming Chamber events and initiatives, visit our website at https://OdenvilleChamber.com or follow us on social media.

Pictured L-R: GOCC President Paul Perry (Alfa Insurance), St. Clair Co. Commission Chairman Stan Batemon and GOCC 1st VP Megan Graham (Guild Mortgage).

Ashley Hay sharing information about the St. Clair Agriculture & Multi-Event Center in Odenville.

The Greater Odenville Chamber of Commerce invites you to our February Meeting on Monday, March 10th at 11:30 am and we hope you will join us.

Meeting Details:
Monday, March 10, 2025
11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
Calvary Baptist Church
77 Calvary Drive, Odenville
 
Guest Speaker:
Stan Batemon, Chairman - St. Clair County Commission

Join us for a great meeting with our guest speaker who will share information about what the St. Clair County Commission is doing. Our monthly events are a wonderful event to meet other Odenville area business professionals, hear a great speaker and have a fabulous lunch! Lunch will be catered by Charlie's BBQ.
 
To RSVP for the meeting, please make your reservation online at https://odenvillechamber.com/events

Please RSVP by Thursday, March 6th so we may have an accurate food count.

The Greater Odenville Chamber of Commerce invites you to our February Meeting on Monday, February 10th at 11:30 am and we hope you will join us.

Meeting Details:
Monday, February 10, 2025
11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
Calvary Baptist Church
77 Calvary Drive, Odenville
 
Guest Speaker:
Tim Graham - Jefferson County Sheriff's Department

Join us for a great meeting with our guest speaker who will share information regarding Business & Personal Security. Our monthly events are a wonderful event to meet other Odenville area business professionals, hear a great speaker and have a fabulous lunch! Lunch will be catered by Charlie's BBQ.
 
To RSVP for the meeting, please make your reservation online at https://odenvillechamber.com/events

Please RSVP by Thursday, February 6th so we may have an accurate food count.

About our Speaker:

Sergeant Tim Graham is a 20-year veteran in law enforcement. He began his career as a reserve officer with the city of Lipscomb and later became a Sheriff’s Deputy for Jefferson County. He has served in Corrections, Patrol, Air Support, and the Technology Division. He is currently an administrative supervisor over the contract cars for the cities of Clay, Pinson, and Centerpoint. He also serves as a Tactical Flight Officer for the Sheriff’s Office Air Support Unit. Sergeant Graham was the project manager for implementing systems in the Metro Area Crime Center. He also created the first ever Jail Intelligence Unit for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. Sergeant Graham lives in Odenville with his wife Megan Graham and their children Hannah and Cooper. 

GOCC Presents Checks from Car Show Fundraiser

Checks were presented at the November Greater Odenville Chamber of Commerce meeting in the amount of $40,000 from the Odenville Car Show proceeds to the following recipients: • St. Clair County Athletic Booster Club - $24k • Odenville Police & Fire Department - $12k • Greater Odenville Chamber of Commerce Scholarship Fund - $4k We truly appreciate our car show sponsors, vendors, everyone who brought their amazing vehicles, those who made donations and our Board of Directors and other volunteers who worked tirelessly to host the car show event. This presentation would not be possible without each of you.   THANK YOU!!!

I just wanted to tell you THANK YOU for supporting the Odenville Car Show this year!

The weather was perfect, and we had a wonderful time showcasing all the amazing vehicles and had hundreds of people attend the show. Hopefully they all made it to your booth!

We could not have done this without your help and participation.

Thanks to you, we were able to meet our goal of raising $40,000 for the…

• St. Clair County Athletic Booster Club
• Odenville Police Department
• Odenville Fire Department
• Greater Odenville Chamber of Commerce Scholarship Fund

We will be making the presentation checks to these organizations this coming Monday, November 4th at our November chamber luncheon. If you would like to attend, please click the link to RSVP. https://odenvillechamber.com/event-5923831

Lastly, your feedback is very important to us.

Please let us know what you liked and if there was anything that we can do to make this show better for the community, the vendors and the sponsors!

Paul Perry, Chamber President

Greater Odenville Chamber of Commerce

Here are two opportunities to learn more about Local Amendment 1 that will be coming up for an important vote in November at the election polls that will affect all residents in St. Clair County regarding both the St. Clair County School System and the Pell City School System. THIS IS NOT A TAX INCREASE. Be an informed citizen when you go to vote so you will know what this is about!

Town Hall Meetings are scheduled where more information will be explained about this proposed amendment at:

• Sunday, October 20, 2024 at the CEPA Auditorium located at 25 Williamson Drive in Pell City (doors open at 1:30 pm and event begins at 2:00 pm)
• Thursday, October 24, 2025 at the Moody Civic Center located at 200 Civic Center Drive (doors open at 5:30 pm and event begins at 6:00 pm)

"The Pell City School District represents over 25% of the voting bloc in St. Clair County—more than enough to sway an election. Currently, these residents vote in the elections for St. Clair County Superintendent and Board of Education. Local Amendment 1 gives us an opportunity for the first time in over four decades to fix that. By voting “Yes” on Local Amendment 1, we can ensure accurate representation for both St. Clair County and Pell City Schools."

"Amendment 1 is about providing FAIR and ACCURATE representation to the residents of both the Pell City School District and St. Clair County School District. Would you want someone whose children attend Talladega County Schools to vote on how your children or grandchildren are educated in Pell City Schools? That just wouldn’t be fair to the people of Pell City. Likewise, St. Clair County is uniquely split into two separate school systems. You have St. Clair County Schools which consist of Moody, Springville, Ashville, and Ragland. Furthermore, you have the Pell City School System which incorporates all of Pell City, along with surrounding communities like Riverside, Wattsville, Cropwell, New London, Cook Springs, Chula Vista, and Prescott. These two school boards are currently elected. While St. Clair County residents cannot vote in the elections for Pell City School Board of Education, residents in the Pell City Schools Attendance Zone are able to vote in elections for the St. Clair County Board of Education, which is unfair because their children and grandchildren are zoned for Pell City Schools, not St. Clair County Schools."

Please take the time to learn more about Local Amendment 1 so you will be better informed before going to the voting polls in November!

For more information, please contact Jaxon Phillips with Signum Strategies at jaxon@signumstrategies.com or 205.505.1557 and visit the Friends of St. Clair Facebook page.

We hope you will support this SCCHS Fundraiser:

At this month's Greater Odenville Chamber of Commerce, we had the privilege of hearing our St. Clair County High School Football Coach, Tyler Robinson, speak. It was so great to know that our students are in such good hands as he leads these players into not only a success football season, but as he leads them into being great leaders as they grow and mature!

Coach Robinson is pictured here with GOCC Board Members: Todd Seay, Jaxon Phillips, Dona Bonnett, Paul Perry, Bob Powell, Eric Pearson, Megan Graham, Candice Hill and Pat Shipp.

APC Grant Information

Among the community announcements, Jasmine Sledge with Alabama Power reminded everyone of an Alabama Power School Grant Available for Title 1 Schools:

The Alabama Power Foundation offers Title I schools in our communities opportunities to apply for various grants throughout the year. These schools must have a free or reduced lunch status of at 50% or more.

One in particular is the Power to Play grant which is designated for athletics, music, and fine arts. This grant is up to $2500.

The grant cycle opened on July 29, 2024 and will close on August 23, 2024. Please click on the link below for more details:

Power to Play Grants | Alabama Power Foundation | The Power of Good [powerofgood.com]

If you scroll to the bottom of the page, you will see how the Power of Play Grant can be used for artistic reasons.

The other two grants available are the Scholar Grant (grades 2-8) and the Champion Grant (grades 9-11). These are centered around STEM. The Scholar Grant is focused on math and English and the Champion is focused on math and science. A group of teachers (two or more) must apply. These grants are up to $7500. 

These grants opened on August 5, 2024 and will close on September 6, 2024.

https://powerofgood.com/grant/scholar-grants/ [powerofgood.com]

https://powerofgood.com/grant/champion-grants/ [powerofgood.com]

Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.

Thanks,

Jasmine V Sledge

Community Development Specialist

APC Birmingham Division

Cell: 205-518-2146

Ofc: 205-226-1651

Our Odenville Car Show is right around the corner so be sure to mark your calendars. Vendors and Sponsors are currently being accepted and you may also register your favorite ride. As previously mentioned, all proceeds from this awesome charity event will benefit Odenville Police Department, Odenville Fire Department and St. Clair County Athletic Booster Club so don't miss it!!!

The car show is just around the corner on Saturday Oct. 19^th, and we are working feverishly to have another successful year!
This year’s beneficiaries are …

• Odenville Fire Department
• Odenville Police Department
• St Clair County Athletic Booster Club

 Our goal is to raise $40,000 to be split between the 3 organizations and a major part of that comes from the generosity and support of businesses like YOU!
 
The 2024 sponsorship application is available on the chamber website and hope that you will consider being a part of this community event again this year.
 
In addition to the sponsorship advertising that begins September 1st, you can also promote your business by donating items with your logo for goody bags and door prizes.

We do goody bags for the 1^st 200 registered cars, so smaller promotional items like towels, pens, key chains, lip balm, koozies etc work good for these bags which are supplied by Visit St. Clair!

We also do 8 door prize - 5 gallon buckets. So fewer, larger items such as 20-40oz cups, tools, etc. would be good for this!

Also, if you would like to participate as a vendor, vendor spots are available and registration deadline is September 30th. Vendor applications are also available online.
 
Thank you so much for your past and continued support!

Greater Odenville Chamber of Commerce

P.S. A Special THANK YOU  to Our 2024 Car Show Sponsors:

Presenting Sponsor:
City of Odenville
Greater Odenville Chamber of Commerce

Platinum Sponsor:
Union State Bank

Gold Sponsors:
Revolution Roofing
Tractor & Equipment TEC
Triple R Metals

Silver Sponsors:
ALFA Insurance
AmFirst

Bronze Sponsor:
Plumber 1