Susie Youngberg, president of the Legendary Key Largo Chamber of Commerce, joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about events.
Taste the Keys went very well during the entire month of October.
Youngberg said, “We have announced the winners of the signature showdown dish. Of course, many people remember the Key Largo Chamber was famous for the cook off for many years, so we wanted to sort of incorporate that and keep that going, in homage to all those years of that event. So we made it sort of a virtual competition as part of the October Taste the Keys, and everyone had a chance to vote. Each restaurant that participated put up one dish as their signature showdown dish, and people voted and the winners were announced. We actually had an ad in the Keys Weekly last week. We’ll be delivering the plaques to our winners this week. We had Sundowners, Key Largo was the number one winner. They won with their key lime seafood, which, if you didn’t have a chance to try that, it is absolutely delicious. Of course, all the dishes were. Italian Food Company came in second with their gnocchi bowl, which was a very interesting creation that they’ve come up with. And then third place was the Buzzards Roost with their yellow tail margarita. All those dishes are award winning in Key Largo.
The Best of the Upper Keys occurred recently, too.
Youngberg said, “What an evening. The Keys Weekly does it right. It was at the beautiful Playa Largo. It was just so nice to see so many of our Upper Keys businesses honored for the work that they do every year, from our businesses, our hotels, our realtors all the way to our nonprofits. It was just a beautiful evening.”
Michael Stapleford of Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM pointed out, “I do want to pay tribute to Keys Weekly, because they do a lot for the community, including raising a lot of money with Best of the Upper Keys that went directly to benefit the Florida Keys Children’s Shelter.”
Youngberg said, “That’s right, a very deserving nonprofit up here. They do so much good work. A record amount of money too for them this year. So wonderful.”
A Members in Motion event is coming up soon as well.
Youngberg said, “That is actually tomorrow evening, our events are always on Thursday. Normally, our Members in Motion is the fourth Thursday of each month, but in November and December, we pull that back to the third week of the month. Otherwise, we would be crossing over the holidays because we don’t want to have an event on Thanksgiving Day. We know everyone will be with their families. But tomorrow evening, it will be Friends Giving with the Key Largo Chamber. We have the annual block party. I think this is the third or fourth year now that Centennial Bank has partnered with the Advanced Urgent Care and the Key Largo Chocolates, and they do a block party right there in the parking lot of the Key Largo Chocolates and Advanced Urgent Care. Centennial Bank brings out the burger and weenie wagon. So there will be burgers and hot dogs. We’ll have lots of beverages and just a really good time of camaraderie and fun with our fellow Chamber members. We will also be having a toy drive for the Wesley House. They are in need of some holiday gifts for the children. So they have asked everyone to bring a new unwrapped toy to the event tomorrow evening too.”
The members luncheon happened just last week at the Holiday Inn of Key Largo.
Youngberg said, “It is a really nice spot. Before the pandemic when everything got interesting, a lot of our events were held at the Holiday Inn. The Key Largo Chamber did a lot of events there and it was nice to be back. I think they’ve really started soliciting to bring some of the membership meetings back into the Holiday Inn. It’s a lovely conference space that they have there. Of course, the resort is just beautiful. The food was amazing. They do really good food there. It was time for our annual report. We always give that in November to our members. So it was time presenting the financials. We try not to bog people down too deeply with the numbers. I know a lot of people just see those reports and their eyes kind of glaze over with numbers, but it was actually a very positive report. I was pleased this year our membership has gone up. We put on 31 new members so far this year, our retention is up. I think any membership organization goes through that, you bring on new members, and some people don’t renew and drop off. But we’re growing new members and retaining more of our existing members. So that was very positive. Our bottom line was good for this month. It’s good to see the Chamber holding strong in the black. We have paid off the mortgage. If you haven’t been to the Key Largo Chamber and Visitors Center in a while, and a lot of us who live here just kind of take it for granted, stop by and see us sometime. It’s a beautiful building. We highlight a lot of our tourism industry businesses. They buy a membership to be able to have their brochures and rack cards there. Some even have posters on the wall, slides running on the televisions that the visitors come in and see, and just highlights the all the things we have to do here in Key Largo and all of our wonderful businesses. So we would love to see that. We are going to be doing some capital improvement projects on the building, as I did announce in the report as well. Een though those numbers look really good, we do have projects earmarked for a lot of that money. The building is 30 years old, so we’re going to need some love and care for it, but it is in great shape. Like I say, it’s a beautiful building, and we are already seeing an increase in the number of visitors that are stopping by. I think the staff told me the other day we had about 80 people stop by. Even though we only had 80 this week, here in a couple of months, we have over 200 people stopping in on a daily basis. So those numbers do go up. If anyone has any questions about how to become a member of the Key Largo Chamber, we would love to talk to you about that. Just give us a call. Shoot me an email.”
For more information, click here: https://www.keylargochamber.org/