Steve Miller, executive director of the Lower Keys Chamber of Commerce, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about upcoming events.
The Holiday Gala Installation dinner is tonight and the Marathon High School culinary team helps out.
Miller said, “That’s going to be fantastic. It’s really cool because the culinary team were just up in Daytona here a couple of weeks ago and won a whole bunch of awards up there. So we’re really looking forward to this. This menu is just incredible, man. I look at it, it makes me hungry.”
Joining the Lower Keys Chamber of Commerce provides access to all the great events.
Miller said, “By the way, we had some cancelations, so if anybody wants to pick up last minute tickets, you cannot just show up and get them, but you could give the office a call at 305-872-2411. We will be swearing in our new board for the upcoming year, and then we’ve got this big kind of board meeting coming up in January, where we look at our goals for the upcoming year and get everybody to know each other, and then we all go out and play bocce. We try to do a team building exercise every year, and I must say, last year, we did the scavenger hunt in Key West. Oh my gosh, it was so much fun. They had a blast. But it’s really, really great. I really recommend that when you have a board or something like that, that you do like these little team building exercises, because it gives them a sense of commonality and something that the new ones can relate to the old ones with.”
The 21st annual Big Pine and Lower Keys Nautical Expo is coming up on January 25.
Miller said, “We have completely sold out vendor spaces in it. If you want to be a vendor, I’m sorry, there are no longer any spaces left available. It is completely sold out. We’ve got a huge food row that is just going to be spectacular. There’s no ands, ifs or buts about it, there’s going to be a ton of great things there. There’s going to be things for fishing, diving, snorkeling, and if you’re looking to get, like, some of those small things, this is a great place to come because I have people that every year when they come to get things like lead weights and extra line and rope and that there’s all kinds of people here with that stuff. So it’s a great place to stock up for the upcoming year.”
How many vendors will be there?
Miller said, “There’s 100 vendors that are going to be here. Of course, we’re going to have live music as well. It’s going to be all underneath the trees. It’s a very cool little setup that we have here.”
Sponsors help make the event possible and admission is free.
Miller said, “Now, parking is pretty much at will. Folks basically park across the street and down the streets. We have police officers that will stand out there and help folks get across the streets. So as I said, you do your best to find a parking space as closely as you can. Try not to cross across traffic. I mean, go down to where the police officer is. Don’t take any foolish chances. We definitely don’t want anybody getting hurt.”
There are a lot of events coming up in the New Year.
Miller said, “Don’t forget the monthly socials. The monthly socials are just absolutely unbelievable. And to find out where they are, you can simply go the website, click on where it says events, and you’ll find our calendar. Our calendar has a little map feature that will help you find exactly where each one of these are and they’re a lot of fun. We give away some really, really great prizes at all of them, too. One of the really cool things about this is we go out and we do a 50/50 at each one of these, and we take the money from the 50/50 and of course, the person wins half. We take the other half and buy prizes for the next event. So we have other cool things to give away. There’s no charge for people to get into these things. We do them in a variety of locations, up and down the Keys. So take a look. It’s going to be fun.”
With the holidays upon us, be careful out there.
Miller wished “everybody a very, very merry Christmas and a very safe New Year. The traffic is getting very, very bad, and I don’t think I need to tell everybody this is a reminder, but I’m going to anyway, US 1 is a dangerous road at best. Don’t take chances. Don’t bother trying to pass. Just take your time. Get there, be there in one piece and enjoy.”
For more information, click here: https://www.lowerkeyschamber.com/