Syracuse-Wawasee Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Tammy Cotton shared a meeting she had with Wawasee High School Principal Mike Schmidt, Kathy Myers and WHS Assistant Principal Steve Perek to chamber board members at their regular meeting Oct. 2. The theme of that meeting, according to Cotton, was connecting students with the local community and its businesses.

One method presented by Schmidt included a potential new class, financial planning, that would be made available during the fall of 2014. The idea came about from a concern that many students did not know how to write checks or create budgets.

Beyond those skills, the class would also have a mock interview component, where student would prepare for 10-15 minute mock interviews with six to 10 local businesses and professionals. Cotton welcomed board members and local businesses to contact Schmidt if they are interested.

Other means of involving students in the community included having interested students use their Warrior Time to complete projects for local businesses or organizations like fliers.

Additionally, WHS will release a new quarterly newsletter with the chamber planning to feature a link to it on their website.

Taste of Syracuse planning is off to a good start, according to task force leader Beth Kroes. “There are a lot of good ideas,” she said, noting the task force hopes to have brochures created soon. A date for the event has also been decided: July 19, 2014.

While the event will be a fundraiser for the chamber, discussions were had about choosing a local program or organization to give a portion of the money raised, in addition to collecting can goods to go toward the Syracuse food pantry.

Other thoughts for the event included allowing local restaurants to set up and each showcase one of their food items. The task force hopes to have more information to present at the November board meeting.

In other news:

• The town of Syracuse will be doing three to four more paving projects before the end of the year.
• Local businesses are asked to contact WHS if they are interested providing donations for the 2014 Pow Wow carnival event.
• The draft of the shop local passports was presented at the board meeting with local destinations to be highlighted in the campaign being the Milford Annual Bazaar, Syracuse’s Holiday Magic and North Webster Santa Visit. Other locations were in Pierceton, Winona Lake, Leesburg and Warsaw.

The chamber’s next regular meeting will be Nov. 6 in the chamber office.