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VALLEY — The fifth annual RockingFest on the Square will be taking place in downtown LaFayette on Saturday, November 16th. In addition to having the world’s largest rocking horse, RockingFest will also have lots of food, live entertainment, plenty of arts and crafts vendors, ice skating and some special events including the Toboggan Tunnel and the Everest Climb N Slide.

This will be the fifth straight year RockingFest has been the premiere event hosted by the Greater Valley Area Chamber of Commerce.

Carrie Wood, who recently celebrated her tenth anniversary as the Chamber’s executive director, talked about the RockingFest 2024 at Wednesday’s noon hour meeting of the Kiwanis Club of Valley.

“RockingFest has become a tradition,” she said. “It has been our biggest event of the year for the past four years and we’re expecting another very successful event in mid November. We have been blessed with great weather in each of the last four years and we’re hoping for another great weather weekend this year. The turnouts are good when the weather’s good, and it’s been that way every year so far with RockingFest. The vendors really like it when a lot of people are there.”

A total of 130 vendors were there last year.

One thing the vendors like is that RockingFest is laid out in such a way that anyone walking through Court Square in the downtown area has to walk past every booth lining the way. It’s not like that in many similar festivals, and vendors don’t like it when people can pass through an event and not go by their booth.

RockingFest will be taking place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Central Time (11-4 Eastern) on November 16th. Santa and friends will be there from 11-1 CT (noon till 2 Eastern).

“It’s been a good event for Chambers County, and we want to keep it going,” Wood said. “We start getting ready for it in July. Lots of planning is involved. We want to make sure we do it right.”

Wood reviewed the past year and what the Chamber has been doing to promote local business. She said that everyone with the Chamber was excited about a new Chick fil A restaurant coming to the local area.

“I had thought for a long time that we’d never get one,” she said. “It’s great that one will be coming here and will be opening soon. Chick fil A does everything first class and almost always brings other business activity with it.”

The Chamber has hosted 11 ribbon cuttings in 2024. It’s also played host to a number of Business After Hours and Business Over Coffee get togethers.

The GVACC gets lots of support from the local community. There are currently 10 board members, 18 ambassadors and 49 junior ambassadors.

The junior ambassadors are made up of students from every high school in Chambers County. The program has grown in participation every year. This year’s class is the largest one ever.

“We are always looking for volunteers,” Wood said. underscoring the point that everyone should join in the effort to promote the Greater Valley Area and Chambers County.

The Chamber has a newly designed web page. It’s hot pink in color.

There will be a shop local campaign just before Black Friday. Last year’s promotion had the theme “Give us your dime before you shop Prime,” a lighthearted dig at Amazon.

There will be a window decorating contest during the Christmas season. This is always a lot of fun for both the participating businesses and for those who judge the contest.

In February, the Chamber will be working with the Valley campus of Southern Union State Community College to engage local high school students in programs that may be of interest to them. More than 700 students took part in a similar program last year.

In May, the Chamber recognizes and thanks first responders for the great work they do for local people. There was close to 700 first responders at last year’s event.

In June, the Chamber hosts a fishing rodeo in Hardley Creek Park below West Point Dam. A total of 168 children in the 12-and-under age group was present for this year’s rodeo.

Just before the start of the present school year, the Chamber took part in an effort to provide school uniforms for local students. More than 40 local families were able to get them for free thanks to this event.

The GVACC hosts quarterly meetings for realtors. “We want to make sure they have the tools to help sell this community,” Wood explained. “Valley Mayor Leonard Riley will be speaking to them at the next meeting. He will be talking about what’s coming to Valley. It should be an interesting program.”

Patience is a virtue when dealing with promoting the community. “Lots of things are in play,” Wood said, “but unfortunately, it won’t happen as fast as we’d like. It won’t happen overnight.”