Dunmow Chamber of Trade

The Chamber of Trade draws its members from in and around Great Dunmow and works to promote the town and its shops and businesses, both on the internet and via the Town Guide directory.

The most high profile event organised by the Chamber each year is the Late Night Christmas Shopping in December, when the High Street is closed to traffic and stalls are set up, allowing visitors a range of options for finishing their Christmas shopping!

However, throughout the year, more work goes on behind the scenes, including discussions with Uttlesford District Council on topics which are important to business in the town, for example, car parking fees.

The Chamber is able to have more of an input in local decision making if it has more members, so it's vital that as many local shops and businesses as possible take the time to not only join but also make their opinions known.

Meetings take place each month (except December and August) and more details about the work of the Chamber, as well as how to join, can be found on the website:

www.dunmowchamber.org.uk

There's also a separate website aimed at residents and visitors to the town, containing profiles of Chamber members, special offers available right now from members, in addition to information about events in the town and photos from past events like the Carnival and Dunmow Flitch Trials:

www.dayoutindunmow.co.uk

If you're interested in finding out more about the Chamber, the Annual General Meeting, including a presentation by a Business Link advisor about the services and help available to local firms from Business Link, is taking place on Tuesday 20 October 2009, starting at 6pm in the Maltings in Mill Lane.

All are welcome, so if you're not already a member, feel free to come along and meet current members in an informal atmosphere over a glass of wine.

Base Campers Off to Everest

A team of 6 intrepid adventurers from Dunmow who call themselves the "Base Campers" are heading to Nepal on Friday 2 October 2009 to attempt to reach Everest Base Camp.

The members of the group are: Su and Stuart Warwick, John Watkins, Mireille Baker, Danny Quinn and Jane Bennett. They've been training in the gym and hiking in mountainous parts of the UK in the build-up to their 12 day expedition.

To raise funds, they held a very successful barn dance at the Foakes Hall on Saturday 26 September. Over 130 people went along and in total, over £2000 was collected for the project.

All of the money raised from events and the expedition will be donated to the charity WaterAid, which aims to provide clean drinking water for those living in poverty anywhere in the world.

Stuart said: "We decided to use the event as an opportunity to raise funds for WaterAid, which is a very worthy cause, and we hope to raise sufficient funds to be able to specify that the money goes directly towards a project in Nepal."

You can find more information about the group and their expedition on the Dunmow Broadcast website:

http://www.dunmow-broadcast.co.uk/content/dunmow/news/basecampers/default.aspx

If you want to keep up-to-date with their progress while they're in Nepal, they also have a blog page:

http://www.dunmow-broadcast.co.uk/flatfiles/weblogs_cambs/base_campers.aspx

And if you'd like to donate some money to the project, they have a page to make it easy:

http://www.justgiving.com/BaseCampers/