Year in Review 2018: Birch Bay Chamber of Commerce

By Douglas Bennion, executive director

The Birch Bay Chamber of Commerce has had another successful year providing fun and family friendly events to promote the region, with all of its recreational opportunities, while embracing the local community and continuing to encourage tourism. We estimate the attendance at our 2018 events at well over 35,000 participants and attendees and expect that the 2019 events are going to be even larger.

Our annual Kite Festival is lots of fun with kids and families flying kites in the Beach Park and out on the tide flats. The Sand Sculpture Contest continues the family fun creating incredible sand creatures for two days on the beach at Birch Bay. Thousands of onlookers roam the beach delighting in the competing sand creations. Roll Back Weekend continues to be a favorite with several hundred vintage cars, a beer garden and food and craft vendors. Our Discover Birch Bay Days Weekend and Chain Saw Sculpting Event ended the summer with huge crowds at the Bay.

Birch Bay is now a legally designated golf cart community. Thank you to Whatcom County who worked with our community to make this ordinance happen.

The bad storm on December 20 would have shut down most communities, but not Birch Bay! Our board members and past members stepped up with generous contributions to purchase flares for the Ring of Fire and Hope event on December 31. The celebration of lighted flares all around the bay brought the community together and reminded us how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful place. We would like to thank Whatcom County Public Works for doing such a fabulous job of cleaning up after the storm so we could celebrate our community with the Ring of Hope and Fire and the Polar Bear Plunge!

2019 was welcomed in with a huge turnout for the Polar Bear Plunge. We’d like to thank division chief Henry Hollander and the North Whatcom Fire and Rescue for helping the Birch Bay Community celebrate the 2019 Polar Bear Plunge! The fire truck horn and siren sounding at noon on January 1 for the Plunge is just part of bringing in the New Year at Birch Bay! We appreciate all you do for our community!

Aside from these events, we’ve had the opportunity to assist or partner with many local groups, such as the Blaine-Birch Bay Park and Recreation District 2, the Wings Over Water Birding Festival, the Healthy Youth Coalition and the Bridge as they support and help within the community. We continue to champion the new library project as well as the berm project. When completed, these projects will help build the economic vitality of our community and stabilize the shoreline for generations to come.

But ultimately, a chamber of commerce comes down to the business community and the people. We feel we’ve had a very successful year, and our success is because of your support. We extend a heartfelt thank you to all our volunteers, our members and our sponsors for their contributions of time and resources.

Come and enjoy Birch Bay! We’re looking forward to 2019 with its new events and opportunities. Wishing everyone a healthy and prosperous 2019. Thank you for all your continued support.