I am Lee Boucher, President of Bardot Plastics and this years President of the Business, Industrial and Professional Association of Palmer Township or better known as the BIP. I extend to you a warm welcome and I thank you for attending the BIP’s 33rd Annual Awards Banquet.
This year was again a very active year for the BIP and by our actions and activities I am very proud to say that we are continuing to carry out our mission of HELPING OUR BUSINESSES – HELPING OUR COMMUNITY.
During the year, five new businesses joined the BIP as members – Briglia Engineering, Fun Affairs/Sign Media, Majestic Athletics, And the Sign Says, and Phoenix Rehabilitation & Health Service, Inc. We welcome these new businesses to the association.
During the year we recognize businesses that use Palmer Township in their advertisements with a Pride-In-Palmer award. This year’s awards went to New Attitudes – Male Salon, Innovative Sign Graphics, Dr. Ann Schmoyer a dentist in the township and Stemies 1818 Tavern. I thank Chad Palank for chairing this committee and constantly looking for new PIP members.
One of the functions of a business association is to promote networking. The BIP does this by sponsoring business lunches and mixers. The luncheon speakers this year were Phil Mitman, President and CEO of the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation, the Honorable Franklin VanAntwerpen, Senior Justice of the 3rd Federal Circuit Court of Appeals and Greg Elko of Langean Engineering who talked about the proposed Route 33 interchange with Main St. in the northern part of the township. I thank Marsha Abraham, Charlie Roseberry and Dave Colver for arranging these excellent speakers.
We held two mixers this year. The first was held at the Charles Chrin Community Center where we presented three $600 scholarship to graduating seniors. I thank Bob Smith and his scholarship committee for choosing the recipients. The second mixer was at Majestic Athletics where we were treated to a tour of the plant. We thank the management of Majestic for their fine hospitality.
For the past several years we have had one fundraiser per year with the proceeds being used to fund community projects. This year the chairpersonship of the Golf Outing Committee was transferred from Bob Lammi to Dave and Lisa Colver. The event was very successful and raised over $10,000. Using this money and the money raised from the 2008 golf outing we were able to fund a large playground at the Community Center. We thank our sponsors, gift providers, volunteer and golfers for their continued support of this event. I thank Dave and Lisa for the effort they put into this very successful event.
Every two to three years the BIP sponsors and designs the Township Information Guide and Map. The 2010 version design is nearing completion and will be sent out in the next few months. We thank the businesses who have bought advertisements in the guide which is the sole source of funding for this important service to the businesses and residents of the township. I thank Bob Lammi for his work on the design and Mike Smull on setting the layout.
This event tonight is a very important aspect of what the BIP does in recognizing individuals and businesses who do those special things to continually make Palmer the right place to establish and continue a business and makes Palmer a special place to live. I thank Debbi Young and her committee for arranging this special night and Virginia Rickert for dealing with all of the event details.
And finally, I thank the Board of Directors for their leadership in making the BIP a very special BUSINESS – COMMUNITY organization. I thank you the membership for being a very important part of the BIP.
