The Elizabethtown – White Lake Area Chamber of Commerce has worked for decades on the promotion of local businesses. Today, with more than 100 members, the Chamber’s mission is to speak for the business community; support economic growth and educational resources; and to enhance the quality of living by partnering with diverse organizations in and around Elizabethtown, White Lake and all of Bladen County. The Greater Fayetteville Business Journal spoke with the Chamber’s Executive Director Terri Dennison to learn more about how the Chamber has been serving the business community as so many bounce back from the impact of COVID-19.

GFBJ: How long has the Elizabethtown – White Lake Area Chamber of Commerce been serving the area? When was it founded?

Dennison: In 1956 it was the White Lake Chamber of Commerce, and then in 1974, the name was changed [to] Elizabethtown – White Lake Area Chamber of Commerce. So, we’ve been around a long time. Elizabethtown was here first, that’s been incorporated since 1773. White Lake has been a tourist destination for 100 years. So yeah, long history here.

GFBJ: How did you first get involved in the Chamber?

Dennison: I was hired in October 2019, to take on a joint position of Director of Communication and Marketing for the Town of Elizabethtown, and one of the duties was to manage the Chamber of Commerce, so I’m actually an employee of the Town of Elizabethtown.

GFBJ: How does the Chamber get involved with Bladen County as a whole?

Dennison: There’s so many overlapping areas but the Chamber obviously encompasses much more with the name being with White Lake and in recent years, just looking at Bladen County as a whole and supporting all of Bladen County and supporting the efforts of the county commissioners and the economic development. We all try to work together, especially since the County did a strategic plan last year, and we were heavily involved in the Prosperous Economy piece of that. I was the co-chair on that. My background is often more of a collaborative position, working many different angles just to bring the best for everybody.

GFBJ: How has the Chamber grown since you’ve joined?

Dennison: I think since 2019, we certainly have a larger sense of everybody working together. It’s really more of a collaboration, with Dane Rideout and Chuck Heustess and even the community college, we’ve all looked at what are our common goals and how can we help each other and that means that sometimes one person takes the lead, or one organization takes the lead and sometimes another does but we kind of just try to support each other and keep moving forward the goals of the County and of the towns.

GFBJ: Are there any goals the Chamber hopes to work toward this year?

Dennison: We have many goals. I think one of the biggest things is, we’ve really taken a look at Bladen County as a tourist destination, not just White Lake but the whole county. Elizabethtown being the county seat, we’re the hub of commerce, but how can we improve on that? Because people tend to visit a place they like it so much they move to that place they move their jobs, they move their businesses, it helps an area grow and with Bladen County declining in population over the last couple of years, we knew that we need to embrace something that’s really going to help it grow. I think that’s what all the agencies are working towards. Growth is kind of our mantra right now.

GFBJ: What are some of the things the Chamber and other agencies are considering in their growth plans?

Dennison: How do we get Bladen County to grow without losing that quality of life and simplicity, the beautiful agriculture, the beautiful outdoors and making that happen? So, from our standpoint in the Chamber, we’ve been probably more active in the development, tourism promotion and encouraging the individual investors like at White Lake where there’s been several investments in improving White Lake and then helping them promote it.

GFBJ: What are some of the success stories in the area from this year?

Dennison: White Lake this year hit a couple things. First of all, it’s the cover of the Visit North Carolina 2023 Visitor’s Guide. And that wouldn’t have happened if we weren’t, for the last three years, talking to the state about ‘Look at all these changes; it’s refreshed. Yes, it’s 100 years old, but new things are happening and it’s still a beautiful place for people to come. It’s still a safe place for families to be.’ And the difference from 2020 to 2021 in tourism spending in Bladen County was very significant. There was a 56 percent increase in tourism spending in the two COVID years because we were out there promoting it and saying this is a safe place.

GFBJ: As Executive Director, are there some goals that you have that you would like to see implemented in the next year?

Dennison: I would love to see a better sense of history. Bringing the historians together but also looking at: What are those significant moments in the history of our area that we need to tell and we need to talk about good, bad or ugly? They’re part of it and we need to embrace them and know what happened. For me moving into this area, it took me a while to figure out why Elizabethtown was where it was until I really understood the naval story industry. And once I had a tour of Turnbull Educational Park, which does a great job on telling that story, …there was nothing that hit me in the face to say, ‘Here it is. This is why.’ So, we’re going to try to do more on getting that story out there.