Chamber cancels Home & Garden Show with hopes to bring it back in 2017

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 6 April 2016 at 12:00 am

File photo by Tom Rivers – Orleans County Chamber officials are pictured last April at the Home and Garden Show. The group includes former Chamber Executive Director Kathy Blackburn, left, new Director Samantha Roskowski, center, and board member Greg Piedmonte. Last year there were 30-plus vendors at the Home and Garden Show.

KNOWLESVILLE – The Orleans County Chamber of Commerce has canceled the Home & Garden Show planned for April 16-17 at the 4-H Fairgrounds in Knowlesville.

The event usually has more than 30 vendors, but participants were down this year. That prompted the Chamber to cancel the event with intentions of bringing it back next April 8-9.

“We have to make it bigger and better and we have to figure it out,” said Kathy Blackburn, a former executive director for the Chamber who is now a Chamber board member and the grants manager.

The Chamber’s Event Committee met on Monday and decided to cancel the event. The Home & Garden Show first was run at the YMCA in Medina before shifting the Fairgrounds.

“Decreased visitor attendance, along with limited staffing resources, has prompted us to regroup for the 2017 Home Show,” Samantha Rosokowski, the Chamber executive director, posted on the Chamber’s Facebook page. “We were very much hoping to make this year’s Home & Garden the best yet, but given our resources and vendor/visitor response, it is clear we need to reevaluate what a home and garden show should look like in Orleans County. Now more than ever we are interested in your feedback. What do you feel would make a better home show experience for residents and vendors? Let us know!”

The Chamber is continuing a raffle to win a $1,500 landscaping package, courtesy of Erie Way Tree Farm. The raffle was to be announced at the Home & Garden Show. The raffle has been extended until May 10 with tickets available at the English Rose Tea Shoppe, Meggie Moo’s Ice Cream Parlor and Grill, 810 Meadworks and Brushstrokes Studio.

For more on the Chamber, click here.