When you think of the Chamber of Commerce and the work that we do one of the biggest parts of our job is promoting and marketing the Rhinelander area, for both residents and tourists. One of the biggest projects we tackle each year to help accomplish this goal is the creation of our area guide. Each year we print thousands of copies of this guide to take to sports and travel shows, send out to people requesting information, and to distribute throughout the Northwoods and State of Wisconsin.

The 2014 Rhinelander Area Guide will be full of community information, attractions, shopping options, dining choices, lodging facilities, a business directory and much more. It is my goal to create a book that people are interested in picking up and that helps paint the picture for what living, working and vacationing in the Rhinelander area means. But I definitely can’t create the copy and content for this book alone, that’s where all of you come in.

There are three major areas where we need the help of our business and community Members. The first is through advertising. The Area Guide is a great way to get your business in front of thousands of potential customers. This year we are printing 25,000 copies, plus we have an online version as well, so it’s really like advertising in two publications for the cost of one. Advertising in the book is a Chamber Member benefit and something I’d love to talk to you about if you are interested.

Next we are looking for photos; all kinds of photos of the Rhinelander area. Do you have a great sunset or hiking shot? Did you capture the family reunion or kid’s water skiing? A great shot of our downtown? We want to see them all! We do need the photos to be high resolution and you can email them to me if you have submissions at director@rhinelanderchamber.com. We’ll thank everyone who submits photos in the 2014 book and if you have that one perfect shot that use for the cover you’ll also win $30 in Chamber Bucks! So get snapping and get emailing as we want your input on the best shots of Rhinelander! We need all photos turned into the Chambery by Sept. 27.

The final piece of the puzzle we need your help on is the community events calendar. Does your organization or club have a community event planned for 2014? If so again we want to know about it! We can’t include all events but we’ll try and feature as many as we can. What I need to know is the name of the event, the date or at least month it will be held, and a brief description. Email those to me as well at director@rhinelanderchamber.com.

The 2014 Rhinelander Area Guide really is a chance to show off all the great things happening in our community and without your help we wouldn’t be able to do it. So I’ll hope you get involved in one of the above ways and help us create the best guide yet! If you have any questions don’t hesitate to call me at 715-365-7464.

Lara Reed is available at (715) 365-7464.