Frankenmuth

14 The Chamber of Commerce and CVB typically host an Annual Meeting/Kickoff Dinner each year, celebrating the successes of their previous fiscal year, thanking many supporters and volunteer leaders and honoring some wonderful contributors to our community's success. It is always a little oddly timed as the fiscal year begins October 1, but the meeting is traditionally held in January (to allow time for the annual audit process to be completed) but this year, the event was postponed until April due to high Covid number in the winter. The April meeting was the first time members gathered for the event since one of our most memorable, fun and emotional events in January 2020. We heard words f rom our dear f riend Greg Rummel that night…words that made us laugh and want to cry. And if you have seen the video of that evening, you will be reminded of the words he spoke many times. "Do your best living right now" and that was a reflection surrounded by his inspiring and unwavering faith. We talked about Prayer being one of Frankenmuth's Super Powers. What we thought was a battle that night was followed by battles we knew nothing about. It really left us thinking "You just never know." But as Greg said, "It's a battle we've already won." It's always interesting to reflect on the past year and in this case it is now more than 2 years which were definitely blurred. While March of 2020 caught us by surprise and the months that followed were filled with a dramatic range of emotion filled challenges, it also taught us many things about resiliency, flexibility and patience to take into the 20/21 year. We navigated the wave of changing restrictions that kept restaurants shuttered in January of 2021 with care and pride for our community's legacy of being a safe and A N N UA L R E P O RT Chamber & CVB

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