{"id":125032,"date":"2023-11-15T22:12:21","date_gmt":"2023-11-16T03:12:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=125032"},"modified":"2023-11-15T22:12:21","modified_gmt":"2023-11-16T03:12:21","slug":"the-whitehall-area-chamber-kicks-off-the-holiday-season-in-style-at-the-lehigh-valley-mall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=125032","title":{"rendered":"The Whitehall Area Chamber Kicks off the Holiday Season in Style at the Lehigh Valley Mall"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Whitehall Area Chamber, proud partner of the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber, kicks off the holiday tree lighting season with the Whitehall Area Annual Tree Lighting and Basket Raffle on November 14th<\/sup>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Whitehall Area Chamber of Commerce, proud partner of the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber, and hundreds of community members gathered on November 14th<\/sup>\u00a0at the Lehigh Valley Mall to light the first tree of the Lehigh Valley\u2019s 2023 Holiday season!<\/p>\n

\u201cAs one of the first \u2018official\u2019 tree lightings in the Lehigh Valley, the Whitehall Area Chamber loves bringing our business community and residents together for a truly special event,\u201d said Kylie Adams-Weiss, Assistant Vice President of Affiliated Chambers for the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce. \u201cThe Lehigh Valley Mall and Whitehall are keystone to the Lehigh Valley and our business community, and we\u2019re grateful to shine a light on the great retailers as we head into the shopping season, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Chamber upped the ante this year with a live musical performance from local band, DMC Duo, singing favorite holiday tunes to a receptive crowd, and an exciting performance from the talented dancers of Innovative Arts Academy, under the direction of Sami Schugardt. Lehigh Valley Phantoms MeLVin and GEICO of the Lehigh Valley\u2019s Gecko made appearances for photo opps and to light the tree, welcoming Santa to the stage in style.<\/p>\n

A basket raffle, including multiple grand prize items sponsored by First Commonwealth Federal Credit Union and Kendra Scott, was hosted with dozens of raffle items donated from local businesses; proceeds will benefit the Whitehall Area Chamber\u2019s philanthropic efforts. In addition, gift wrapping supplies were collected for the Zephyr Holiday Express, an inaugural program with the Whitehall-Coplay School District modeled after the popular \u201cShop with a Cop\u201d initiative; dozens of rolls of wrapping paper, bags of bows, tape and gift tags were donated for this event.<\/p>\n

Vendor booths offering giveaways and holiday items featured local businesses and organizations such as Sam\u2019s Club of Allentown, Kendra Scott, LVHN, First Commonwealth Federal Credit Union, and Accelerated Waste Solutions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard\u00a0not<\/i>\u00a0to get into the holiday spirit, and the spirit of giving, attending this event,\u201d said Jessica O\u2019Donnell-Gower, Executive Vice President of the Affiliated Chambers, Northern Tier and Easton Initiatives for the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce. \u201cIt is the perfect blend of local businesses, philanthropy and that holly jolly holiday fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

With dozens of more trees to be lit across the Lehigh Valley with the support of the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce and the business community, that holiday fun has just begun! Whether you are looking to attend in your local community, indulge in a holiday trail, join for a mixer or partake in a holiday movie night, there is much in store for the 2023 Holiday Season. For a full list of events, visit\u00a0web.lehighvalleychamber.org\/events<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2023 Whitehall Area Chamber Tree Lighting Sponsors:
\n<\/u>Presenting Sponsor:\u00a0<\/b>Fellowship Community<\/p>\n

Grand Prize Sponsor:\u00a0<\/b>Kendra Scott, First Commonwealth Federal Credit Untion<\/p>\n

Hot Chocolate Kit Sponsor:\u00a0<\/b>CJ\u2019s Tires (Whitehall)<\/p>\n

Venue Sponsor & Host:\u00a0<\/b>Lehigh Valley Mall
\nCookie Sponsors:\u00a0<\/b>Sam\u2019s Club of Allentown<\/p>\n

Santa\u2019s Helper Sponsor:\u00a0<\/b>ATA Financial, Accelerated Waste Solutions<\/p>\n

Photos Details (Left to Right, back row):\u00a0<\/b>Bill Molchany (North Catasauqua Mayor), Phillips Armstrong (Lehigh County Executive), Michael Harakal (Whitehall Township Mayor), Kylie Adams-Weiss (AVP, Affiliated Chambers for the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce), Santa Claus, Jessica O\u2019Donnell-Gower (EVP, Affiliated Chambers, Northern Tier and Easton Initiatives, Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce), Cara Butz (ESSA Bank, Chair of the Whitehall Area Chamber of Commerce), Tracy Roman (COO, Fellowship Community), Connor Corpora (Office of Senator Nick Miller). Geico Gecko and Lehigh Valley Phantoms MeLVin also pictured.<\/p>\n

About the Chamber:<\/i><\/b>The mission of The Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce is to improve the economy and quality of life in the Lehigh Valley Metropolitan Area.\u00a0 We accomplish this through business-to-business networking events and marketing products, affinity programs and exclusive, money saving member benefits, training programs, government affairs initiatives and public policy advocacy, and community development enterprises.\u00a0 With nearly 5,000 members who employ more than 200,000, the Chamber is the largest in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and in the top ten nationwide.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Information provided to TVL by:
\nKylie Adams-Weiss
\nAVP, Affiliated Chambers & Director of Marketing and Design
\n(Affiliated Chambers, Allentown Initiatives, Easton Initiatives, CCEDC)
\nGreater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce
\nhttps:\/\/www.lehighvalleychamber.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Whitehall Area Chamber, proud partner of the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber, kicks off the holiday tree lighting season with the Whitehall Area Annual Tree Lighting and Basket Raffle on … Continue reading The Whitehall Area Chamber Kicks off the Holiday Season in Style at the Lehigh Valley Mall<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125033,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Holiday-Season.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125032"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=125032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/125033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=125032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=125032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=125032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}