Chamber celebrates holidays, end of year
The Vestavia Hills Chamber of Commerce threw members and guests a holiday party for the last meeting of 2016.
Vestavia County Club was decorated in its holiday finest, and while Santa didn't make an appearance with his bag of gifts, Chamber members brought plenty of door prizes.
The Chamber board even tapped into the holiday spirit with a "wine pull" type give-away, where guests could purchase a ticket to receive a mystery bottle of wine, with one of the bottles being accompanied by $100 cash.
Proceeds from the game, Chamber President Karen Odle said, will be given to a Vestavia Hills family whose child was recently diagnosed with a rare form of Leukemia.
The December meeting was sponsored by OnTime Service, which provides electrical, heating and cooling repair and maintenance services. Outgoing board chair James Robinson, who works for Alagasco, thanked OnTime and gave one more humorous pitch as he encouraged members to get their gas heaters checked before cold weather arrives.
Instead of bringing in a speaker for the meeting, the Chamber invited the Birmingham Boys Choir to perform a selection of Christmas tunes.
Director Ken Berg thanked the Chamber for the invitation, and thanked the city of Vestavia for welcoming the choir's business office into the city.
The "volunteer" choir was a small representation of the roughly 160 member group, and the boys performed a variety of tunes, including a parody of "White Christmas" that drew laughs for its description of Alabama's notoriously warm holidays.
The choir, which operates around the Birmingham metropolitan area, is not just about singing, Berg said, it's about educating young men to be strong leaders so that they will one day influence the community.
Berg encouraged those in the audience who have sons or know of boys interested in singing to look into the group's auditions for January enrollment.
At the close of the meeting, chamber vice chair of programming Donnie Dobbins presented the Boys Choir with a check on behalf of the chamber.