Business digest
Chamber to hold membership drive Montgomery Major new benefits are available to businesses that join the Orange County Chamber of Commerce during its annual membership drive on March 15, 16 and 17. During the drive, volunteers will gather at the Larkin Community Room at the Chamber Business Center in Montgomery to call area businesses and talk with them about joining the chamber and sharing the benefits of the Hudson Valley’s largest business and professional organization. Lisa Montanaro, president of LM Organizing Solutions, is chairwoman of the drive. Independent Telecommunications Corp. is donating the phones. All volunteers will receive free training, meals and prizes. In addition to a 90-day money back guarantee, new members who join the Orange County Chamber during the drive will receive more than $2,000 worth of benefits, including free and discounted advertising opportunities, as well as free admission to six chamber events. For more information visit www.orangeny.com or call 457-9700. Blood donors to get ShopRite gift cards New Windsor Receive a complimentary ShopRite gift card when you donate blood or platelets on Tuesday, March 15 at Community Blood Services’ New Windsor donor center. Donors with all blood types are needed, especially O negative and O positive, in order to meet the needs of patients at area hospitals. Donors can donate from 1 to 5 p.m. at the New Windsor center, at 575 Hudson Valley Ave., Suite 206. For more information, or to make an appointment to donate, visit www.communitybloodservices.com or call 220-2030. Walk-ins are also welcome. March events at Orange County Business Accelerator New Windsor Orange County Business Accelerator has planned the following events which will be held at its offices at 4 London Ave., in New Windsor at Stewart International Airport: March 15: “Thinking Like Einstein and Inventing Like DaVinci” at noon. Bring a thirst for knowledge as international commercialization expert Guven Yalcintas, PhD, offers a taste of how to innovate and create. Cost is $10 and students with ID get in free. March 16: Pop-Up Knowledge Series event, “Building a Championship Team” with Skip Weisman from 7:30 to 9 a.m. Cost is $5 and students get in free with ID. March 23: Pop-Up Knowledge Series event, “Handling New Laws in 2011” with Ethan Allen Personnel Group’s Tom Lemmey from 7:30 to 9 a.m. Cost is $5 and students get in free with ID. March 30: Pop-Up Knowledge Series special “Web Business Makeover” from 7:30 to 9 a.m. Guest speakers are Kelly Campbell and Richard Feldman of Liqui-Site Designs. Cost is $5 and students get in free with ID. To register for an event, contact Client Services Specialist Kelly Reilly at 220-2208 or kreilly@ocaccelerator.com. For more information, visit www.ocaccelerator.com. Orange County Business Accelerator is a business incubator program launched by the Orange County Industrial Development Agency. Painter’s to host Love-Gently Dinner Cornwall-on-Hudson Painter’s Restaurant, in Cornwall-on-Hudson, will host and co-sponsor the its annual Love-Gently Dinner, with Safe Homes of Orange County, on Tuesday, March 15. Together with Painter’s staff, community personalities volunteering as waiters will donate all tips to benefit Safe Homes’ comprehensive services for individuals affected by domestic violence. This is Safe Homes’ longest running fundraising event, hosted by Painter’s owners and staff for 17 consecutive years. The evening will include live music by Dr. Dean Scher, COO and executive director of Catholic Charities Community Services of Orange County, and friends. Rozelisa, a long-time friend of the agency and the Love-Gently crowd, will volunteer her psychic gifts with Tarot-Card readings. Additional fundraising activities include the sale of chocolate-dipped strawberries by Commodore Chocolatier and a 50/50 raffle. In 2010, 200 Love-Gently followers raised $5,500 for the agency’s mission. Seating is at 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. For reservations, call Painter’s at 534-2109. For more information, call Safe Homes at 562-5365. Olympia Development Companies launch new division CORNWALL-ON-HUDSON Olympia Development Companies, a residential builder and developer based in Cornwall-on-Hudson, has launched a new division Olympia Contracting that will focus primarily on providing general contracting services to homeowners looking to remodel their homes, residential developers building new projects in the greater Hudson Valley region and businesses that require build-out work on their commercial office or retail space. Michael Bartolone, founder and president of Olympia Development, said Olympic Contracting is different than other general contracting companies because of his firm’s decades of experience in new home construction. For more information, visit www.OlympiaContracting.com or call 534-4694.