Bastrop Chamber of Commerce celebrates 100 year anniversary

The Bastrop Chamber of Commerce is commemorating its centennial anniversary and the state’s First Lady will be joining the celebration.

The chamber will be ringing in its 100th year with a Centennial Gala on Friday at the Bastrop Convention Center and Gov. Greg Abbot’s wife, Cecilia Abbott, is slated to be the keynote speaker.

“The fact that we’ve been around 100 consecutive years here in Bastrop is huge,” said Becki Womble, the chamber’s CEO and president. “Especially coming off of a pandemic when so many chambers had to just lay off staff, or closed their doors, or merged with other organizations. The fact that we’ve endured through pandemics and economic busts … the fact that we have been here consistently supporting our business is huge.”

The gala will host more than 400 guests and include actor portrayals of historical business figures, including J.V. Ash, Ruby Griesenbeck, Judi Hoover, Cecil Long and Neil Gurwitz. The 2021 awards for large and small business of the year, emerging business of the year, nonprofit of the year, and man and woman of the year will also be announced.

Guests will also be able to buy “A Chamber Centennial History,” a book written by former Bastrop Mayor Ken Kesselus which outlines the history of the chamber.

The state granted articles of incorporation to the Bastrop Chamber of Commerce on Jan. 14, 1922, and it adopted the motto, “Bigger Better Bastrop.”

Womble said though much has changed since the chamber was first created, the vision of the organization has remained the same: “Our mission is to improve business property and thereby the quality of life in Bastrop, County, through leadership, advocacy and collaboration.”

The chamber has 723 business members, Womble said, which support nearly 10,000 jobs across the county.

Womble joined the city’s chamber in 2014 and said she is proud of working for an organization that not only strives to highlight its historical qualities, but is excited for growth.

“This chamber and this community has been so receptive to us being the voice of business,” Womble said. “And this community is embracing the growth that’s coming here, and yet they want to preserve their historical, charming downtown. It’s easy to work here because people are excited about the future — they’re looking at the potential of what we’ve got coming our way.”

The chamber will be applying for U.S. Chamber of Commerce accreditation this year, Womble said.

She said one of the latest and most notable developments the chamber helped with was establishing Visit Bastrop in 2017, an organization which focuses on promoting the businesses across the city.

The birth of Visit Bastrop meant that the chamber transitioned from being a visitor’s center to solely a chamber of commerce.

“The chamber gave back the funding we used to receive as a visitor center so that we could have a voice at the table about how a destination marketing organization was set up,” Womble said. “... I think that was a big and significant accomplishment of the chamber.”

Centennial anniversary

When: Friday, Jan. 14

Where: Bastrop Convention Center, 1408 Chestnut St.

Time: 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Centennial anniversary: Bastrop Chamber of Commerce celebrates 100 years