Contents

06  Welcome

07  Leadership

08  Chamber Expo - September 4th

10  Louisville Ballet

14  St. Matthews Community - Halloween at Brown Park

18  Academies Program

22  Crawley Creative Confections

24  Ribbon Cuttings

3940 Grandview Ave.,
3rd Floor Louisville, KY 40207

(502) 899-2523
Chamber@stmatthewschamber.com

www.stmatthewschamber.com

Josh Suiter, Chief Executive Officer

Virginia Hart, Chief Operating Officer

Amanda Harper, Events and Programs Coordinator

This publication was created and produced by Town Square Publications for the
St. Lawrence County Chamber of Commerce

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Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information in this publication. The Chamber and Town Square assume no responsibility for misinformation. Please contact the Chamber with any additions or corrections. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission of the Chamber and Town Square is prohibited.

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It’s hard to believe summer is almost over and the kids are headed back to school soon. We hope you’ve enjoyed some vacation time but also took some time to support our local businesses.

Thanks for reading our latest issue of The Chamber of St. Matthews’ Chamber Connection magazine! This quarter’s issue has some great stories of businesses that are thriving and they are members of YOUR Chamber!

This issue, we are excited to highlight three chamber members:

The Louisville Ballet and the amazing productions they have coming up including one featuring music from Louisville native Jack Harlow.

Check out the story about Waggener High School and its incredible medical program where students can learn hands-on in a mock hospital/nursing home classroom and their legal program where they can learn in a mock courtroom.

Read about Crawley Creative Confections and their amazing home-based bakery business. You can get customized sugar cookies, deep-dish cookie cakes and macaroons.

And don’t forget about Halloween in Brown Park – one of the region’s largest Trick or Treating events with more than 5,000 kids, presented by The Chamber and the City of St. Matthews. This annual event is free and open to all. Learn more in the magazine.

The Chamber has also included information about our upcoming Business Expo. Plus, you can see some upcoming ribbon cuttings.

Is there something we didn’t cover this issue that you want us to consider? Please email me at JoshS@stmatthewschamber.com. We are open to suggestions and ideas.

Thanks again for reading! We hope you enjoy The Chamber Connection!

Josh Suiter
CEO
The Chamber of St. Matthews

Shelly Gardner
President
Keller Williams Louisville East

Amber Clark
Vice President
Amber Clark, LLC

Megan Jones
Sergeant at Arms
Rivers Edge Events & Rentals

Sara Aschbacher
Secretary
Lincoln Insurance Agency

Jeremy Koonce
Treasurer
Custom Select Realty

Rensha Allen
Thomas Allen AllState

Jonathan Braden
Higginbotham

Misty Enright
Misty Enright Photography

Kenya Freeman
Workwell Industries

Eric Pohler
Precision Home Inspections

Maria Mears
Stroll NoCo

Christy Smallwood
Eagle Eye Strategies LLC

Dee Dee Taylor
502 Hemp

Jackson Thompson
Independence Bank

Chris Wolfe
Wolfe & Bosch

Josh Suiter
Chief Executive Officer

Virginia Hart
Chief Operating Officer

Amanda Harper
Events and Programs Coordinator

What’s the next big GOAL you want to achieve in your business? Let us help. Come showcase your business and the services you provide at the 2024 Chamber of St. Matthews Business Expo on Sept. 4.

The Expo will be from noon-4 p.m. at The University of Louisville Shelby Campus, near the corner of Shelbyville and Hurstbourne in Founders Hall, with an anticipated crowd of 200-300 attendees and a maximum of 65 exhibitor spaces.

This annual event enables member and non-member businesses a chance to showcase their work and how they may be of benefit to Chamber members and the surrounding community. Admission to the event is a business card and is open to the business community.

In addition, vendors are encouraged to decorate their booth space to the sports theme. They can pick a sport, sporting team, etc.

“This is one of the premiere events we produce,” said Josh Suiter, CEO of The Chamber of St. Matthews. “Vendors can expect attendees ready to hear about what they do and attendees can expect quality vendors to visit and lots of chances to win great prizes.”

In addition, The Chamber will have an online silent auction in conjunction with the expo. Anyone wishing to donate items, can reach out to the Chamber at (502) 899-2523 or email JoshS@stmatthewschamber.com. Funds from the auction will benefit the launching of The Chamber’s Foundation.

Every attendee will receive a Playbook with specific booths in the room that they need to visit in order to be entered into the grand prize drawing. To have your company highlighted on their passes and become an artist autograph sponsor, please contact Josh Suiter at (502) 899-2523 or email JoshS@stmatthewschamber.com.

Get creative and have fun with this year’s theme! The best decorated booth will also receive a prize!

To sponsor or become a vendor, please contact Josh Suiter at (502) 899-2523 or email JoshS@stmatthewschamber.com.

Louisville Ballet steps into its 73rd season this fall looking to make connections with its audience with a lineup that promises existing classics, along with some newer pieces that are likely to become new classics.

“We’ve talked a lot about boldly moving forward this season, and we want people to see beloved traditions and fun world premieres and inspiring stories,” said Regan Nichols, chief marketing + development officer for the organization. “And so we really are placing the connection center stage to make sure that people can see how ballet can be explosive and transformative and surprising and healing. We’re just trying to really drive the diversity of the art form.”

That artistic diversity ranges from pieces set to the works of classical composers to the debut of choreography set to music by Louisville rapper Jack Harlow. It stretches from “The Nutcracker” to “A Time Remembered,” which marks the 80th anniversary of the Holocaust.

Performances will take place at the intimate Louisville Ballet Studios, Whitney Hall and the Brown Theatre.

“It’s important to put on diverse and unique types of work, in addition to keeping your classics, because we want to make sure that we still are true,” Nichols said. “But those classics were new at one point in time. And so some of your new works maybe then evolve to be classics as well, which is important for us, too.”

Here is the season at a glance:

STUDIO CONNECTIONS, Sept. 13-22, Louisville Ballet Studios

A mix of classical excerpts and a world premiere featuring “Pas de Six” and “Tarantella” from “Napoli” Act III, choreography by Marius Petipa, “Entrance of the Shades” from “La Bayadere” Act III, choreography by August Bournonville, and a world premiere choreographed by Artistic Director Mikelle Bruzina. Established in 2012, “Studio Connections” offers a closer look at the artistry of ballet at the company’s intimate Main Street studios.

TRIPLE TAKE, Nov. 1-3, The Brown Theatre

A mixed-repertory program featuring new works by Harald Uwe Kern, Adam Hougland and Ching Ching Wong, with the music of Igor Stravinsky, Robert Schumann and Louisville-based rapper Jack Harlow. Hougland’s world premiere is set to music by Stravinsky, Kern’s “Influences,” features the music of Schumann, and Ching Ching Wong’s “502” puts the music of Harlow front and center.

THE BROWN-FORMAN NUTCRACKER, Dec. 13-24, Whitney Hall

Discover unforgettable memories with a Kentucky-crafted holiday tradition. “The Brown-Forman Nutcracker” brings the story of Marie and her nutcracker prince to life with local flair. The journey to the land of the Sugar Plum Fairy features sets and costumes crafted for Kentucky (with a nod to the Kentucky Derby), and magic and illusion designed by Marshall Magoon.

A TIME REMEMBERED, Feb. 1-2, Whitney Hall

In partnership with the Jewish Federation of Louisville and Kentucky Opera and in memory of Minx and Sy Auerbach, “A Time Remembered” is headlined, “Art. Hope. Healing.” Marking the 80th anniversary of the end of the Holocaust, it’s a story of the healing power of the human spirit to overcome great tragedy.

CHOREOGRAPHERS’ SHOWCASE, Feb. 21-March 2, Louisville Ballet Studios

“Meet your new favorite ballets” is the tagline for this performance. Celebrating its 30-year anniversary, this dynamic annual production highlights the innovation and athleticism of the Artists of Louisville Ballet.

CINDERELLA, April 4-6, Whitney Hall

Experience happily ever after as audiences and dancers have a ball before the clock strikes midnight in Louisville Ballet’s glittering and hilarious take on the classic tale of love, magic and transformation, choreographed by Alun Jones.

“We want to put on unique productions like that so that people can see a full scale of what dance and ballet are,” Nichols said, “because there are a lot of ways to define what ballet dance is, or isn’t.”

And that is precisely the point of the upcoming season’s diverse offerings.

“It’s more about the diversity of your season to appeal to a lot of different audience members,” Nichols said. “And even that ‘Triple Take’ show is going to have some of your more traditional numbers in it. We’re trying to expose people to all different things. I think that’s part of what the arts should be doing, is kind of stretching your perspective and maybe stretching your comfort zone.”

Visit https://www.louisvilleballet.org/ for more information on Louisville Ballet, or for tickets to the 2024-25 season.

Thrills and chills are the order of the day when the Chamber of St. Matthews and the City of St. Matthews join forces to bring together thousands of area residents, dozens of organizations and countless area businesses for a fun-filled, family-friendly Halloween event from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 19 at Brown Park, located at the corner of Kresge Way and Browns Lane in St. Matthews, across from Baptist Health Louisville hospital. The event is free and will take place rain or shine.

Since 1997, the chamber and the City of St. Matthews have brought members of the community together for Halloween in Brown Park, an event enjoyed by children of all ages, even those with a few more years under their belts who nonetheless remain in close personal contact with their inner child.

There are two things that make Halloween in Brown Park very special, according to Josh Suiter, chief executive officer of The Chamber of St. Matthews.

“Halloween in Brown Park brings together businesses of all sizes, who come together to provide kids with a safe place to trick or treat,” Suiter explained. “Each business commits to bringing 5,000 pieces of candy, stickers, pencils, toys, etc., and they can hand out information about their business.”

A safety-first sensibility is another key to the success of the annual event.

“The other thing that makes our event special,” Suiter said, “is our participation in the Teal Pumpkin Project, which makes sure that kids who have allergies to certain candies or foods can still receive non-food items. So they are included in the event. This annual tradition has been embraced by our vendors.”

The family event has grown enormously from its inception, attracting more than 5,000 kids and adults to the one-day event. There is no admission charge for entry to Halloween in Brown Park, though there is a charge for food and beverages, which will be provided by a local nonprofit group as part of a fundraising effort.

Halloween in Brown Park offers music, games, inflatables, hayrides and a whole lot more.

Free parking is available at the Baptist Doctors Building lot across, 4007 Kresge Way, across from the hospital, with easy access to the park via a signaled crosswalk. No parking for the event will be allowed in the hospital parking lot or along Browns Way.

Visit https://www.stmatthewschamber.com/halloween-in-brown-park/ for more information or for details on the Chamber of St. Matthews.

And the academy rewards go to … the students at Waggener High School.

Waggener High is one of some 15 Jefferson County Public Schools high schools to join in the district’s Academies of Louisville program, a career technical education initiative that allows students to get a taste of possible adult careers and gain certification and qualifications for careers in the appropriate fields.

Waggener is home to three academies: the IT & Law Academy, focused on either technology or legal matters; the Health Science Academy, geared toward biomedical science, EKG technology, sports medicine and pre-nursing; and a Freshman Academy, which prepares Waggener students for high school life and for the other two academies.

“You’re taking a big school and we’re breaking one school into three schools within a school,” Waggener principal Sarah Hitchings said.

The Health Science and IT & Law academies feature state-of-the-art facilities aimed at enhancing education and giving students a taste of real-world challenges and solutions. In Health Sciences, that means a sports medicine complex and a medical laboratory. For the IT program, which focuses on web design and computer programming, there are computer labs and 3D printers. And for the Law initiative, there is an actual courtroom set up on the premises.

“Those,” Hitchings said, “are what I like to refer to as our sexy CTE spaces that support our academy.”

Waggener and the district worked with the community in determining academic areas where an academy would meet the needs of the area for well trained and skilled workers and in designing curriculum. But Waggener gave its academies a little something extra upon launching during the 2017-18 school year. The law facilities, for instance, have not only that courtroom, but a full law library. The faculty includes two lawyers. One of those teacher-lawyers, according to Hitchings, “says the mock trial courtroom in Waggener is better than any courthouse he actually really practiced in.”

On the health care side, the medical lab features hospital-grade equipment.

“Our biomedical pre-nursing and EKG students really practice their skills, their checkoffs, in that lab on mannequins,” Hitchings said. “Our pre-nursing kids go to a long-term care facility and do clinicals on site.”

The programs have helped prepare students for life after school.

“Our pre-nursing students, when they graduate, graduate as CNAs,” Hitchings said. “Our EKG students graduate as EKG techs. Those entry-level certifications, they have them when they graduate high school. … District-wide, in Academies of Louisville, 80 % of graduating seniors are post-secondary ready. They have either college or career credentials, which since the inception of the Academies of Louisville has leapt up.”

And, Hitchings added, the academies have energized students, who might tell the principal that they didn’t really want to come to school on a given day, but they had a mock trial, or observation hours at an elementary school or clinicals.

“Those are the experiences, well, that’s why they come to school,” Hitchings explained. “Those are the things that they get really excited about, and I’m assuming the parents are on board as well.”

But even if a student does not find their destiny in a given academy, there are surprising benefits to enrollment nonetheless.

“I’m thinking of some families right now in my head whose kids went all the way through the pre-nursing pathway, got a CNA, but decided, ‘I’m going to college for business. I did not really realize that’s what nursing was. I do not want to do that,’” Hitchings said. “And the kid and the family are appreciative because, guess what? They didn’t waste $30,000, or who knows what it is now, figuring that out.”

And all of that is gratifying for Hitchings and the Waggener faculty and staff.

“I’m a firm believer in the academy model,” she said. “I think it’s done a ton for student engagement. And, as I said, the results are showing it. And I think we’ve done it the right way at Waggener.”

For Josh and Larisa Crawley of Crawley Creative Confections, whipping up their signature sweets isn’t easy, but it’s a piece of cake.

The Crawleys opened their registered home bakery — where they make custom hand-iced sugar cookies, one-of-a-kind French macarons and deep-dish cast-iron-skillet cookie cakes — in February 2021. Larisa, a self-described “artist since I could hold a crayon” and a possessor of business acumen, does the cookie decorations and has run the business end of things full-time since October 2021.

Josh Crawley, in an unexpected turn, proved to be quite a baking savant.

When Larisa required ankle surgery in 2019, the couple was holed up and binging baking shows during the healing process. “The Great British Bake Off” became regular viewing.

“Well, lo and behold, the boy is a complete and 100% natural,” Larisa recalled. “The first time he made macarons, they were darn near perfect. It was crazy, and again, we’ve been married for several years at this point, and I’m like, ‘How come this hasn’t come out any sooner? We had to wait 13 years before you could show me this hidden talent that you have?’ But he is a complete, 100% natural.”

At first, Josh just baked for small gatherings and family parties. Then he considered dropping his amateur status and turning pro.

“Anywhere we went, he decided that he wanted to make these macarons and kind of show off, and they got to such a crazy point that he said, ‘I really think that we should start trying to sell these things.’ And he said, ‘I know that you’re creative, and you can do the decorating part.’ Then it just went from being something that was only supposed to take eight hours a week or something, and it became a full-time thing super quick.”

With a love of color and delicious foods, and by utilizing designer techniques and state-of-the-art baking equipment, the goal at Crawley Creative Confections is to make each occasion stand out with show-stopping cookies. The Crawleys focus on providing unmatched customer service with delicious artisan goods that can be customized.

“My husband bakes,” Larisa says. “I give him a list at the beginning of the week, and he bakes everything. And then I handle literally everything else about the business. He’s a full-time biomed equipment engineer — and so he fixes the equipment that fixes people — and then he’s just an amazing, natural baker.”

The Crawleys’ cast-iron-skillet cookie cakes, which include most notably chocolate chips, are made in skillets of either 15-inch or 10-inch diameter, and they come out with a thickness of approximately 2 ½ inches.

“We say that we estimate it could feed about 20 to 25 people, but that would be if 20 to 25 people actually got slices,” Larisa explains. “But if you had other things on a dessert table, you could probably feed way more than 20 to 25 people.”

And while the Crawleys work from a menu, if you have other flavors in mind, don’t hesitate to mention it. M&Ms, white chocolate chips, marshmallows and even cornflakes have made their way into recipes. And there is buttercream or chocolate fudge frosting.

“We always encourage our clients,” Larisa said, “just because it’s on the menu or it’s not on the menu doesn’t mean that we can’t do it. … I’m always learning new stuff.

Like their baked goods, the Crawleys’ business has been on the rise.

“We’ve been so lucky to have amazing, wonderful clients, great contacts,” Larisa said. “We have incredible referrals.”

Visit https://www.crawleycreativeconfections.com/ for more information.