Chamber gets a helping hand

ST. REGIS – The Mineral County Chamber of Commerce is getting some help from an unlikely source with putting together next year’s business guide that will tell local consumers and tourists where to go for their needs.

A business class in St. Regis is getting some real world experience running their very own enterprise by putting together the chamber business guide from start to finish. Students have been calling every business in the county, handling proceeds and designing the guide with a fresh, new look.

St. Regis High School business teacher Chad Eichenlaub said an experience with real world applications has been beneficial to his class as well as taking some of the workload off the chamber’s shoulders.

“They were looking for someone to take over,” Eichenlaub said. “They approached the schools about working with them to create the business guide and we responded. Our students are contacting every business in the county. They have to organize all the office procedural components. They have to create sales receipts and invoices and communicate with the customers.”

Eichenlaub said having the students essentially run their own business was a more effective educational tool than simply learning lessons from a book. He said the students were learning a wide variety of skills they can apply to the business world.

“They are learning a lot of organizational skills,” Eichenlaub said. “This is a fairly large project. They’ve already worked through some issues. Planning out various components, putting them together and following through with them is probably the biggest thing they have learned so far. That’s hard to duplicate in a classroom setting.”

One of the students leading the effort said she thought the project was a great way to learn about what it takes to run a successful business. Shelby Merin said the project was still in the process of contacting businesses to place ads in the guide but for her, the most interesting part of the process so far was handling other people’s money.

“Having to keep track of money is really important because you have to be responsible,” Merin said. “That’s an important skill as well as keeping the customer happy. We haven’t had any complaints so far.”

The Mineral County Chamber of Commerce annual business guide will be released next year.