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- Team Hamilton does an incredible job at the Outdoor Adventure Show
- End of the show wrap up at the Outdoor Adventure Show
- The Outdoor Adventure Show
- CTS TV comes and shoots Albion Falls at night
- Press Release From The International Village BIA
- Hamilton’s New Police Chief
- Hamilton Citizen of The Year Awards
- Tourism Numbers Go Through The Roof at Hamiltons Waterfalls
- T Shirts For Haiti Relief effort
- Earthquake Relief for Haiti
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Chris At the CPS Office
Team Hamilton does an incredible job at the Outdoor Adventure Show
Where else do you get people that will dedicate 5 days of their own personal time with no financial reward for their time?
Only in Hamilton thats where.
Team Hamilton just wrapped up an incredible trade show where we had 2 booths and the City of Waterfalls bus on display.
The media attention was incredible, even Rick Mercer came by with OLN’s ” Mantracker” whom did a video skit that will be aired later.
We talked to thousands of people and handed out a record amount of literature.
I could never be prouder as a Hamiltonian, seeing what 15 people will do to better their City and devote their time for no reward is very very humbling.
The past weekend changed at least 30,000 people that attended the show their outlook towards Hamilton, and with the future media exposure on TV, that could reach hundreds of thousands.
Well done everyone you did Hamilton proud, you all deserve ” Gold Medals” !!!
End of the show wrap up at the Outdoor Adventure Show
The end of a 5 day marathon in total, Team Hamilton was awesome!!!!
The Outdoor Adventure Show
What an incredible day this is for Hamilton.
We just got off the phone with the account representatives for Canada’s largest adventure show in Toronto, and we are absolutely thrilled to report that we will be going to Toronto at the end of this month, to take part in a 3 day marathon show that will bring in 30,000 people through the doors.
From a tradeshow perspective these people are all qualified and all end users of what we will be advertising and that is our waterfalls, trails and outdoor areas.
This is an ” All Hands on Deck” call for cheerleaders across Hamilton, we will be repeating what we did at The EX last summer, in making history once again.
And bye the way, we will not be having just 1 booth, not 2 booths…..but 5.
AND, we will have the waterfall bus inside the building!!!
The show is Feb 26,27 and 28th at the International Centre in Toronto.
More details to follow….
CTS TV comes and shoots Albion Falls at night
First off, I need to welcome Mindy Tweedle back home, Hamilton now has the worlds best reporter/producer/director/and all around one of the best Hamilton boosters back in Hamilton, welcome home Mindy!!!!
Today Mindy came out to Albion Falls and shot on location for 4 hours, camera man Kirk did a great job, and filmed the boys setting up the lights and then did several interviews with “waterfallers” as well!!
It was a historic night also, as we lit up Albion from both up top and also down below, which was a first, and the results where incredible!!
We also surpassed the 1 Billion Candlepower mark folks!!!!!
What a day and what a night, the film will be ready this week and will be broadcasted across Canada on the CTS Television Network, I will make sure I let you know when it is going to be aired!!
Hamilton never looked better than tonight folks!!!
Press Release From The International Village BIA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DID YOU KNOW!
Chris Ecklund loves Mustard!
So much, that he now owns the only
Mustard Festival in Canada!
On January 18th, 2010, International Village passed the Annual Mustard Festival on to CHRIS ECKLUND, proud Community First booster under the Hamilton City of Waterfalls umbrella.
Chris and his City of Waterfalls Bus full of his volunteers were a focal
Point at the 12Th Annual Mustard Festival … which has been a ‘community first’ event, since 1998. A celebration focusing on Hamilton being home to the oldest and largest miller of mustard seed in the World … G.S. Dunn Limited in downtown Hamilton since 1867 … a celebration of all things ‘mustard’ which takes place at Ferguson Station in the heart of International Village.
Chris has assured the Board Members of International Village that he intends to continue the history of Mustard Festival, on Labour Day Weekend, Friday through Sunday, at Ferguson Station, at King Street East at Ferguson Avenue North and King William Streets.
“Why change the biggest award winning community Festival in downtown … we hope to build on it’s strong foundation created by International Village through Mary Mustard and her wonderful community of volunteers” Chris answered when asked what he saw as the future of the Annual Mustard Festival …. “Tim Pocius will continue as co-ordinator of the 13th Annual Mustard Festival, a role he has fulfilled over the past five years and ‘Mary Mustard’ will continue her passion for mustard as the Festival’s #1 Volunteer”.
Ruth Lewis, chair of International Village Board of Management stated,
“With the retirement of our Executive Director, Mary Pocius, who gave birth to Mustard Festival in 1998 as the vehicle to promote International Village as a fun, safe place to be, it was imperative that only someone with the same passion for Mustard, the Downtown, and The City of Hamilton be the custodian of Mustard Festival and its future growth…Chris Ecklund fell in love with mustard at the 12th Annual Mustard Festival and knowing that Chris plans to keep Mustard Festival at Ferguson Station … in International Village … in Downtown … and the organizing team was still an integral part of the 13th Annual Mustard Festival, sealed the deal.”
Hamilton’s New Police Chief
One of the biggest questions people have been asking me of late is ” Have you met the new chief yet?”
Seems barely a day goes by without a person asking me this, but it is a question born out of curiosity on what the man is like plus the communities interest on what kind of chief he will be. It is also a question people are asking well knowing the problems on our force and wondering if he will be addressing them or not.
Well I am happy to say that yes I have met the Chief, we had a brief chat and went over a few things of interest.
My first impressions are very favourable, he is coming into this city not knowing the history or general lay of the land, so it is a very quick learning process for him, it is absolutely imperative that EVERYONE lends a helping hand to make this transition as easy as possible.
One question I asked the chief is if he was going to be at our annual citizen of the year banquet, but he said that he had a neighbourhood meeting to attend that same night, which was great to hear that he was lending his ear to the community to hear its concerns and hopefully learn from it.
I can only wish and hope that the new chief will also do the same throughout the entire city and especially in the areas that have been either underserviced or ignored in the past.
Lord knows that service issues even in my own neighbourhood have been ignored in the past largely due to the arrogance of certain commanders, and we live right next door to the Mountain Station House!
Changes and promises in the past that never materialized from the Hamilton Police service can only be passed on to the new chief, it will be up to him to do the right thing and act on the issues.
Right now citizens are waiting with baited breath, fingers crossed and hoping ( some praying they tell me) that bringing in a new chief from the outside will forever end the ” Old Boys Club”
Living in a democracy it is absolutely imperative that the citizens of Hamilton have the utmost respect and belief in their public institutions, and our Police Service needs to be at the top of that list.
At this point it is not, and it needs to be brought back up again to the level of respect that it once had from its citizens.
Those people that cant deliver the services that are needed either need to be replaced or step aside, and new people brought in that can look beyond their own egos and remember that at the end of the day its the citizens that ultimately need to be reported to.
I have spoken with patrol officers all the way up the ladder to the senior commanders and all speak highly of the new chief and some are anxiously awaiting to see if he does what needs to be done.
Each and every day I get an enormous amount of requests from the citizens of this great city on many different matters and my answer to them is the same that I said to the new Chief, ” Tell me what you need, if I can help you I will get it done.”
Lets all make sure that it is very high on our priority list to help the new chief in any way that we can, what is done is done, it is time to move on, pack away your egos and childish behaviours and lets return the force to the level of respect that the citizens of this city demand that it be!
And bye the way the first thing I said to the chief as I extended my hand to him was ” Welcome to Hamilton!!”
Hamilton Citizen of The Year Awards
The annual award for the citizen in Hamilton that has done an incredible job for our great City will be awarded on Monday night at Liuna Station.
I dont go to award functions, but Monday will be different, very different, I would ask ALL Hamiltonians that can attend to put their best threads on and head down.
This will be a very special night, I hope everyone will attend.
Tourism Numbers Go Through The Roof at Hamiltons Waterfalls
Last year I did a short video of the cars dealer plates at one of our waterfalls in Hamilton, it was literally a whos who of southern Ontario, and even from Quebec and New York.
Councilor Tom Jackson even came to one of my events where he witnessed a couple even talking about moving here because of our waterfalls.
Well this week I got a call from the Hamilton Conservation Authority with the gate receipts from Tews and Websters Falls.
They where up 37%
Thats incredible.
But this tells just part of the story as the unpaid and before,after hours people are not counted in this statistic.
The true number then could easily be 50% increase in visitors.
I witnessed this once at Websters while I was there, they where turning people away the lot was overfilling.
So there you go folks, it was never a question to me that the waterfall initiative would work, but there is the numbers, they dont lie.
The best though is yet to come….
T Shirts For Haiti Relief effort
My staff has been working around the clock on the Haiti Relief effort, and we have some tshirts hot off the press’s that they just got from the printer. I will be on TV later today talking about how Hamiltonians can get involved, visit the website, spread the word, get involved.
http://www.hamiltonearthquakerelief.ca/
Earthquake Relief for Haiti
I will be updating my earthquake relief website this week, we raised a lot of money for the Italian Victims, I hope all of you will come out to all the planned events for the victims in Haiti as well.
http://www.hamiltonearthquakerelief.ca/
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BLOGS
Read Chris Ecklund's Blog, Chris' Corner, right here! Chris makes frequent posts about issues of importance to Hamiltonians.
Larry's Corner- commentary and insights by former
Hamilton mayor Larry Di Ianni. Exclusive to this site!
Read Larry's blog
BOOKS
Chris
Ecklund has written two books about Hamilton waterfalls and their
remarkable history, and commissioned the creation of supporting
merchandise such as postcards and calendars. Read
more and place an order here.
COMPANIES
Chris Ecklund is President and CEO of two prestigious litigation support companies and a search engine marketing firm. Read more
CURRENT PROJECTS
Chris Ecklund has commissioned and sponsored websites for the community causes and events that he supports. These include the City of Waterfalls site, Bring the NHL to Hamilton, and Maddie's Wish Project. Read more
PAST PROJECTS
Learn about causes and projects that Chris Ecklund has supported in the past, such as Ice Storm relief, Kosovo refugee sponsorship, and Operation Clean Sweep. Read more
PHOTO GALLERY
View photos of public events that Chris has sponsored or made an appearance at. Read more
LINKS OF INTEREST
View links to sites for government offices, businesses, and individuals.