The head of one of the nation’s largest financial holding companies will share his insights on the nation’s economic meltdown and what lies ahead at the Charleston Area Alliance Annual Celebration, to be held Wednesday, May 25, at the Clay Center for the Arts & Sciences. 

Jackson Kelly is the event’s Title Sponsor.

A keynote address on “After the Crisis” by BB&T Corporation Chairman and CEO Kelly King will highlight this annual tribute to the people, businesses and organizations that have helped build a more vibrant community and prosperous economy.     

The Annual Celebration will feature an engaging, fast-paced presentation, including remarks by King and a salute to the 2011 College Summit Scholarship recipients and Leadership Kanawha Valley graduates, in the Maier Performance Hall. The formal program will followed by a spectacular reception in the stunning lobby of the Clay Center.

A VIP invitation-only reception for event sponsors will kick off the evening’s festivities. 

VIP Sponsor Reception (invitation only):  
4:00-5:00 p.m.
Annual Celebration Formal Program: 
5:00-6:15 p.m.
Gala Reception: 
6:15-8:00 p.m. 

Tickets are $200 Alliance members/$250 future members.

Click here to register.

“The Annual Celebration, the Alliance’s largest fundraiser of the year, is your opportunity to share in the pride for the Kanawha Valley and sustain the Alliance’s vital work in creating jobs, enhancing our community and investing in people,” said Alliance President/CEO Matt Ballard.

“We invite you to join the more than 500 business and community leaders who will attend for this business event of the year. With your participation, we will truly have something to ‘celebrate’ on May 25 – and beyond,” Ballard said.

We are unable to invoice for groups with fewer than 10 or issue refunds for cancellations received less than 48 hours prior to the event. Thank you.

Join us Thursday, May 12 for City National Bank’s annual Business After Hours block party. It runs from 5 to 8 p.m.

Click here to register.

Enjoy great food, drinks and the start of summer.

Business After Hours also is an excellent networking opportunity.

Registration for is $15 for Alliance members and $25 for future members. 

Online registration for this event ends at noon May 12.

Prices increase to $25 and $35 at the door.

We are unable to invoice for groups with fewer than 10 people or issue refunds for cancellations received less than 48 hours prior to the event. Thank you.

In 2010, the West Virginia National Guard

• Deployed more than 1,000 soldiers and airmen for ongoing military operations around the world.
• Answered the call at home when severe flooding, heavy snowfall and other emergencies crippled parts of our state.
• Contributed more than $410 million in salaries, goods and services, construction and education to West Virginia’s economy.
• Supported numerous businesses and institutions in our state and local economy through outsourcing of construction jobs, equipment and vehicle repairs, education benefits and $21 million in federal investment.

We want to show our appreciation.

The Charleston Area Alliance is proud to welcome the National Conference for the United States National Guard Enlisted Association to Charleston in August. The National Guard is important to West Virginia and our nation, and the 130th Air National Guard at Yeager Airport is a critical part of the Charleston regional economy. 

The conference, titled “Almost Heaven 2011, West Virginia,” is scheduled for Aug. 13 to 17.

The National Guard enlisted Association is made up of volunteers from the Army and Air National Guard members, as well as family, friends and anyone who supports the military community. These volunteers have answered the state’s call to duty more than 80 times over the past 15 years, helping during disasters caused by flooding, snow or fire. They have participated in several deployments overseas and at home.

The private, non-profit association is the legislative voice of soldiers, airmen, retirees and their families, educating lawmakers about their needs and most pressing issues. In addition, it provides monetary grants during times of need and offers scholarship opportunities.

We know our community will welcome the as we thank them for their ongoing service.

The Charleston Area Alliance has long supported the National Guard and the Air National Guard, specifically during the BRAC timetable, which could have eliminated the 130^th footprint at Yeager Airport, and through the ongoing efforts of the Alliance partnership with ESGR.

The Alliance sends a heartfelt thanks to the association for choosing Charleston.

To learn how to show support by sponsoring various activities during the conference, visit www.eangwv.org or www.eangus.org.

Downtown ArtWalk continues its 2011 season Thursday.

More and more downtown businesses are joining the effort to revitalize and reawaken downtown. ArtWalk brings people downtown, and once they see what it has to offer, they keep coming back.

ArtWalk is the epitome of why more and more people are going downtown – to be part of a rich culture. Charleston offers food, ideas, expressions, shops and customs not found anywhere else, and we identify with the charm.

Visit www.CharlestonArtWalk.com for more information. ArtWalk runs from 5 to 8 p.m.

ArtWalk Locations

Art Emporium
Stray Dog Antiques
Gallery Eleven
Annex Gallery Taylor Books      
Good News Mountaineer Garage
Chet Lowther Studio
The Purple Moon
Modern by Design
Romano & Associates Law Gallery
Visions Day Spa
Studio 1031
White Oak Photography & 
    KD Lett Photographic Productions

 
Art Walk Highlights

Modern by Design

The Purple Moon’s Modern by Design at 200 Hale Street will host its Grand Opening during the April 21 ArtWalk.

The Purple Moon has long been one of ArtWalk’s most vibrant venues featuring art and vintage mid-century modern home furnishings and accessories. Modern by Design brings to Charleston the same modernist style as The Purple Moon with new issuance furniture and accessories (blended with some vintage) and will showcase works by local, regional and nationally-known artists. 

Specially brought in for the opening of Modern by Design are works by California artist Leo Possillico. A native of Long Island, New York, Leo, has been a successful, award-winning artist for more than 30 years. His work is known and praised nationally and internationally and is widely recognizable through his signature brush stroke characters.

Romano & Associates

The Romano & Associates gallery will feature works by Ellen Fure and Michael Anthony Smith.

Fure is a fourth-year student at Marshall University, pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with an emphasis in sculpture. Although her primary interest is in three dimensional art, she enjoys working in many different media. Ellen is inspired by everyday objects and customs that have become routine and second nature.

Smith does not focus on a single medium.  Instead, the unifying focus of his study is the concept of memory and childhood.  This investigation is easily interrupted because at the age of 12, Smith suffered a catastrophic brain injury from a baseball crushing his skull.  Smith’s work investigates the fluid, shifting recollections of his childhood memories by fabricating objects that jar the viewer by presenting recognizable forms in an altered scale, combination, material or setting.

Taylor Books

“Egg. Flower. Soup. a made up story” is an amalgamation of work from Amanda Jane Miller and Staci Marie Leech-Cornell.

Art Emporium

Art Emporium will feature Sherry Zachwieja Powell’s “My Lucid Dream: In Retrospect,” a mixed media works exhibit, now through May. An artist reception is scheduled during ArtWalk.

Brent Sears

Sears Monument Company has itself become a monument in the Charleston business community.

Its secret? The customer.

“It’s about treating the customers properly,” said Brent Sears, the company’s owner. “It’s about listening to what they have to say. We’re turning their stories and family histories into permanent monuments, and we take that very seriously.”

The company, which is celebrating its 100-year anniversary, produces and installs civic memorials, markers of granite and stone, signs, remembrance benches and plaques.

“Our product is not a commodity,” Sears said. “We have to know the product well. What kinds of granite hold up the best over time? What is the best way to engrave it? What colors are available? We know that marble just doesn’t hold up as well as granite, for example. We’re informing them of options. Sometimes, they don’t even know what to ask.”

Roy Oscar Sears, a wholesale specialist, founded the company in 1911, choosing Charleston over other locations in West Virginia.

Its original building was located on Kanawha Street, now Kanawha Boulevard, where Charleston Newspapers now sits. In 1927, it moved to Virginia Street, where United Bank’s Charleston headquarters now stands.

Roy’s sons, Jack and Roy, bought the business in 1955. Jack incorporated the business in 1965. By then, Sears had purchased Carmichael Monument Company in Parkersburg and had an office in Beckley. The Huntington sales office opened in 1972, the same year the Charleston location moved to its current home at 124 Virginia St.

“In 1972, this location was on the outskirts of Charleston,” Sears said. “Now, we’re downtown.”

Brent, Jack’s youngest son, became Sears’ president in 1988 and then owner in 2009. His brother, John, manages the Huntington branch. The company now employs 16.

As you can imagine, a lot can change over a century – especially technology. When Sears first opened, the process involved pouring liquid stencil on the granite and allowing it to harden. The design would be hand-cut.

Today, a rubberized stencil on a roll creates the computer design, and sandblasting applies it to the stone. Laser etching allows images and a varity of fonts.

“A customer recently asked if we could put an inloader and dozer on a memorial,” Sears said. “We had stock images, but they asked if it could come from a photo. We were able to do that. Things like that give meaning to the monuments.”

Sears has been a Charleston Regional Chamber, and now Alliance, member since 1976.

“Being an Alliance member allows you to learn about elements of the business community,” Sears said. “It gives you a larger voice and keeps you in touch.”

We salute Sears and are proud to have it as a member of the Alliance family.  Sears has produced hundreds of thousands of monuments over the past 100 years, but the focus on customer service has built one stalwart pillar in Charleston.

The Alliance’s focus is helping other businesses follow the formula of success. Whether through special events such as the Small Business Summit, reguar offerings such as Business After Hours or topical sessions such as SUCCESStrategies, we’re assisting others on their way to the century mark.

Generation Charleston has adopted a block – more specifically, Edgewood Drive.

Every third Saturday of the month from April to October, GC volunteers will engage residents on that stretch to take an active role in “maintaining their piece of Charleston,” said Megan Tarbett, co-captain of the Community Outreach Team.

The first effort is scheduled for 10 a.m. to noon April 16.

The Adopt-A-Block program is modeled after the Adopt-A-Highway program. Generation Charleston is in charge of monthly maintenance, including trash pick-up, leaf removal and larger beautification projects. Volunteers also hope to interact with residents and welcome them to participate.

To volunteer, contact Tarbett at Megan.H.Tarbett@wv.gov.

This story aired this morning on WCHS Radio.

The Charleston Area Alliance presented its plans for downtown development at Charleston City Council Monday.

The group’s chair of the Community Development Committee, John Ruddick, says it’s time for something fresh downtown.

“We’ve had plans previously that have been done, and they’ve kind of run their course.  They’re done,” Ruddick said.  “We need a new plan, a new blueprint for the next 10 years that we can follow.”

Ruddick says the Alliance has been successful in implementing many previous plans.  He says Capital Market, Capital Street redesign, Haddad Riverfront Park and the Clay Center are all examples of the group’s hard work.

Now it’s time to focus on new initiatives like Slack Plaza, Ruddick said.

Other priorities for the Alliance include improving East End and West Side housing possibilities.

“We want to dig into what we’re calling urban housing,” Ruddick said.  “There’s a whole host of problems on the West Side.”

Ruddick says he expects to frequent Council over the coming weeks and months to formulate more specifics.

“We want to work together,” Ruddick said.  “I think the city is committed to the plans.”

This story aired yesterday on WCHS Radio.

There was no shortage of ideas on how to redesign Slack Plaza during a public meeting at the Charleston Civic Center Monday.

The Charleston Area Alliance held a forum where residents were encouraged to give their opinions on plans for the plaza.

Last year, the federal Environmental Protection Agency chose Charleston as one of five capital cities nationwide to be a part of the ‘Greening America’s Capitals’ program.

That program includes a grant to pay for the design portion of the project.  The EPA chose Pittsburgh-based Origin4Design to design the project, with help from the West Virginia University School of Community Design.

On Monday, those planners presented plans to that included adding green space, improving bicycle paths, building kiosks for bus stops, and creating a walkway from Capitol Street to the Charleston Town Center Mall.

WVU Professor of Landscape and Architecture Kathryn Wittner is on the team of designers for the project.  She says the most important thing to consider is feedback from residents.

“What we want is information,” Wittner said. “The best thing we can do is talk to the people who live here and try to understand the best we can what they want from Slack Plaza and what they want from the surrounding area.”

The area has been associated with crime and considered unappealing, Wittner said.  She says changing that image will take work, but it can be done.

Wittner also says the plaza is an example of the kind of project that can revitalize urban areas around the country.

“The bigger picture is actually making this country greener, and healthier and stronger,” Wittner said.  “The smaller picture is actually developing this plaza and creating a space that people can use on a daily basis.”

On Tuesday, designers will draw up plans all day at City Hall.  Wittner says they will present whatever they come up with on Wednesday.

“We’ll probably come up with a lot of overall designs, and look at a lot of detail,” Wittner said.  “On Wednesday morning, we’ll present all of our work.  And then we’ll go back and come up with a report that will probably come out at the beginning of summer sometime.”

If plans are finalized, the city will have to come up with the money for construction.  The EPA grants pays only for the design portion of the project.