Here’s a word that lifelong New Canaanite Beth Jones—a 1974 New Canaan High School graduate who serves on the Board of Selectmen and belongs to the Kiwanis Club of New Canaan and League of Women Voters—used Friday to describe the positive changes brought to our community by the Chamber of Commerce these past five years: “Unbelievable.”
Splintered at the time Tucker Murphy took over as executive director, with a business-led group that called itself the “New Canaan Village Association” breaking off to create the now-annual Holiday Stroll and push for more activity, the chamber today is credited not only with mending the rift and boosting the visibility of local businesses through new events, but also with creating something that’s difficult to describe—a kind of inclusiveness, feeling of shared mission and connection among not just businesses but also nonprofit groups, community organizations, individuals and the town itself.
Thursday marked exactly five years since Murphy took over as executive director at the chamber—bringing in marketing associate Laura Soper Budd along the way. Asked to describe what they’ve seen happen in that time, business and town leaders credit Murphy’s enthusiasm, vitality, creativity and sense of community in forging an enviably active, mutually supportive membership.
“She’s just a fabulous spokesperson for the businesses, the community, the town itself,” Jones said. “She just loves New Canaan.”
Asked about the change herself, Murphy said one touchstone for what’s happening is the fact that one new business here, Mrs. Green’s, contacted the chamber itself (and joined) entirely on its own.
“It used to be that we would have to go out and beg people to join, new businesses,” Murphy told NewCanaanite.com. “We would have to go to them. They now come to us, because they hear that you have to get involved.”
Murphy was on hand Friday for a ribbon-cutting at Mrs. Green’s—pictured in this video are Chamber Board of Directors President Jenny Esposito (who also works as store manager at TD Bank), Murphy, Mrs. Green’s Store Manager Roger Schwartz, Jones and Town Council Chairman Bill Walbert:
Murphy attributes the chamber’s success, in part, to her and Budd’s activity.
“We do not just sit in this office,” she said during a scheduled interview there. “We go out. We’re walking around. I really think the biggest part of it is, we’ve partnered with every organization we can and gotten involved.”
The mission that Murphy created—“Connecting the Community with Commerce”—is more than a tagline.
“We are constantly connecting those dots,” Murphy said.
The list of chamber-created, -led and –sponsored events is long and prominent: Pop-Up Park (about which 98.1 percent of survey respondents said they were satisfied or better, Murphy said at this past week’s Police Commission meeting), Hands for Life (which saw 1,000 people registered for compression-only CPR), Arts Stroll, senior internship program at high school, Clean Your Mile, New Canaan Dog Days, fishing derby and more. The chamber has brought into its orbit the internationally renowned Philip Johnson Glass House, Carriage Barn Arts Center, New Canaan Library and other essential organizations here.
Walbert—a past president (and current finance board member) of the New Canaan Community Foundation, as well as a member of the Rotary Club and Gridiron Club—said Murphy and the chamber make people here feel good about doing business in New Canaan first.
“Let’s face it, we take this vibrant small town for granted, but the reality as we all know is that—I’ll pick a number—80, 90 percent of small town America has been washed away by box stores, by regionalization, by whatever you want to call it,” Walbert said. “Yet this town has been able to maintain its small-town feel. It’s difficult. It’s a battle every day. She’s part of it. Think about the energy, from the Pop-Up Park to just being an incredible advocate, every day with everyone you meet, a positive, high-energy advocate for every business in this town.”
Jones credited Murphy’s ability and integrity in carrying two seemingly conflicting positions in New Canaan—as Town Council member and running the chamber—to the benefit of the community.
“I was unsure at the beginning but it’s turned out to be a great thing,” Jones said.
“It’s worked out wonderfully because it gives a connection with the chamber and the government. She’s involved in both, so she knows what’s going on with the businesses and can inform the town government about that and she knows what’s going on in government and can inform businesses.”
Esposito, who is a former president of Kiwanis and has been a board member at the chamber on-and-off for 20 years, said Murphy has helped usher in and foster a spirit of togetherness and commitment to New Canaan, among businesspeople and beyond.
“With Tucker, there’s love involved,” Esposito said. “There’s commitment. There’s camaraderie. It’s a huge working board that gets involved in everything.”
“There’s an excitement when you walk around the town,” she added. “Look at the Holiday Stroll or the Halloween Parade. People love it. And then after an event, we keep hearing ‘That was so great. It’s great, thanks for doing that.’ I just think there’s a love.”