The Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce recently named its Downtown Council the 2017 Council of the Year.
The downtown branch was selected from the Chamber’s 12 area councils in part because of its work addressing needs at two schools that lie within its footprint: Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences and Brown Academy.
With funds from council members’ support dollars and contributions from business stakeholders in the downtown area, the council was able to provide the schools with a combined $4,000. Joey Greer, past president of the Downtown Council, said it was the largest amount the group has distributed in one year.
“We wanted to partner with the schools specifically in our area as the Chattanooga 2.0 initiative got off the ground, so we found some needs that were specific to each school, and worked with the resources that we had to try to fill those to the best of our ability,” said Greer, who served as president from 2016-2017.
For CSAS, the council provided $2,000 for the purchase of more than 20 digital walkie-talkies. CSAS is currently without an intercom system, and the new devices allow for full room-to-room communication between the classrooms, nurse’s station and offices.