The Alton Chamber of Commerce met on September 18, 2025, at Collins Coffee in Alton. The main topic discussed was the Walnut Festival coming up in under a month! Other topics included the Trunk-or-Treat and the quarterly newsletter
Walnut Festival
Vendor booth space is getting full, but there’s still room for more! Around noon will be when the contest winners will be announced as well as any other announcements.
Contests
The pumpkin carving contest will have registration at 10 a.m., with Southern Bank handling prize money. Ribbons will be given to the winners of the pumpkin carving contest. The Walnut Idol will happen at 2:30 pm. Individuals can register at the Chamber booth the morning of the event.
T-Shirt
The Chamber will order for general sale 30 shirts of various sizes, plus the shirts ordered for race participants. Next year, there will be a shirt contest design. It was suggested that a mannequin with the Walnut Festival shirt be at the Chamber booth.
Questionnaire
Another suggestion was to hand out a questionnaire and a flyer for the Trunk-or-Treat to all the vendors in the morning. The questionnaire would ask simple questions such as how the Walnut Festival was, any ideas to make it better, etc.
Friday
The trike and bike races are scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m., with the one-mile and 5K runs starting afterwards. Registration forms will be picked up from the schools on September 19th so shirts can be ordered.
Trunk-or-Treat
The Chamber also planned for the upcoming Trunk-or-Treat. They decided the event will start at 5 p.m., with setup beginning at 4 p.m. A new idea was proposed to hold an inflatable costume race. The Chamber will ask the city to mark off the north side of the square for the event.
Banner
It was also discussed to look into two banners to put on the outskirts of town saying something like “Welcome to Alton!”
Newsletter
The quarterly newsletter was also discussed. The next business to be featured will be the Alton Florist. The business after that may be Huckabee’s Groom & Board. The newsletter will be put out after the Walnut Festival so pictures from the festival can be featured in it.
Miscellaneous
It was decided the Chamber will not join Missouri Mainstreet this year as they are now a part of OzSBI.
