A Message from Chamber CEO Douglass Wilhoit:

Spring Should Bring Residents Out To Experience All Stockton Has to Offer 

APRIL 2007 -- When you receive this April issue of Port O Call we will be about two weeks into Spring which officially began on Tuesday March 20th. It is a great time of the year when the trees, flowers, lawns, residents and wildlife brighten up for the warm weather after the cold and wet of this last winter.

What is so neat is that there were so many added things to do indoors in this great community so we as families and citizens could keep warm while enjoying an event. For many wonderful years, we have had the Haggin Museum, the Stockton Civic Theatre, the historic Stockton Symphony, sports at University of the Pacific, plays at Pacific, Delta, and many of the high schools in the area. Joining these long standing institutions is the Bob Hope/Fox, the Centre City Cineplex and the award winning Stockton Arena with the Thunder and Cougars to entertain residents and visitors alike. Coming soon to a ballpark and arena near you (guess where?) are the Ports and Lightning.

A big thank you to the Cougars for a very exciting and successful Greater Stockton Chamber of Commerce night at the Cougars. It was a fun evening filled with community and team spirit. Thanks to the team and the management for a great evening, a fun season and I know next year will be a break out year for Stockton’s own MISL team, the California Cougars.

Also, what about the Thunder? In only the second season they are in the playoffs. It looks like the team is again going to be an attendance leader in ECHL and they also played host to the Chamber on March 30th and April 1st (no, not an April Fools Joke) on Greater Stockton Chamber of Commerce nights. Your President, Charlynn Harless and Mary Pennini, a 23-year chamber employee and huge Thunder fan, dropped the pucks to start the game on March 30^th. Chamber VP Rick Goucher, another huge Thunder fan, dropped the puck on April 1st. Both nights were exciting and so full of community and team energy. Also, hopefully you will read this article prior to Wednesday April 4th  (FAN APPRECIATION NIGHT) and will get tickets that evening as the Thunder says thank you to all of you wonderful and supportive fans. We all hope they go all the way in the playoffs and bring a Championship to Stockton.

Looking back to February 28th I again want to thank everyone who was part of State of the City for all they did to make it a success! I particularly want to thank Mayor Ed Chavez for all the effort, dedication, courage and vision he presented to the entire community in his State of the City address. It is important that all of us, citizens, institutions, supporters, detractors, naysayers and obstructionists alike join hands and understand that when the mayor says, “IT’S YOUR COMMUNITY – TAKE OWNERSHIP,” he not only believes it but means it! It is up to all of us to work together to make the dreams and hard work of so many become a true reality.

It happens so many times that we as citizens are not able to “see the forest for the trees” or don’t readily recognize all the good going on in our community. Yes, there are a great many people who do recognize the good and to them I say thank you. I have a prime example to give you: Right after the new and critically acclaimed Chamber/Conference and Visitor Bureau Guide hit the streets and homes, a Vice President of Pacific, home of the internationally famous Brubeck Institute, called and asked for 3,500 copies to use when Pacific sends out the freshman acceptance packets to invite students from all over the country and many foreign nations to come to Pacific and STOCKTON. Pacific has been a huge part of this community for 85 years and continues to grow and improve right along with the City of Stockton.

I have had some discussions with a hard-core naysayer about the future of this city as a place people will come, stay, play and branch out to areas in the region. To that end I had a great “hold this moment in my brain and soul” experience on Saturday March 10th.

I was at the office getting caught up and upon leaving I was locking up the office and there was a man and a woman looking over the railing to the fountain on the ground floor of the Waterfront Warehouse. It was apparent they were visitors and I asked them if I could help.

They said they were just bidding their time until the Haggin Museum opened at 1:30 PM and were looking for a place to eat. I shared with them a few suggestions and asked them where they were from. The told me they were from San Diego and were in town for a family (Anthony) reunion that was taking place that weekend in Lodi. They told me they wanted to go to the museum to find out about the history of Stockton.

With that I invited them into the office and we went to my office with the view of the North Shore. I talked with them for some time about Stockton, where we had been and where we were going, and about their home city of San Diego which we all know is a beautiful city and destination. We talked about the redevelopment in San Diego (the Gaslight District in particular) and they said they can see the same thing happening here.

This couple from San Diego was really impressed with what they saw here in Stockton and during the conversation the man told me he had been a fighter pilot during the Viet Nam War and had been in the same squadron with Senator John McCain.

Then in the same breath he asked me about the USS Iowa of which he had served as a young Midshipman. I brought them up to date on that issue and he stated that he felt that just as San Diego had overwhelmingly supported the USS Carrier Midway that this area was a natural for keeping history alive. As someone who was a VISITOR to Stockton and someone who had been part of history the disappointment on his face was very apparent. They could see the good going on here and felt Stockton has a bright future. I also invited them and of course all of you to the 22nd Annual Asparagus Festival April 27, 28 & 29. They told me they would come back and I told them I would give them a personal tour of the footprint.

My point being to the naysayer, and he knows who he is, is that with everyone taking ownership we can have a wonderful place for visitors to come to and enjoy Stockton and all it has to offer; the Delta, the Lodi Wine Appellation, the Mother Lode, and other attractions in the region. Stockton will be the base from which to explore. An important note here is that the private sector is stepping up to the plate with huge, ongoing investments in their and our future. This is after the City set the table for us all and that public investment is starting to and will continue to pay dividends. I and my fellow citizens have the welcome mat out to the aforementioned naysayers, obstructionists and detractors who “can’t see the forest for the trees!”

Please, on a regular basis, check out www.visitstockton.org to see what is going on in your community. Also, avail yourself of the weekly fax or e-mail Wes Rhea, Chamber Director of the Conference and Visitor Bureau sends out every Thursday of what is going on in the area. Contact him by e-mail, wes@stocktonchamber.org, to get on his fax/email list. You will be glad you did.

The Mayor has challenged all of us to “TAKE OWNERSHIP” and we all should. Let’s get out of this “we and they” mindset and work as a community of one. Or as Albert Einstein once said, “A hundred times a day I remind myself that my life depends on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give, in the measure as I have received, and am still receiving.”  Let us not forget so many who have dreamed and done. Let US make their and our dreams for this community continue to be a work in progress and being responsible for many dreams come true!