SALEM Jubilee, anyone? Step up

The possibility of losing the annual community celebration has provoked virtually no public protest.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
SALEM -- The next few weeks would be the best time for someone to step forward and commit to sponsoring future Jubilees, says Margie Kampfer, director of the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce.
The chamber has sponsored the annual community celebration marking the city's 1806 founding almost every year since it was started in 1981, but this is its last one.
Although that announcement was made in February, no agency or organization has come forward to assume sponsorship.
Many details: If any agency intends to do so, it should contact the chamber now so arrangements can be made for the new sponsor to learn the many details associated with running the four-day day event, Kampfer said Tuesday.
The chamber does more than sponsor the Jubilee. Kampfer and her staff assist the Jubilee steering committee in organizing and staging the event, which takes months of preparation.
The steering committee consists of about a dozen volunteers, some of whom have helped organize the Jubilee since it began.
After the 2001 Jubilee, set for July 19-22, those persons' free time may be taken up with other affairs, leaving them little opportunity to school a new sponsor, Kampfer said.
A new sponsor needs "to know the process and procedure for making this thing happen," Kampfer said.
No protests: So far, Kampfer has heard virtually no complaints about the chamber's decision to stop sponsoring the Jubilee. "It's strange. I expected to hear a lot of public outcry," she said.
Instead, many in the business community have told her they understand and support the chamber's decision.
The organization's involvement in planning the Jubilee was taking too much time away from the chamber's primary mission of business promotion and economic development.