Scott Silva takes over as Executive Director of Strathmore Wheatland Chamber of Commerce

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

As of Oct. 15, the Strathmore Wheatland Chamber of Commerce (SWCC) welcomed Scott Silva to his new position as executive director of the organization.

Silva said it’s a role he has been excited to take over and feels he is in a position to make some notable, positive impacts for the community.

“I love it, it’s been a role that I’ve been looking forward to. By getting into this position, I think I’ve really started to embrace not only the town, but the business community,” said Silva.

“I’ve recently moved to Strathmore, so I’m really loving the idea of putting down some roots and growing together.”

Silva moved to Strathmore roughly two years ago and has served on the SWCC board of directors for just over a year. 

He explains the chamber felt like an appropriate place to not only engage with and learn about the local community, but also to be of aid to fellow local businesses.

“Not only as a business owner and operator, but as a person that just loves to help, I thought this would be a great opportunity for me to put my skills and my drive to use.”

Silva said the chamber is currently hard at work on several outlets to keep people active and engaged, not only in Strathmore, but in the surrounding Wheatland County.

One such project, Silva described, is a youth employment program that involved Prospect Rocky View & Wheatland Employment Services, the Town of Strathmore, Community Futures Wild Rose and several other organizations, which the chamber is aiming to deploy the project in the new year.

He added he is also particularly proud of helping to organize a meeting that was arranged between the Town of Strathmore Council and Wheatland County council.

“Being that Strathmore and Wheatland are so integrated, we thought it was very important to get those lines of communication open,” said Silva. “Building from that, it’s been great being out to a lot of the functions, both sports related and community related, these youth employment programs I’ve been working on (and) also getting involved in some of the other programs.”

Finding new credence in the expression “there ain’t no rest for the wicked,” Silva joked one of the challenges of his new position has become finding time to sleep.

Also in 2022, the SWCC is working to launch new community engagement and business engagement programs, as well as to host once again the Business Excellence Awards, among several other events, festivals and markets.

“(In) 2022, we’re looking to not only grow our membership, but to really infuse our members with the values and direction that we have here at the chamber,” said Silva. “We’re not only here for support, but we want to also be able to offer advanced skills; so, as an example, we’re working with Community Futures on looking at updating the technical level of a lot of the rural businesses.”