TIFTON — With more than a century of supporting the Tiftarea under its belt, the Tifton-Tift County Chamber of Commerce decided to celebrate the only way they could — by showing a little more love to the community.

The local chamber invited Tiftarea residents to join them the evening of May 13 for a celebration in honor of the 115th anniversary of the chamber’s founding the previous Sunday and the many years of supporting businesses and forging connections within the community.

Held in the parking lot behind the chamber office, community members were treated to a classic cookout experience complete with burgers, hot dogs, music and games, and the company of their fellow residents.

Chamber president and CEO Melody Cowart explained that the celebration was intended to not only celebrate the momentous occasion for the chamber, but invite chamber members new and old, as well as other residents of Tifton, to come together and connect with one another.

“We just wanted to invite everyone out just to share our history and everything we have going on with the chamber,” Cowart said. “We have a lot of long term members that have been members for thirty-plus years, we have new members…we just decided to have this nice little grill-out and get together so everyone could come together and network.”

Chamber staff presented patrons with a ticket as they arrived at the event, entering them into a raffle for baskets containing items donated by the chamber and Paulk Vineyards, who also provided a bit of their wine as refreshments for the cookout, and patrons could purchase a ticket to enter a raffle for a Blackstone grill, the winner of which was announced during the evening’s events.

Cowart was thankful for the chamber reaching 115 years and having the opportunity to continue serving the Tiftarea community, and she was eager to continue doing so for some time to come.