At two score, or four decades, the RBGA continues on a ‘growth mission’

 

By MELISSA CROCKETT MESKE
IBJ Managing Editor
[email protected]

The RiverBend Growth Association turns 40 in 2025 and continues its core mission to attract, promote and support new and existing economic growth throughout the Riverbend community.

It was founded on Jan. 18, 1985, and was first known as the Greater Alton/Twin Rivers Growth Association. The organization was formed as a merger of several smaller city chambers that decided to act as one regional chamber.

Founders included J. Darrell Burton, John G. Helmkamp, C.J. “Jack” Jacoby III, William R. Kemp, Terry J. Kohler, Jerry W. Thomas, Paul E. Utterback, Ronald J. Winkler and Eugene V. Wrischnik.

Members of the RBGA today come from small businesses including solopreneurs, financial institutions, non-profit organizations, healthcare, government, and education. There are also retired individuals who continue their support of the organization. They all continue working together to improve the quality of life and employment opportunities for the people of the Riverbend.

The RBGA serves communities throughout northern Madison County and Jersey County in southwestern Illinois, including Alton, Bethalto, East Alton, Elsah, Foster Township, Godfrey, Grafton, Hartford, Roxana, South Roxana, Wood River, and Wood River Township.

RBGA President John Keller, in a recent interview with the Illinois Business Journal to discuss this organizational milestone, helped to further define who the target audiences have been, and continue to be, for advancing the mission, vision and goals of the organization.

“The target audience is any business or organization within the Riverbend,” said Keller. “Our role then is to support local businesses and organizations by promoting them in any way that we can. An ideal member is engaged; one that is active in meetings and events that are put on by RBGA because that gives them the opportunity to network and grow.”

Keller’s fellow staffer, RiverBend Growth Association Communications Director Debbie Hagen, has been with the organization nearly since its beginning. Hagen began her career with the chamber as its research/publications manager in September 1995. She was promoted to communications director in September 2021, a role she fulfills still today.

Hagen has seen the organization evolve on many levels over the years, including its renaming and rebranding as well as in its goals to support and advance its overall mission. Part of its successful sustenance has come from being able to keep up with both member and community needs.

“We continually work with members to see what their needs are, and to adapt our networking and educational programs to assist them in their business,” Hagen shared. “And we continually assist our community by providing them with referrals – names of local businesses as well as with points of interest about our Riverbend community.”

“For example, when COVID impacted the country, we morphed to online meetings to stay relevant with our membership and hosted guest speakers that were to talk about topics that were germane at that point in time,” noted Keller.

“That’s what we will continue to do down the road in the future as well; we’ll react to things as they come. We think our future is bright because we’re going to continue to offer programming and materials that are pertinent to the membership at whatever point in time we’re at,” Keller added.

“The role of the RBGA, as a community member and as a resource for local business, industry and nonprofits, is to be here for support and guidance, and importantly, to provide networking opportunities for members to meet others within the community and within their industries,” Hagen added. “We will continue to fulfill that role moving forward.”

“The networking opportunities are definitively important,” emphasized Keller.

Along with Keller and Hagen, the RBGA staff also includes Member Engagement Director Stefanie Withers. She is responsible for recruitment of new members, retention of current membership, fundraising activities such as sponsorships and admission sales, and tracking of the organization’s income and expenses. Withers also organizes monthly networking events and ribbon cutting ceremonies while also facilitating the RBGA’s Young Adults Committee.

The Young Adults Committee formed in 1992 as an opportunity for area high schoolers to meet collectively with their peers. This committee now consists of two junior and two senior representatives from each of the RBGA’s member secondary-level schools and five mentors from the RBGA membership. Its focus is on the importance of guiding young adults to give back to the community through outreach within member nonprofit organizations.

Ribbon cutting ceremonies are held to announce grand openings, relocations, and second location openings for members. Anniversary celebrations are an offshoot of this, held to announce milestone anniversaries for RBGA members.

Other activities to benefit members and communities the RBGA serves include monthly Member Mingles and Small Business of the Month Awards along with its annual RiverBend Golf Classic, Chamber Choice Awards Luncheon, LeadHERship Seminar and Member Appreciation Fall Fest.

The first Small Business of the Month Award was given in 1996 and there have been more than 375 winners since. Notably, there have been only three four-time winners: Freer Auto Body, St. Peters Hardware and Andy’s Automotive.

 

 

Martha Schultz is serving as the 2025 chair of the RBGA board of directors. Schultz is a long-time member of the organization as is her employer, First Mid Bank & Trust. She was also quick to emphasize the networking opportunities as a prime benefit for any RiverBend Growth Association member.

“I participate in the Chamber as it’s a great opportunity to meet fellow businessmen and women that I wouldn’t meet otherwise. It’s a great way to learn about the community you live and make friends and acquaintances,” said Schultz.

The IBJ also reached out to Monica Bristow, who served as board chair in 2001 when she was still with Olin Corporation. She later served as the organization’s president, from 2003 to 2017, vacating the position to serve in the Illinois state legislature. Keller stepped into the president’s role upon Bristow’s departure.

Bristow holds the distinction as the RBGA’s first and only female president to date. She also served as only the second female to chair its board of directors in 2001, with Verla Moyer as its first female chair in 1992.

However, there have been seven other female board chairs to follow Moyer and Bristow, including current board chair Martha Schultz.

And prior to Keller and Bristow, past presidents have included Larry Trent (2002-2003), Don Miller (1996-2002), Jim Bowman (1994-1996), Bill Crews (1990-1994), Riley “Benny” Harris (1989-1990) and Jim Pennekamp (1985-1989).

Bristow shared some of the organization’s history, pointing out major accomplishments during the past 40 years:

“I consider one of the RBGA’s biggest accomplishments to be the completion of IL-255. That was a 30-year project that had stalled in Wood River. The RBGA led the charge in getting the money back in IDOT’s 5-year plan so it could continue extending. We wrote letters to our representatives, met with IDOT, and were as loud as we could be on what it meant for development of the entire region with its completion,” Bristow noted.

“We also undertook a study on the $4 billion Wood River Refinery project and its economic impact on the region,” Bristow added. “And the redevelopment of the Owens-Illinois property on Broadway in Alton was a big project for the RBGA in the early 2000’s. The first business to locate at the-now Alton Center Business Park was American Water. Imperial Manufacturing, a Canadian company with facilities at ACBP, has also expanded several times at that location.”

Bristow also talked about the organizational origins, pointing out that the RiverBend Growth Association and the Alton Convention and Visitors Bureau were at one time “married” under a super board of both organizations.

“Initially, it was set up for efficiencies of payroll and supplies, but as each organization grew, they became self-sustaining, and the boards were ‘divorced, amicably,’ in about 2010,” Bristow said humorously.

“Also, at one time, the RBGA board was made up of nearly 60 people. After a strategic planning process around 2005, we reduced it to 33 with alternating terms,” added Bristow. Today’s RBGA board is comprised of 31 members.

“That was also about the same time as when we changed our name from Growth Association of Southwestern Illinois, or ‘GASI,’ back to RiverBend Growth Association,” she said further. “The GASI acronym became a bit problematic. We had been the RiverBend Growth Association before, but there was a perceived need to place emphasis on the southwestern Illinois geographic designation. Some felt that maybe the ‘RiverBend’ wasn’t identifiable at that time. But we learned strategically from this and moved back to RiverBend.”

The RiverBend Growth Association plans to celebrate its 40^th anniversary throughout 2025 in a variety of ways, including a special observance at the Chamber Choice Awards Luncheon in May.

For more information about the RiverBend Growth Association, call (618) 467-2280 or visit online at www.growthassociation.com. You can follow its Facebook page and group at Riverbend Area IL Small Business/Shop Local and also find the RBGA on Instagram and LinkedIn.

Images courtesy of the RiverBend Growth Association.