LeTip Chester County East met on Tuesday, March 1, 2016 at the Wyndham Garden Hotel in Exton, PA. We welcome new members Vince DelVacchio (landscaping - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) and Toni Schmidt (marketing specialties - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). Our showboaters were Kelly Smyth from FastPro Restoration (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) and Dieter Enz, our painting contractor (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).Kelly brought helpful information about how to contact FastPro for their restoration services dealing with water, mold, and smoke damage. Dieter displayed paint color samples and some of the supplies that he may use for a painting project.

Our first speaker was our food specialist, Sheryl Jennings (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). Sheryl offers Wildtree organic food products that are also free from GMOs, peanuts, dyes, high fructose corn syrup, additives and preservatives, Their products are all low in sodium. Sheryl helps busy people to get healthy meals on their dinner tables by offering freezer meal workshops. Wildtree provides shopping lists and detailed instructions. Each customer purchases their proteins, produce, and possibly canned goods prior to the workshop and does some preparation ahead of time. They come to the workshop with their prepared items in freezer bags; then at the workshop they add the Wildtree sauces and seasonings in an enjoyable social atmosphere. Many people won't do this much preparation at home, but they will jump at the chance to have a social afternoon or evening with friends and also put together 10 meals that serve four to six people. Sheryl also told us about Wildtree Gives Back. Wildtree as a company likes to help people, and Sheryl has taken extra steps in her local community. She located two organizations that help women and children who are struggling, and she donates meals that they can then distribute to the families they serve. Each workshop participant is given the option to donate one of their meals, and Sheryl also runs donation-only workshops in which local businesses or individuals can sponsor 10 meals and either do the shopping and prepping themselves or donate the cost of 10 meals and let Sheryl and her volunteer crew do the work.

Our second speaker was Matt Simmers, our banker from First Niagara (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). First Niagara offers many services and products including business checking and savings accounts, personal checking and savings accounts, home equity lines of credit, personal and business credit cards, and mortgages. The benefits of banking with First Niagara are accessibility (with Matt as our banker), knowledge, a customer-centric operation, and good communication. Matt talked with us about the importance of having a good credit score. Factors that contribute to credit score include making payments on time, the capacity of available credit used, length of credit history, types of credit used, and past credit applications. First Niagara offers credit card balance transfer promotions to move credit balances away from cards with higher interest rates. They also have plans for debt consolidation and the ability to borrow against the equity in your home. Contact Matt to ask about any of First Niagara's products or services.