By Samantha Bolden | The Selma Times-Journal

The Selma and Dallas County Chamber of Commerce and Main Street Selma are planning to keep the community busy with several networking events this month.

The first event will be the Business After Hours on Wednesday, Aug. 10 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Quality Inn & Suites, located at 2420 Broad St.

During this event, people will have the chance to network and discuss the economic impact of tourism.

The chamber is also hosting a Lunch and Learn that is sponsored by The University of West Alabama. During the event, the University of West Alabama Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Supportive Services will discuss being licensed, bonded and insured, especially as it relates to securing government contracts. The event will be Tuesday, Aug. 16 at 11:30 a.m. at The Centre for Commerce, located at 912 Selma Avenue. Lunch will be provided. Call to RSVP for seats.

The chamber is also hosting a 60-minute coffee session, where the Chamber and Sarrell Dental will discuss ways to improve dental hygiene and increase access to quality dental care in the community.

“The main goal is networking with people that you normally wouldn’t meet,” said Sheryl Smedley, executive director of The Selma and Dallas County Chamber of Commerce. “It is an opportunity for people to start their day off, get a cup of coffee, and mingle. The session is being featured around National Health Month.”

The coffee session is sponsored by Trustmark and Sarrell Dental and will be on Friday, Aug. 19 at 7:30 a.m. in the Trustmark Community Room, located at 310 Broad Street.

For more information on these events, contact Smedley at (334) 875-7241.

Main Street Selma will be having an After Dark event with the main goal being to attract more people to appear downtown after business hours.

“We feel that our downtown is not as dangerous as most people perceive it,” said Clay Carmichael, Main Street Selma president. “We want people to shop downtown and support our downtown merchants.”

According to Carmichael, Gallery 905 and Queen City Market are confirmed to be some of the participating merchants. Both stores will be giving 10 percent discounts. Gallery 905 will be doing their discounts from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. and Queen City Market will be doing their discounts from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

“This is a great opportunity for people to meet our new board members, and just see what we’re all about and just have fun,” Carmichael said. “We want the downtown businesses to do well.”

Shebra Kidd, Downtown Selma Association director, said that the she hopes the event will draw people downtown.

“We’re hoping to get more people to shop downtown because it would bring up their revenue for downtown merchants and property owners,” Kidd said.

Kidd and Carmichael hope to have a huge turnout for the event due to the heavy promotion on Facebook.

The event will start around 7 p.m. at Side Porch Sandwiches, located at 1124 Water Avenue.

For more information on the event, contact Kidd at (334) 874-2109.