EDWARDSBURG — The village of Edwardsburg celebrated its business community Wednesday.

Dozens of people filled Our Lady of the Lake’s social hall in Edwardsburg for the for the annual Edwardsburg Chamber of Commerce Dinner to celebrate Edwardsburg’s business leaders.

In addition to being served a Polish dinner and having the chance to enter into raffle drawings, guests listened to a presentation by speaker Jeff Rea. Rea is the president and chief executive officer for both the Greater Niles Chamber of Commerce and the South Bend Regional Chamber of Commerce.

“I’m a big fan of chambers of commerce,” Rea said to begin his speech. “It’s businesses and the people that run them day in and day out that help make our communities great.”

In his speech, Rea discussed the challenges that southwest Michigan communities and chambers of commerce face, including attracting and maintaining a workforce. He said to help attract a younger demographic, communities need to invest in “sense of place” improvements, which include things like new businesses, parks and other quality of life improvements. He also praised the village of investing in quality of life improvements through the recent Edwardsburg Vision project.

“We have so many great things going on in southwest Michigan,” he said. “We want to invite people to see what we are doing here.”