The Holden Area Chamber of Commerce is hoping to attract new member businesses from neighboring towns through a name change its board of directors approved last week.
The Holden chamber will now be known as the Wachusett Area Chamber of Commerce. In doing so, the chamber will expand to add Sterling and West Boylston to its member towns, which also include Holden, Paxton, Princeton and Rutland.
Joni J. Milluzzo, president of the board, said the chamber already had some members from Sterling and West Boylston.
“We are not altering who we are; rather we are opening the door to expansion and increased opportunities for all of our members,” she said in a statement.
The chamber will remain an affiliate of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce.
The new name is similar to the Clinton-based Wachusett Chamber of Commerce, which closed its doors a little over a year ago, citing financial pressures. That chamber had served businesses in Berlin, Bolton, Boylston, Clinton, Harvard, Lancaster, Sterling and West Boylston. An arrangement with the Nashoba Valley Chamber of Commerce in Devens allowed members of the shuttered chamber to switch their memberships.
