The Mercer-area community and prospective business owners are invited to Mercer Area Chamber of Commerce's annual spring mixer.

The event will be at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at Wilhelm Winery, 590 Georgetown Road, Deer Creek Township.

Founded in 1921, the 180-member chamber is considered to be one of the oldest in the country, said chamber secretary Deborah Plant.

"Wilhelm Winery is a member, and each year one of our members will host a mixer. It's for any new prospective members, and any members of the community can come as well. It's kind of a night to meet the businesses and get to know who's here," said the owner of Plant's Herb Farm Bed and Breakfast in Jackson Township.

According to Mrs. Plant, chamber members include "some individual businesses, and individual people, small businesses, major manufacturing businesses, automotive, tanning salons, the local Dairy Queen, hardware store, and our only grocery store -- just about every business in Mercer."

The chamber encompasses outlying townships such as East Lackawannock, Findley, Coolspring, Jefferson, Lackawannock and Jackson.

The chamber provides tips to improve business and gets businesses involved with community events.

"We're so diversified with all of our tourism and businesses we have to offer in the Mercer area. We do have a lot of unusual businesses, such as (The) Otter Creek (Store) that has specialty knitting, and unusual toys and trinkets, and Mercer Mercantile and Soda Shoppe, where you can go in and have a soda and penny candy. Or check out our local Pizza Joe's and Subway. It just depends on what you like," Mrs. Plant said.

She said the chamber tries to offer something cultural as well. The chamber helps to sponsor the summer Friday night band concerts conducted by Mercer school Principal Hendley Hogue on the courthouse square's bandstand area. They will start at 6:30 p.m. June 20, with an ice cream social from 6 to 9 p.m. sponsored by Eastern Star.

The chamber is involved with other community events, including this Saturday's Mercer Mania, Victorian Days in July, the winter holiday Festival of Trees and Victorian Christmas.

Mercer Mania is "a communitywide yard sale in the Mercer area, which is held from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m.," Mrs. Plant said. Mercer merchants support it by holding their own sidewalk sales during the event.

The chamber also puts together a reference book, a membership book and an advertising-sponsored brochure that is sent nationwide as well as to Canada. "It features all the businesses in Mercer," she said, adding that the chamber recently developed a free Web page. "We distribute all the membership's brochures. We have a brochure rack out front. We network with the other businesses and community organizations to promote tourism."

The chamber focuses on two different businesses each month in its newsletters.

Other upcoming events include the chamber's annual dinner at 6 p.m. June 4 at Howard Johnson Inn on Route 19. Longtime Mercer resident Nancy Ollinger will give a historical view of Mercer-area businesses in a talk titled "Looking Back; Places that Aren't Here Anymore." Chamber President Dave Shipton will present the Business of the Year and Citizen of the Year awards.

Both the mixer and the annual dinner are open to the public, but the chamber requests an RSVP for Thursday's mixer and requires reservations for the annual dinner by May 31.

For more information, call (724) 662-4185 or check www.mercerareachamber.com