The Chamber’s humble beginnings began in November of 1986, when Hudson’s former Community Development Corp. hired Sarah Cressy to finish out the third and final year of Hudson’s Main Street Program, a federally and state funded program to set the framework to revitalize older industrial downtowns. Cressy quickly incorporated a downtown business association, but soon realized that a broader coalition of business and community leaders was needed to insure the health of the business community. At the end of 1987, Cressy morphed the association into a Chamber of Commerce, and in 1992, brokered a merger deal between the Hudson and Maynard Chambers of Commerce to create the Assabet Valley Chamber of Commerce. Today, the Chamber represents close to 300 businesses from Berlin, Bolton, Hudson, Maynard, Stow, and beyond.