Photo by Bill Green Conrad Weaver is president of the Emmitsburg Business and Professional Association.

To that end, Weaver is working to provide business-related training, teaching or speakers for the association's monthly meetings.

"Currently, we have networking socials where members gather at a local business for food, drinks and exchange business cards, and occasionally we'll have a more formal dinner meeting with a speaker. These are great, but I want to bring in speakers who will bring relevant subject matter or training to our professional community," Weaver said.

Weaver has lived in Emmitsburg since 2005. An association member since 2007, he was asked to join the board in 2008 and elected president in May.

Weaver owns and operates Conjo Studios LLC, a full-service video production company that helps companies create marketing, sales, promotional and instructional videos.

Weaver also wants to help the Emmitsburg business community become more connected with the public by co-sponsoring events and activities with the town and other local civic organizations.

's 'Alive @ Five' event," he said.

Weaver said some EBPA accomplishments include creating a successful "Change for Food" program.

"Through placing change boxes in local businesses, we've been able to raise nearly $10,000 for our local community food bank in our first year of this program," he said.

The organization also played a key role in helping residents displaced after a fire in an apartment building in downtown Emmitsburg .

"Many of our members chipped in to provide support, money, food, clothes and more, and the organization dipped into its funds to provide financial assistance to these people," Weaver said.

The association recently hosted the first Meet the Candidates event, featuring the aspirants for Frederick County Commissioner and in January held a dance fundraiser that raised more than $4,000.

Weaver credited member Bob Rosensteel for spearheading the dance.

	Photo by Travis Pratt Emmitsburg Business and Professional Association member Dee Connolly speaks with Emmitsburg commissioner Christopher Staiger during the association's meeting at the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton.

However, Knott had not visited one of the town's tourism icons -- the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton -- until Thursday, when the Emmitsburg Business and Professional Association toured the facility.

He was impressed.

"I was in awe of the display and St. Elizabeth Seton's life from her time in Europe to when she came back to the United States," Knott said.

The 60-acre facility is more than a captivating memorial to a saint.

With 380 employees, the shrine boosts Emmitsburg 's economic development in several ways, the visitors said following the tour.

Religious tourism is an increasingly growing industry and the shrine offers an opportunity for pilgrims to walk in a saint's footsteps without having to travel to Europe or the Holy Land, said John Fieseler, the county's executive director for tourism.

Last year, the shrine hosted about 45,000 visitors, making it one of the top visitor attractions in Frederick County. Of that total, about 20 percent are group tours, said Fieseler, who also toured the shrine with the association.

The highest number of visitors came from Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, New Jersey and New York, followed by Florida.

But the shrine receives visitors from almost every state in the course of a year, and last year had tourists from Australia, Canada, Ethiopia, Philippines, South America, Korea, India, France and Italy, Fieseler said.

"Many of the visitors are Catholic but they also get visitors of other faiths or groups that are interested in the history of the first U.S.-born saint, including from the Red Hat Society and visitors to the National Emergency Training Center next door," Fieseler said.

In addition, the shrine's location, just below Gettysburg and its proximity to Washington, make it a convenient stop when traveling north and south, he said.

As a recognized historic site in Frederick County and part of Journey Through Hallowed Ground, which has designated 180 miles of U.S. 15 as a historic road, the shrine also partners with other attractions to help attract visitors, Fieseler said.

Knott agreed that the shrine is a vital economic development tool for Emmitsburg , but adds that more publicity is needed to maximize its tourism potential.

"I would like to see it a little bit more well-known, but they have programs geared toward that," Knott said.

	Photo by Graham Cullen April Martin, center, new owner of Caleo Italian Pizza in Emmitsburg, is joined by her parents, Alton Sr. and Janet Hughes, and employees Elias Garcia, center right, and Andy Price, far right.
	DETAILS Carleo's Italian Pizza ADDRESS: 101 Silo Hill Road, Emmitsburg PHONE: 301-447-1999; 301-447-3232

A Long & Foster Realtor, Martin and her husband, Jeryl, an independent siding and roofing professional, are juggling their jobs with a new responsibility: owners of Carleo's Italian Pizza.

The couple took over the pizza shop in October.

April Martin's mother, Janet Hughes, left a secure job as food director for Adamstown Head Start where she had clocked nine years to assist her daughter's new venture, she said.

"Mom always enjoys the food business and I'm a people person so we decided to give it a try. We thought it would be a good investment," April Martin said.

As a full-time Realtor with a new business and three children, she and her husband are on the run, April Martin said.

"It keeps us hopping. I try to come in every day," she said.

The Martin children, Justin, 13, Jordan, 18, Amanda, 11, and Jordan's girlfriend, Bethany Peterson, 18, all pitch in, April Martin said.

Hughes said she wouldn't have left her job for anybody else.

"My daughter really needs someone here to help," she said. "You have to be a people person to run a business and remember the customer is always right."

The business hired three full-time and three part-time employees. April Martin's father, Alton Hughes Sr., 70, a retired electrician, also helps out at the shop.

"She succeeds in whatever she gets into and I'm just here to support her," Alton said. "I wash dishes and sweep the floor. Now, all I need to learn is how to flip pizza dough in the air," he said.

Carleo's Italian Pizza boasts a varied menu, including fettucini, spaghetti and stuffed shells, garden, tossed and Greek salads, hot and cold subs, appetizers and a variety of pizzas.

New floor tiles were installed and plans are to modify the floor plan to include an office and putting the kitchen in the rear to give customers more space in the front, Janet Hughes said.