Officials with the Greater Mount Airy Chamber of Commerce are looking to honor a local resident who has gone above and beyond in his or her commitment to the community.
But the chamber needs help, and is asking for area residents to nominate individuals they believe worthy of consideration for the chamber’s Citizen of the Year recognition.
For most of the chamber’s 63 years of existence, the recognition has been generally considered the chamber’s “highest honor,” said Chamber President Randy Collins.
“Who in the greater Mount Airy community comes to mind when you think of a local ambassador, a highly respected individual, or a business, organization leader focused on the future?” he said of some of the unofficial criteria used in whittling the list of nominees when the awards committee meets to go through the nominations,” Collins said.
Individuals do not have to be chamber members in order to win the award.
“I think what sets it apart, it’s generally an award to an individual, or to a couple, to someone who has just worked tirelessly in the community for a single cause, or a combination of various causes…and they have generally gone unrecognized. It’s (the award) a time for the chamber to put the spotlight on them and tell their story. That’s what the citizen of the year is.”
He emphasized that while many winners have had ties to local business, it is not a business award. Instead, it is one to recognize a person’s overall contribution, and leadership, in making Surry County and Mount Airy a better place to live and work.
The winner will be announced early next year, at the chamber’s Jan. 19 annual meeting slated to be held at Cross Creek Country Club. Collins said once a winner is chosen, the name is kept secret until being unveiled at the meeting. That, sometimes, can be a challenge.
“We try to get that individual to the event (without telling them),” he said. “Sometimes, we have to do that through family, or friends, or business associates.”
For now, the help Collins said the chamber needs is with nominations — he and the chamber are asking area individuals to nominate people they may believe should be considered for such a recognition.
“There’s a lot of stories of what people are doing, there’s a lot of heroes out there, and that’s who we’re looking for,” he said.
Those wishing to nominate someone can do so by filling out a form at the chamber’s website at https://www.mtairyncchamber.org/ For those who don’t have access to a computer, Collins said he’ll even accept hand-written or typed nominations.
“Somebody that may not be computer savvy, who wants to write up why they think a person should be a citizen of the year, they’re welcome to do that, as long as it’s not more than two or three pages. Send that to me, or drop it by the chamber,” he said. Collins email is randy@mtairyncchamber.org and the chamber is located at 200 N. Main St. in downtown Mount Airy.
The deadline for submitted nomination is 5 p.m. on Dec. 27. Once all the nominations are in — Collins said there have already been a “good number” submitted — the chamber’s selection committee will go over all of the forms, eventually choosing one winner.
“It’s a tough decision, there area lot of deserving people out there,” Collins said.
Past winners
Previous winners of the award, and the year of their recognition, include:
1962 Joe Johnson Sr.
1963 Archie Carter
1964 John E. Woltz
1965 Floyd Pike
1966 C.B. Roberson
1967 Dr. J. Dale Simmons
1968 George A. & Marguerite Kallenbach
1969 Rev. James Powell
1970 Jim Grimes
1971 Frank Smith
1972 C.B. Roberson
1973 James E. Johnson
1974 Jerry Beverly
1975 Stan Rogge
1976 Bill Breedlove
1977 Don Nance
1978 Larry Wright
1979 George Summerlin
1980 Dr. Swanson Richards
1981 Steve and Mary Petlitz
1982 Floyd Rees
1983 Bobby Galyean
1984 Jack Zonneveld
1985 Barbara Summerlin
1986 Tanya Jones and Zack Blackmon
1987 David Pruett
1988 Thurman Watts
1989 Ruth Minick
1990 Richard Vaughn
1991 Howard Woltz Jr.
1992 Ann Vaughn
1993 Jim Andrews
1994 Teresa Lewis
1995 John Springthorpe III
1996 Gene Rees
1997 Burke Robertson
1998 Susan Ashby
1999 Jack Greenwood
2000 Dr. Wilford Lyerly
2001 Gary York
2002 Pat Gwyn Woltz
2003 Ed Woltz
2004 Craig & Michelle Hunter
2005 Sandy Beam
2006 Marion Venable
2007 Virginia Rogers
2008 Mike Bowman
2009 Kate Appler
2010 Charlie and Ed Shelton
2011 Carol Burke
2012 Deidre Rogers
2013 Alan Connolly
2014 Berta Glenn Springthorpe
2015 Ben Cooke
2016 Catrina Alexander
2017 Robert Moody
2018 John Priddy
2019 Curtis Taylor
2020 David Rowe
2021 Traci Haynes George
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com
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