April 25, 2016 - Album - The 94th Annual Chamber of Commerce Banquet was held Monday evening, April 25, 2016 at the John D. Windham Civic Center. Six Shelby County citizens were honored recipients and were recognized for their contributions to the community. Past-President Derek Pierce was given a plaque in recognition of his service to the chamber. Rose Specter received the Chamber President's Award. Farm Family of the Year was presented to Jeff and Betty Parker. Young Citizen of the Year was given to Anna Lee and the Distinguished Citizen of the Year was announced to be Jim Forbes.
Chris Watlington, the master of ceremonies, welcomed everyone to the event. After saying grace and leading the pledge of allegiance, Watlington recognized visiting representatives from the offices of US Senator John Cornyn, US Senator Ted Cruz, and US Congressman Louie Gohmert. Texas House Representative Chris Paddie, District 9 was introduced and spoke briefly. The City of Center Mayor and Council members were recognized along with Chamber of Commerce President Jim Sawyer and his wife Kathy and President-Elect Meg Camp and her husband James.
Chamber of Commerce President Jim Sawyer said, "The first people I want to thank is our chamber staff - Pam Phelps our Executive Director, Jenny Fancher and Tammie Luman." He then recognized the chairpersons for the banquet Lacie Payne and Kelly Lucas. He continued saying, "As president, this is a very easy job, because there are so many wonderful people to work with." He thanked the chamber board of directors, ambassadors, and past presidents of the chamber.
"This year has been a very successful year for the Chamber of Commerce. We start out with our fiscal year runs October and this last Poultry fair was one of the most successful we have ever had - we were blessed with great weather, we were blessed with great volunteers and I think we broke some records financially. It was really a great weekend for everybody. The other thing that stands out this year was our total resource campaign in February. Many of you were familiar with that because this was the second year for our fundraiser put on for the Chamber. This year Chad Nehring our City manager lead that effort and they broke a record financially and also they increased the Chamber membership by 78. The Chamber membership now stands at 415 members thanks to their efforts," praised Sawyer.
Following remarks from Sawyer, Watlington recognized the junior chamber of commerce members. This year the chamber has 54 graduating seniors. Watlington recognized the seniors who were in attendance at the banquet.
By way of a parody of the game show Distinguished Citizen Jeopardy with Alease Copelin playing the part of Alex Trebeck, the Distinguished Citizen of the Year was announced in the final round by the audience to be Jim Forbes. Copelin went through various categories: the Road to Center, Awards, Community Involvement, and the Final Clues with three good-humor contestants guessing. Clues given included - He was the recipient of the Thomas Jefferson Award; he coached in the Center Little League program when his son was young; his family has helped report the daily weather when needed, in 48 years, no reporting of the weather has been missed; after spinal surgery and rehab he was offered a desk job in Washington D.C., he didn't like the indoors option; he received the John Campanius Holm Award; he served as a Boy Scout leader in the 1960s; he has provided weather information to the court system for weather related cases; he began applying for jobs and was offered a job with the Soil and Water Conservation Service in a place he had never been, Center, Texas; the Department of Commerce Award for 40 years of continuous service in the U.S. Government was bestowed on this gentleman; he has been a member of the Golden Harvest Ministries Club for over 20 years, he has served as reporter, program chairman and president; he calls Channel 3 in Shreveport and provides daily weather information for Center and the surrounding areas; he moved to Center in August of 1961; he was awarded the Dick Hagemeyer Service Award for 45 years of continuous service for the United States Weather Service; he was a volunteer for the Center Volunteer Fire Department for 30 years and he served as both secretary and treasurer; and he provides weekly weather information to the local paper and monthly weather information to Shelby County Today.
Forbes said, "It was kind of a miracle that my family that we got to come to Center. When I found out I couldn't do mountainous survey work I got the field of service registered and I found three jobs it qualified for. One at Hobbs, New Mexico and one at Arizona and one I think is in Texas - Dalhart. So, well I thought that is the nearest place to my home town in Arkansas. I'll just take Dalhart. There were just days before I signed the final papers to go there, a man from the personnel division called from the Department of Agriculture and he said James we need you badly in Center, Texas. And I said where on earth is Center, Texas." Once he found out Center was closer to his home town he said, "I was gone to Center, Texas." Forbes finished saying, "It's such a blessing to be here all these years. If you are new here, and you just moved in the last few months or whatever, and you move to Center, Texas and you stay one year and you never leave. You can't leave Center. There's thousands of folks here in this county that would give you the shirt or blouse off their back and the shoes off their feet if the need arises. If you need prayers, you can get more prayers in one week in Center, Texas than you've had since the day you were born. I love it here and I'll never leave it here."
In a recap of a year of change in Center, Watlington mentioned the new Chicken Express, the new shopping center on Hurst Street, the tearing down of Pizza Hut, the removal of the hospital building as well as milestones for several area businesses including the 65th anniversary of Center Motor Company, the 50th anniversary of Bounds Insurance and the 20th anniversary of Lasting Impressions.
The Center High School Culinary class prepared a decadent array of desserts which included a variety of fruit, lemon cake with a blackberry sauce garnished with a sprig of mint and a blackberry, chocolate strawberry cake with layers of fresh strawberries and strawberry cream with a sprig of mint, pineapple upside down cake, and a banana cream cupcake garnished with a banana slice.
