No one puts on a gala like our chamber of commerce.

The Valdosta-Lowndes Chamber of Commerce hosted its 2019 awards dinner at the James H. Rainwater Conference Center this past week and what a night it was.

The nominees and eventual winners were celebrated in grand, Hollywood-worthy style.

And the winners are:  

Sally Sutton with Anchored Media Marketing won the Ambassador of the Year award.

The Members’ Choice award went to Kona Ice.

The Most Valuable Employee nod went to Jakarta Washington with Embry Riddle Aeronautical University.

Lindsey Rogers with Hospice of South Georgia won the Young Professionals award. 

Small Business of the Year went to Tickle Me Pink Daycare and Learning Center.

Miller Hardware won the Big Thinker award.

The event was capped off with Home Depot’s Peter Layne taking home the A.L. Girardin award for his volunteerism and community service. Layne was humble, appreciative and sincere in his acceptance speech and you have to love a guy who brings his mom and thanks her from the stage. 

The Valdosta Daily Times team was humbled to be honored as a member of the 50-year club, businesses that have been a part of the chamber for 50 years or more. In fact, the paper has been with the chamber since its beginning.

Executive Director Myrna Ballard and new chamber board chairman Lee McArthur struck the right tone as they talked about “My Chamber,” emphasizing that a chamber must be about its member businesses and how it serves them throughout the year and throughout the years. There was no better testimony to that mindset than Loyce Turner who was the chairman of the chamber board back in 1973 and who spoke passionately about building partnerships and having a common purpose.

Congratulations to all these deserving winners. 

It is great to see the hard-working women and men in our community recognized in such a grand way. 

Almost every community has a chamber. 

Few communities have a chamber like ours.

And no chamber puts on more spectacular events.