One of the few good things we could say about 2020 was the Chamber still conducted its Annual Meeting and honored some of Chillicothe’s top businesses.

Our awards – Entrepreneur of the Year, the Legacy Award, the Corporate Citizenship Award, and Young Professional of the Year – give the community a chance to nominate some great businesses to celebrate their efforts to make Chillicothe and Ross County a great place to work, live, and play.

To recap last year (since it feels like much longer than that when we gathered), The Riffle family of Riffle Machine Works were our Entrepreneurs of the Year, Gerber Insurance Agency and Financial Services won our Legacy Award, Homeland Credit Union was honored with the Corporate Citizenship Award, and Macey Power of Adena Health System was our Young Professional of the Year. We also heard from Quint Studer of the Studer Community Institute about the strength of Ross County and how we can continue to move toward a more vibrant community.

So, here’s the big announcement: The Annual Meeting is set for Tuesday, July 13. We’ll have more later on the time, place, and other details later. We’re hoping that warmer weather, a possible open air venue and continued COVID-19 vaccinations will help continue the downward trend in cases and get us together again to honor some of our great businesses.

But you can contribute now: We’ve opened up the nominations for each of our awards and we’d like your contributions. Just click below and you can submit nominees for each of the awards. I’ve included some details about each of the awards below, but it’s also available on our website and on the submission form.

The awards:

• Entrepreneur of the Year recognizes those individuals who best exemplify the essence of the definition of “entrepreneur” – the organizer of an economic venture, one who promotes, owns and manages and assumes the risk of a business or enterprise.
• The Corporate Citizenship Award is presented to a business that exemplifies corporate citizenship in giving back to the communities in which it operates, enhancing the economic health and quality of life of its employees and its community.
• The Legacy Award honors businesses and/or families who have been part of the chamber and our business community for 25 years or more. The Legacy Award is a testament to the member and their commitment to service.
• The Young Professional of the Year award recognizes a young professional who is engaged in education/career development, demonstrates leadership in their field, and is active in civic or charitable activities.

DEADLINE FOR NOMINATIONS:  5 p.m. Friday, May 21, 2021

MARK YOUR CALENDARS: Tuesday, July 13 is the date for the annual meeting. Time, place, and more will be announced at a later date.