Under the theme of Journey to Success, the Hope-Hempstead County Chamber of Commerce held its 2025 Annual Meeting and Banquet last night.  The 2025 Citizen of the Year was a dual award this year with Jamie Pafford-Gresham, CEO of Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma operations of Pafford Medical Services and Ben Gresham, Vice President of Pafford being chosen.  

Upon accepting the award, Jamie Pafford-Gresham described the many difficult points over the past year, which saw Pafford Medical System take over the management of Hope’s only hospital after its previous management company Wadley went into federal bankruptcy proceedings.  Just after hearing that the owner of the hospital’s property was willing to gift it to the city of Hope and Hempstead County, Pafford-Gresham said she had a revelation:

“Lord, so I go to bed that night and toss and turn until about 2:30 in the morning. I just woke up and I said, ‘Jesus, what in the world are we going to do?’ And it was the loudest, clearest voice that said, ‘How wide do I have to open that door for you to walk through it and have faith in what I have planned?’ And so I was like, ‘I hear you. I hear you.’ And so the next morning, I woke up, called the family, and I said, ‘We're going in the hospital business.’”

She announced that the hospital will be designated a nonprofit. 

Ben Gresham said, “I would just like to say we love. You guys, we're proud to be members of the community of Hope in Hempstead County, and we just we're so appreciative of the support that you have shown us over the years.”

Since then, Pafford Medical Services took over management of the hospital, renaming it to Southwest Arkansas Regional Medical Center.

Others recognized at the banquet for their service to the Hope-Hempstead County community were as follows:

·       2025 Young Leadership Award: Haley Rae Bane who sells tasty treats through her nonprofit H.R. Sweets and uses the proceeds to donate to her church’s missionaries.

·       2025 Nonprofit of the Year: The Hope Evening Lions Club which distributes food to low income recipients

·       2025 Educator of the Year: Virginia Moore who has been an educator and a teacher of teachers for 46 years and currently is an instructional facilitator at Clinton Primary School. 

·       2025 Business of the Year: Main Street Cleaners, previously owned by Larry Moses who passed away last year, and now owned by his daughter Lindsey Honea. 

The meeting also included a keynote speech by Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce and Associated Industries of Arkansas president Randy Zook who took the audience through a slide show depicting Arkansas’ rapid growth over the past ten years compared to the national average and made the case that tax cuts and investments in infrastructure were the key to this.  

“We're making good policy choices,” he said. “We're making good decisions at the state level, and arguably, we're making the right kinds of moves at the national level. And all of this is paying off, and . . . the next five to 10 years we'll see record growth, continued record growth, in Arkansas, which will benefit and create more opportunities for our kids and our grandkids. “

The meeting began at 5:00 p.m. with a meal of chicken fried chicken with gravy, roasted vegetables, twice-baked potato, roll and strawberry cake all catered by Sheba’s.  Then in the opening ceremony Scout Troop 5 presented the flags of the state and nation. Chamber board president Arnetta Bradford sang the national anthem and chamber past president Maurice Henry said the opening prayer.

The Chamber’s Executive Director Christy Burns gave a welcome then said, “Tonight, we come together to reflect on our accomplishments, honor those who move our community forward and look ahead to the exciting opportunities before us. Every step we take with our business owners, leaders or dedicated community members contributes to our shared journey to success. Thank you all for your support, your commitment and your belief in the growth of coach and Henson County.”

The banquet also featured musical performances by Jeff Smith & the Green Pantinas, who provided renditions of “Loved Like That” and “Grandpa” and the vocal and piano duo of Arnetta Bradford with April Winfrey who performed “Don’t Stop Believin’” to end the evening.

After the banquet wrapped up, Jamie Pafford-Gresham was asked about what progress was being made toward gaining state revenue from the legislature to help improve Southwest Arkansas Regional Hospital.  “Really, they've not had anything on their agenda to actually send funding to us. We have a requests in to the governor's office, and it does go through our representatives, and they're doing their best to push it, to try to see if we can't get that $7 million so we can purchase new equipment, we can keep the hospital operating, we can bring it up to the level it should be at and what we expect our community to have. 

“So we're going to continue to press on for those funds and not give up on that, because we feel like they're there. We feel like we're a very viable facility, and I know they don't want to throw good money at a bad project, and we're not a bad project. We're a very viable project, and we just need some help. And so hopefully, you know, the community can continue to put pressure on to build this system up, because we need it. We need it in the worst way.”

Above photo:  Virginia Moore, at left, was honored as 2025's Educator of the Year. The award was presented by 2024's winner of the award Mikki Curtis.