Prescott Chamber seeks nominations for annual awards

By Rick Kennedy, managing editor
Although its a January chill right now, the upcoming weeks bring Chamber banquet season to the region, and one of the area’s most prolific Chambers, the Prescott/Nevada County Chamber of Commerce has a number of community honors to award.
In a prepared statement Thursday morning, Chamber Director Jamie Hillery said the Prescott/Nevada Chamber of Commerce is current accepting nominations for two of those biggest awards, the 2019 Citizen of the Year and the 2019 Hometown Hero award.
“This is for the annual Prescott-Nevada County Chamber of Commerce Banquet. Nominations for both awards are due by Friday, March 1,” Hillery said.
Nominations for Citizen of the Year must be sent to:
Citizen of the Year, c/o Prescott-Nevada County Chamber of Commerce, P.O. Box 443, or 125 E Main, Prescott, AR 71857.
In her statement, Hillery said that any resident of Nevada County can make a Citizen of the Year nomination. The nominees must be a resident of Nevada County or have their business located in the county. Nominations and the reasons why this person should win, must be submitted in writing, she said.
“A selection committee will judge the nominations based on the following criteria: outstanding service to family, city, county, state, church-related, fraternal, recreational, industrial or educational-oriented services,” she said in the statement.
The past two Citizen of Year awards have gone to Lauren Doucet (2017) and Howard Austin (2018).
Likewise, nominations for the Hometown Hero can also be mailed to:
Hometown Hero, c/o Prescott-Nevada County Chamber of Commerce, P.O. Box 443, or 125 E. Main, Prescott, AR 71857.
Although the Hometown Hero award is very similar to the Citizen of the Year, in terms of selection by committee and outstanding community service, the nomination criteria is different, seeking those who have been in the military or retired military.
For 2019, however, Hillery noted that an expanded field of first responders will be accepted as nominees, including Nevada County-based fire fighters, law enforcement and ambulance/rescue personnel.
“For the Hometown Hero, all nominees must be residents of Nevada County, and any county resident can make a nomination,” Hillery said.
The past two Hometown Hero awards have gone to Pete DeWoody (2017) and an entire group was awarded in 2018, consisting of five Nevada County members of the Arkansas Army National Guard, including Blake Hopkins, Chase Carter, Paul Jones, Cole Hillery and Justin Barlow.
In addition to the Citizen of the Year and Hometown Hero, other prestigious awards are also announced annually at the Prescott/Nevada County Chamber banquet.
In the past, such honors as “Treasurer of Gold,” won the past two years by Frank Henson (2017) and Red McCain (2018); Business of the Year, won the past two years by Hillcrest Care and Rehab Center (2017) and AllCare (2018); and Organization of the Year, won by the Nevada County Master Gardeners (2017) and Food Share Arkansas (2018), have all been awarded at the banquet.
Also, the Prescott Chamber banquet has annually honored the year’s Farm Family of the Year recipients, and teachers and students from both the Prescott and Nevada school districts.
The 2018 Nevada County Farm Family of the Year has been Todd and Kathy Brown, who head a well-known and respected Nevada cattle ranch family. The 2019 Farm Family will be named later this year in June.