Chamber leaderships recognized at joint installation banquet
Sarah Murphy, left, receives her Silver Valley Chamber of Commerce award for Volunteer of the Year from Emily Miller at the Jan. 11 Joint Installation Banquet in Pinehurst. Photo by NATHAN DUGAN PHOTOGRAPHY
Cindy Lien (left) receives her Wallace Chamber of Commerce award for Volunteer of the Year from Anita Price.
PINEHURST — It was a night of smiles, laughs, and even some tears (of joy, of course) last Friday night when the Silver Valley and Wallace Chambers of Commerce held their 46th Annual Joint Installation Banquet.
The event is held every year to recognize outgoing leadership, welcome incoming leadership and honor those who went above and beyond for their communities.
Held at Shoshone Medical Center’s Community Outreach Center in Pinehurst, more than 80 attendees were treated to live music provided by popular local artist Krista Hojem and dinner catered by Flavor Fusion.
After everyone had settled in, MC’s Juli Zook and Keri Alexander guided the main event by calling people to the front, swearing-in officers and reading out awards.
Though the new and present directors expected to be up on stage for their brief swearing-in ceremonies, the community focused award recipients were kept a secret until the moment they were introduced.
Smiles gleamed across the faces of the attendees as the respective chamber leaders described the accomplishments of each winner, as most could figure it out who would win just by the list of accomplishments.
When finally announced, the winners came to the front to accept their awards (some showing lots of happy emotions).
Sarah Murphy, the new president of the Silver Valley Chamber of Commerce, was brought to tears after receiving the Volunteer of the Year from the SVCC.
“I was very surprised and so humbled!” she said after the event, “Oodles of people work their buns off in this Valley to help others. I share the honor with all of them.”
On the Wallace side, treasurer Cindy Lien also teared up when she was awarded Volunteer of the Year.
The Silver Valley Chamber handed out a total of five awards and the Wallace Chamber gave out three, along with posthumous dedications to recently deceased prominent residents. The directors of both chambers, Dave Copelan and Mallory Phillips, also received special recognition for their full-time work.
MC Juli Zook was pleased to see the event take place.
“It was an extraordinary meeting of the Wallace and Silver Valley chambers to celebrate the people and businesses that give back to the community and keep it going in a forward motion.”
Both chambers would like to give a special thanks to Nathan Dugan Photography for taking photos, Erin Nansel for bar tending, Juli Zook and Keri Alexander for MCing, Flavor Fusion Catering for catering, Emily Lyn Miller for organizing the event, Krista Hojem for playing music, Brett Milholland for making the Idaho Awards and Voltage Designs for making the plaques.
The full list of award winners is as follows:
Wallace Chamber
of Commerce
- Citizen of the Year — Anita Price
- Volunteer of the Year — Cindy Lien
- Chamber Member of the Year — Brenda Johnson.
- Special Posthumous Dedications to recently deceased prominent residents — Greg Marsh, John Darrington and Mark Davis
Silver Valley Chamber
of Commerce
- President’s Award — Colleen Rosson
- Citizen of the Year — Emilee Scudder Kulin
- Chamber Business of the Year — Radio Brewing Company
- Volunteer of the Year — Sarah Murphy
- Civic Achievement Award — City of Kellogg, accepted by Kellogg Mayor Mac Pooler