Springfield Chamber Annual Awards

Chamber members celebrate our community

By Todd Peterson
Springfield Beacon

Over 300 people celebrated the people and progress of Springfield at the Chamber of Commerce Annual Awards and Installation Dinner last Friday night.

The program emceed by Dan Egan, Executive Director of the Chamber, brought applause, cheers, tears, and laughter to the attendees at the event held at Lane Community College.

With a theme of "The Sky's the Limit", the evening focused on the business growth of Springfield and people who have contributed to the livability of our community.

Early in the program, Steve Wildish surprised the audience and Tom Draggoo of the Springfield Renaissance Development Corp. with a $50,000 donation from his family to the endowment of the Wildish Theater. He added that his family and the Wildish companies would "write another $50,000 check" when others in the community made donations to match their contribution.

Among the people recognized for their service to our community was Nancy Golden, Springfield School District Superintendent, who was named First Citizen.

Brothers Paul and Steve Roth of Roaring Rapids Pizza and Camp Putt shared honors as Businessperson of the Year.

The Distinguished Citizen award was presented to Shirley Collingwood of Transcend Marketing International for her extraordinary contribution to the Chamber Greeters and her lifelong service to our community. She is the first woman to be honored with the award since the chamber began presenting it in the 1990's.

The Chamber Greeters honored Shaunna Durham of Windermere Real Estate with their Greeter of the Year award.

Cornerstone awards were given to Laura Jaspers of Symantec, Trudy Borrevik of the City of Springfield, Brian Cook of Cummings Moving Systems, and Bill Seider of PIVOT Architecture.

In describing the Chamber’s "Cranes Over Springfield" recognition awards, Dan Egan, who deftly sprinkled bits of humor throughout the program, drew laughter from the crowd by first introducing them as "Trains over Springfield".
The awards went to St. Vincent de Paul for the Royal Building, Sycan Development for the new Holiday Inn, Royal Caribbean for their Call Center, PeaceHealth for the Riverbend hospital campus, Symantec for their building expansion, City of Springfield for the new Justice Center, Oregon Dept. of Transportation for the I-5 Flyover project, and the National Guard, BLM, and Willamette Forest Service for the new National Guard Armory which will house offices of all three organizations.

Dean Huber, outgoing president from Kernutt Stokes Brandt & Co., gave awards to outgoing Chamber board members Gretchen York, Corkey Gourley, and David Willis. Huber remarked on the Chamber's accomplishments during the year and introduced the incoming president for the year, Steve Roth. Roth spoke briefly about the Chamber's plans for the new year and concluded the evening by introducing members of the 2008 Board of Directors.