By: Erica Noggle
The Paulding Area Chamber of Commerce held their Annual Banquet on Thursday, September 26, 2024. The Annual Banquet is the Chamber’s opportunity to honor businesses and community members because without them our Paulding County Community wouldn’t be as amazing as it is today. This year’s theme was a play on the traditional Monopoly game to coincide with the creation of the Paulding County-opoly game.
The Chamber touched on many programs and collaborative projects that have occurred over the last year. Those projects ranged from the Community Clean Up Day with Paulding Exempted Village Schools to the current project that is underway with the Paulding County Trails Project. These efforts are a staple of the Chamber’s mission to exemplify leadership by positively reinforcing and representing their members and businesses in the communities that they proudly serve.
Throughout the evening the Chamber celebrated with the community by presenting 18 awards in the categories of Milestone Awards, Golden Shovel Awards, Business Leader of the Year, Young Professional of the Year and the Legacy Award. Memories by Tawnya was present to take professional headshots and to capture a picture of each award recipient throughout the evening.
Milestone Awards were presented to businesses and organizations in celebration of their years of service to the Paulding County community.
1 year – Heier Threads Holistic Wizard Wellness, LLC
15 years – Boyd Automotive, Ltd
20 years – Buckeye Hearing Health; Country Inn Enhanced Living Center
25 years – Paulding County Hospital Foundation
40 years – Fun Factory; Paulding County Economic Development
70 years – Midwest Community Federal Credit Union
90 years – John Paulding VFW Post 587; Kauser Trucking
120 years – The Union Bank Company
The Golden Shovel Awards were presented to the following businesses that made improvements or expansions to their facilities to better serve their needs and those of the community.
1. A Plus Propane; 2. John Paulding Historical Society; 3. Grounded Coffee & Crumbs
The final three award recipients are chosen from nominations that were submitted by community members. Those nominations were passed along to three Chamber Directors in the states of Utah, New Jersey, and Wisconsin. Each of this year’s awards recipients were chosen unanimously by those individuals.
Business Leader of the Year is presented to an individual that has excelled within a leadership role in a Chamber member business. This individual is innovative, motivating to employees and civically engaged. This recipient may have acquired a long-term record of service or may have made one outstanding contribution that made a major impact in their business, industry and/or community. This year’s 2024 Business Leader of the Year is Bryce Steiner.
The Young Professional of The Year award is presented to an individual (age 20-40) who has achieved a successful career and has made innovative contributions to their company/community. This individual has distinguished themselves as a future leader in the business/organization. This year’s 2024 Young Professional of the Year is Amber Gochenour.
The Legacy Award recognizes an individual in our community that has given their time and talent to build a better tomorrow. This year’s 2024 Legacy Award recipient is Travis Tumblin.
A fun and creative fund-raising activity that occurs during the banquet is the Dessert Dash. Each table works together as a team to bid on a dessert. The table with the highest bid gets to ‘dash’ to the dessert table to claim their sugary goodness and then so on and so forth. This year’s desserts were provided by Grounded Coffee and Crumb, Michelle Stanford, and Grant’s Catering. The funds raised are then used by the Chamber throughout the year on Quality-of-Life projects throughout Paulding County. Through the kindness and generosity of the attendees we were able to raise $2,432.
This year’s Annual Banquet was made possible by the sponsorship of Northwest State Community College, State Bank & Trust, C.C. Seamless, Baughman Tile Company, Paulding Putnam Electric Co-Op, Sherwood Mutual Telephone Association, The Union Bank Company, Vancrest of Payne, and First Financial Bank. Memories by Tawnya was present to take professional headshots and to capture a picture of each award recipient.
