ELGIN — After a three-year hiatus due to COVID-19, Elgin’s Chamber of Commerce is renewing its annual awards banquet and will once again honor a citizen and business of the year.
The jeans and jewels-themed event will be held at 6 p.m. March 25 at Medicine Park’s Music Hall. The last banquet was held in the spring of 2019 to recognize the 2018 honorees, Elgin Chamber of Commerce President Leslie Durham said.
“This will help us to start getting back to a level of normalcy,” she said. “We had received questions about restarting the banquet.”
Durham expects about 150 people to attend the banquet, which requires an RSVP to the chamber office. Table sponsorships are available.
Silent and live auctions are also planned for the banquet, with a variety of items ranging from gift certificates to overnight stays at casinos. Singer and guitarist Dani Carson will serve as the musical guest.
The chamber banquet committee is asking for Citizen of the Year and Business of the Year nominations, which close Feb. 28. Nominations for Elgin’s top citizen should include people who “go above and beyond in church, civic organizations and neighborhoods,” according to chamber guidelines.
Nominations should include additional information about why the nominee deserves the award.
Likewise, nominations for Business of the Year should focus on companies that extend their services beyond normal operations and have good reputations with customers and employees.
All nominations should be sent to elginokchamberofcommerce@gmail.com.
Citizens of the Year
• Jerry Renshaw, 2003
• Jim Draheim, 2004
• Larry Thoma, 2005-2006
• Dee Slatten, 2007
• Scott Hayes, 2008
• David Kolker, 2009
• Jackie Mitchell, 2010
• Norris Atwood, 2011
• Carl Bremenkamp, 2012
• Kevin Anderson, 2013
• Mark Deevers, 2014
• Tom Crimmins, 2015
• Leslie Durham, 2016
• Rachel Jones, 2017
• Doug Kirkpatrick, 2018
Citizen of the Year and Business of the Year awards for 2019-2021 were not presented.
The Business of the Year award began in 2014. Those award winners are Elgin Discount Pharmacy, 2014; Liberty National Bank, 2015; Williams Food, 2016; Kori Eslick Insurance, 2017; and Elgin Realty, 2018.