Chamber Welcomes Two New Directors Emeritus and Presents Numerous Awards and Honors at Annual Meeting

Over one hundred members of the chamber of commerce, award recipients and guests celebrated the Annual Meeting, Awards Dinner and Dance held on Thursday, May 15, 2014 at Hop Meadow Country Club.

Gold Sponsors for the evening event were COMCAST Business and Simsbury Bank.  Other Benefactor Sponsors included Bartlett Tree Experts, Santander Bank and Tim Patterson of Edward Jones.

Chamber member and Benefactor Sponsor Peter Gulli of Peter Dominic World Champion Salon and Spa entertained guests along with Cris Cirullo performing as "Last Man Standing" a DJ and acoustic band. 

 The Board of Education chose as the recipient of the Simsbury Chamber's  “2014 Educator of the Year Award” Rich Keegan, Physical Education Teacher at Squadron Line School. The presentation to Mr. Keegan was made by Board of Education Committee chairman Lydia Tedone.

Rich Keegan was recently awarded the Michael B. Gessford Excellence in Experiential Education Award by the Connecticut Experiential Education Association. In addition to receiving this award, Rich is the author of Global Games for Diversity Education, Teaching 21st Century Diversity Skills among other accomplishments.  Wife Marcia Keegan and Meg Evans, Squadron Line School Principal, attended the dinner to wish him well.

Retired Town Engineer Rich Sawitzke received the "2014 Distinguished Service Award" from Tom Roy, director of Simsbury Public Works, who praised Rich for the many, many public works project that were completed during his tenure as town engineer, including the Simsbury Meadows Performing Arts Center, the bikeway and the rehabilitation of the Simsbury High School.

Simsbury Chamber's long time Executive Director Charity Folk who will be leaving the chamber at the end of June was acknowledged by the chamber board of directors and Board of Selectman for her twenty-three years of service to the chamber and business community.

Retiring chamber directors Dennis Jacobs of D.E. Jacobs and Pamela Bowman of Prime Touch Services received the chamber's prestigious Director Emeritus designation for over 10 years of exemplary service to the organization.  They will join Directors Emeritus Michael Girard of Simscroft-Echo Farms; Ferg Jansen, Jr. of Tyee Management Associates; Glenn “Chip” Knierim of Moran, Shuster, Carignan & Knierim; Michael Paine of Paine’s Recycling & Rubbish; Wayne Bursey of Benistar; Peter Pabich of APW Wealth Advisors; Terry Boulton of Simsbury Bank; and, Connie Mason of ASAP. 

Simsbury Chamber officers elected were:  Ron Locandro, President;  Margi Jakubowski of Robert Hensley & Associates, Vice President; Attorney Chip Houlihan (new to the board), Vice President; William Scoville of William R. Scoville, CPA’s, Treasurer; Elaine Groundwater of Coldwell Banker, Secretary; and, as Immediate Past-President Kay Green of Green Graphic Design, who will be moving shortly to North Carolina.

Returning board members elected for 2014/2015 will be: Lou George of Hassett & George, PC; Ray Lagan of The Master's School; Kelly Kearney of Clarity Marketing; Ron Huston of State Farm Insurance; Tom Vincent of Vincent Funeral Home; Anthony Calendrillo of LIVE EVERY DAY; Trish Thomas, The Resume Resource and Tony Uanino of Belden Forest Court.  Rachel DeMaida will represent Governor's House filling out the term of Jeanne Dobbrow.

New board members installed at the luncheon were Gary Burdick of Simsbury Bank; Greta Lauro of Liberty Mutual Insurance; and, Jenna Mayotte representing the Simsbury Public Library.

Retiring directors honored for their service were:  Tom Roy representing Simsbury's Public Works Department; Beth Georger of Hop Meadow Country Club; and Dominique Avery volunteer from Simsbury Community Television.

For more information on the Simsbury Chamber, www.simsburycoc.org

Photos by Ray Padron