ThisWeek UA 3/10/2011
(Includes 2 photo credits)
The business community celebrated another successful year at the Upper Arlington Area Chamber of Commerce annual awards ceremony last Friday. The chamber is also celebrating its 35th year of service to Upper Arlington.
The event was hosted by chamber president Becky Hajost and board chairman Don Leach; including a video presentation by board member Deborah Taylor highlighting the chamber chairs’ 2010 accomplishments and 2011 strategic plans and keynote address by Kenny McDonald, Columbus 2020! senior vice president and chief economic officer.
“This is an exciting time for the chamber,” Leach said. “Our annual meeting lets us recognize the people and companies that have made significant contributions to the community. We have focused our strategic vision, which we get to share tonight, and we are celebrating the strength of the business community in UA.”
Six awards were presented at the event. The award nominations are collected from the general public and then voted on by the chamber’s 22 board members.
Janet Boissy, vice president of sales and marketing at Indus Hotels (which operates the University Plaza Hotel where the event took place), was awarded the Arthur Cullman Business Person of the Year, as recognition for her business expertise, experience and accomplishments.
Edie Blough, vice president of Title First Agency, Inc., was awarded the Jeanne Schaal Outstanding Contributing Member, in recognition for dedication to promoting the chamber to the business community.
Upper Arlington Senior Center administrator Sally Gard and president Ron Wigington accepted the Outstanding Community Organization award on behalf of the senior center. The award recognizes the senior center’s community outreach, programming excellence and commitment to service for the community’s older adult population.
Cindy Vaughan, owner of Vaughan Music Studios on Tremont Road, received this year’s Best Place to Work award, in recognition for a world-class work environment that values its employees.
Carla Piolata, co-owner of Cibo Restaurant and Bar on Reed Road, received the New Business of the Year award for her latest venture, returning to the location of her previous family run restaurant, DaVinci’s.
National Church Residences Senior Vice President Jeffrey Wolf, and Diane Tomlinson, the First Community Village chief operating officer, accepted the Business of the Year award on behalf of NCR. NCR is headquartered in Upper Arlington and is responsible for the financial restructuring of First Community Village that brought FCV out of bankruptcy.
“As [NCR] celebrates its 50th year in business, we’re just thrilled to win this award from our hometown,” Wolf said.
Following the awards, McDonald delivered a presentation about economic development in central Ohio. The Columbus 2020! strategy has a goal of creating 188,000 new jobs and $3.7-billion in new capital investment by 2020.
“We believe creating jobs and getting people back to work is the most important thing we can do to help out our region’s social services,” McDonald said. “To reach our goals we need to be listening to our business leaders every day.”
The theme of the event “Building for the Future” was reflected in McDonald’s presentation as well as in the chamber’s video presentation of current accomplishments and the future strategy.
“The success of any strategy is in implementation. I’m absolutely ecstatic about the amount of volunteerism by our business people and how our businesses come together with our community,” Hajost said. “We all have so much passion for the community; it’s a real pleasure to see all the work being done to make the pieces of our strategic plan become a reality.”