By VERNON ROBISON
The Progress
The very Best of Mesquite gathered at the Eureka Resort on Wednesday, Jan. 12 for a special Chamber of Commerce luncheon event. It was the 2021 Best of Mesquite Chamber Awards, the third year for this exciting recognition ceremony.
Mesquite Chamber President/CEO Carol Kolson said that she was pleased to have the event back to a live luncheon. Last year the awards were announced remotely over an online platform because of health restrictions due to the pandemic.
“This year’s event was really well attended,” Kolson said. “That was good to see. And we expect it to continue to grow.
Kolson was also happy with the diversity of nominees and winners for this year. “We had a good mix of newer and long-time Chamber members in the mix this year,” she said. “To me, that was really great to see.”
Nominees for ten different Best of Mesquite Chamber categories are brought forward by the membership of the Chamber. All nominees must be members of the Chamber to be considered. A vote is taken at the end of the year with each Chamber membership casting a single ballot for each category. The nominee with the most votes in each category is awarded as a Best of Mesquite Chamber business.
During the meeting, Kolson went through each of the various categories and announced the award winners for each one. The winners then came to the stand for photos with Kolson and Chamber Board Chair-elect Kristi Neff.
In the category of Health Provider of the Year, the winner was Mesa View Regional Hospital.
The Financial Services Excellence Award went to America First Credit Union Mesquite Branch this year.
The Mesquite Women’s History and Culture Center was recognized in the 2021 Non-profit of the Year category.
The Golf Course of the Year distinction went to the Conestoga Golf Club.
In the category for Outstanding Community Service, the winner was the Salvation Army of Mesquite.
Reliance Connects received the distinction of Service Provider of the Year.
The 2021 Hospitality Award went to Hole Foods Bakery.
The Customer Service Champion award went to the UPS Store #6925.
In the category for the Real Estate Agent/Company of the Year, the winner was local realtor Karen Fielding.
The final distinction presented at the meeting was the Diamond Award. This special award is meant to recognize a business or individual for strong support of the Chamber throughout the year. Kolson explained that nominations for the Diamond Award are made by the Chamber Board itself. Then it is brought to a final vote of the membership.
Nominees for this year’s Diamond Award included Claudia Carlsen, an individual member; Danielle’s Chocolates; Lydia LeDuc of Sun City Realty; Christie Neff of Reliance Connects and Tony Stipanov of Southwest Gas. The winner was Danielle’s Chocolates with owner Frawnda DeCheminant accepting the award.
In a brief State of the Chamber address, Kolson also summarized some of the major accomplishments for the Chamber in the past year.
She announced the Chamber’s membership retention rate at 83.3 percent.
“That is very good given what we have gone through,” Kolson said. “Other chambers in the state have lost hundreds of members at a time over the past year or two.”
In 2021, the Chamber gained 45 new members and has a current membership of 279, Kolson said.
In addition, the Chamber staff during 2021 fielded no less than 198 office visits from out-of-town information seekers, sent out 33 relocation packets, took 643 tourism calls, fulfilled 45 social media and website requests, Kolson said.
The Chamber also hosted 13 ribbon cuttings during the year 2021, Kolson added.
Kolson also introduced two new Chamber Board Members which had also been elected at the end of 2021. These included Mesa View Regional Hospital CEO Kelly Adams and Eagle’s Landing Mesquite Manager Kenny Huff.
