Chamber seeks nominations for yearly awards ahead of annual dinner

With “A Night at the Races” planned for the Saturday, Jan. 28 annual dinner of the Putnam County Chamber, a number of local citizens and organizations could already be in the running for the Chamber’s annual awards.

The Chamber is now accepting nominations for the following awards:

- Citizen of the Year, honoring an outstanding person in Putnam County;

- Rookie Business of the Year, honoring an outstanding small business (less than 50 employees) that opened less than two years ago;

- Business Leaders of the Year, honoring a large business (more than 50 employees) that has made an impact on the community in the last year; and

- Amazing Dedication Award, honoring an outstanding nonprofit in the community.

While largely in line with the awards the Chamber has handed out over the years, the superlatives have changed up a little for this year.

“We wanted to change the names of the awards to be more inclusive, and to represent the growth of our members,” Chamber Executive Director Madison Hanna said. “We have outstanding individuals in our community, our goal is to highlight how they continue to make a difference, and show how much we appreciate them.”

Nominations may be made at https://tinyurl.com/35tdehjz or by sending via physical mail to Putnam County Chamber, 23 S. Indiana St., Greencastle, IN 46135.

The deadline for submissions is Friday, Jan. 20.

Always a chance for people in the community to get dressed up for a night out, this year’s annual dinner will be an opportunity for folks to don their most stylist derby gear (big hats encouraged) for the 6 p.m. event at The Inn at DePauw, 2 W. Seminary St., Greencastle.

To purchase tickets, visit the Putnam County Chamber Facebook page or email chamber@goputco.com.

Past winners of Putnam County Citizen of the Year, always the highlight of the annual dinner, include: Hazel Day Longden, the inaugural recipient in 1982; Hubert Clodfelter, 1983; Howard Williams, 1984; Bessie Rector, 1985; Mace Aker, 1986; Bobby G. Albright, 1987; Gerald E. Warren, 1988; David Barr, 1989; Jim Harris, 1990; Dr. James Johnson, 1991; Charles Chandler, 1992; Bob Evans, 1993; Julia “Judy” Johnson, 1994; Jerald D. Calbert, 1995; Harold Spicer, 1996; Jinsie Bingham, 1997; Dave Young, 1998; Barbara Lane, 1999; Ellen Sedlack, 2000; the trio of Lynn Wilson, Denise Sigworth and Rachel Seipel in 2001; Mike Rokicki, 2002; Joy Marley, 2003; Charles Miles, 2004; Judge Sally Gray, 2005; Dr. Donald “Doc” Brattain, 2006; Charles “Chuck” Schroeder, 2007; Lynn Bohmer, 2008; Ken Heeke, 2009; Becky Brothers, 2010; Judge Diana LaViolette, 2011; Judy Miller, 2012; Dr. Perry Wainman, 2013; Emily Knuth and Suzanne Masten, 2014; Sue Murray, 2015; Eric Bernsee, 2016; Ginger Scott, 2017; Ken Eitel, 2018; Laurie Hardwick, 2019; the citizens of Putnam County, 2020; Karl Turk, 2021.