Best of West awards are announced

AIRWAY HEIGHTS - Each year as part of capping their year, the West Plains Chamber of Commerce celebrates achievement in various areas through its "Best of the West" Awards Gala. In normal circumstances the winners in a variety of personal and business categories would be celebrated live at a dinner event. But in 2020 due to constraints from COVID-19 - like many others - the Best of the West was held virtually on Friday, Nov. 6.

Based on voting from chamber members, awards were bestowed as follows.

First Responder:

The difficulty nominators had in a far from normal year picking the Best of the West's top First Responder were detailed by presenter Andy Barth from Inland Power & Light.

"Traditionally this is an award we allow our City Administrators to determine the winner, but this year we wanted to take the opportunity to award First Responder of the Year to all our Frist Responders in the West Plains," Barth told those who attended via Zoom.

The easy answer was to just pick all three finalists.

Fire District 3 to Duty Officer Robert Blom.

Fire District 10 to Captain Ron Wood.

From County Sherriff's Office, Deputy Matt Gould.

Educators of the Year:

Sheila Benson, kindergarten teacher at Michael Anderson Elementary School earned that district's Educator of the Year. Avista's Melanie Rose noted that "Mrs. Benson was born to be an educator."

Cheney's of Educator of the Year is Brad Guest at Westwood Middle School who was singled out for strides in his distance learning skills.

Military Members of the Year:

Two area individuals from the area's military were also honored.

The Active-Duty honoree was Captain Jazmind Hill, from the 92nd Operations Support Squadron at Fairchild. Hill was called a role model for women in STEM and led in sharing Air Force and Aviation career opportunities Bemis Elementary School students.

Guardsman of the Year, Senior Airman Rhett Peters, from the 141st Security Forces Squadron, earned his recognition from efforts like the part he played during mobilization for multiple missions including Spokane Civil Disturbance and Hurricane Relief Support in the Virgin Islands.

Business Awards:

Among the Business and Business Leader Awards was Small Business of the Year earned by West Plains Roasters.

Founded by Andy LaBolle and located in Cheney, their community-centric focus is dedicated to roasting quality coffee with a purpose in which coffee can not only help and sustain communities, but to make them thrive as well.

Owl Pharmacy has earned the distinction as one of the oldest pharmacies in the state of Washington, and now they have the distinction as being named the West Plains Chamber of Commerce's Mid-Sized Business of the Year.

Opening in Cheney in 1882, and having since expanded to Medical Lake, Spokane and Fairfield, where, "(At Owl), you will be taken care of like family."

The WPC's Large Business of the Year winner, Dealers Auto Auction, emerged from a list of six nominees. Nearly 30 years in business, having been founded in 1992, "Their company maintains exceptional testimonials from their individual customers," a nominator wrote.

Individual Awards:

A variety of individual award announcements capped the event.

Gerri Johnson, owner of Farm Salvation, and President of Re*Imagine Medical Lake earned the Community Service Person of the Year nod, topping the votes cast for six others. "Gerri's dedication of time and care to Medical Lake is not only constant, but unmatched," noted a nominator.

Young Leader of the Year winner, Tim Shustoff, is from Eastern Washington University's Eagle Sports Properties. "Tim has always shown continuous efforts in the community by engaging with chamber and community members," was one of the comments received.

The Chamber's Business Leader of the Year honor went to Debbie Anderson of the Holiday Inn Express in Cheney. "She believes in the importance of investing in not only the professional, but personal lives of each of her staff members," a nominator said of Anderson.

Finally, each year at the Best of the West, a Lifetime Achievement Award is handed out and that went to Christine Day, owner of North West Heating & Cooling for that honor. "Christine has served the West Plains Chamber Board of Directors for over seven years and has worked tirelessly to support the board, chamber and West Plains communities."

Paul Delaney is a retired former Free Press reporter and can be reached at pauldelaney53@comcast.net.