Fayetteville area businesses joined with the Greater Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce to celebrate a year’s worth of success and the Chamber's Annual Awards Ceremony and Dinner. Hosted at the Highland Country Club, guests were treated to dinner and live music before the awards began.
Chamber CEO and President Nat Robertson offered opening remarks, highlighting the growth of the chamber since he joined in early March, including that the Chamber gained 40 new members in his first 45 days as acting CEO.
“We support local businesses in three main ways: first is advocacy, where we, through MAC and government affairs, advocate for business-friendly public policy, probably one of the most important arms of the chamber. Secondly, is our education that we do with a small lunch and learns. We have started the Better Business Breakfast, which is going to be an educational program hour that you can do before going to work and then build your influence with help from some friends that we'll introduce in just a little while, "shared Robertson. “ Then the third piece of, I call them pillars, but the third way that we assist businesses is with networking and we do that through business after hours and then networking breakfast, and of course, the chairman's coffee club. So if you want to be involved with the Chamber of Commerce, there is plenty of opportunity.”
This year’s awards featured 10 categories and the second-ever winners of the George W. Breece Legacy Award, which was introduced to the community in August of 2022. Community members were able to cast their votes for the winners online
The 2023 winners were:
Non-Profit of the Year: Fizzy Friends Bath Bombs
Woman Owned Business Of the Year: An Affair to Remember
Minority Owned Business of the Year: George Joell 3 Photography
New Business of the Year: Fortuna Business Management, Diana Potts
Small Business of the Year: - Anthony Chavonne with CityView Magazine
Business of the Year: ERA Strother Real Estate - Denise Strother
Ambassador of the Year: Joseph Dowless
Government Relations Award: Angie Hedgepath
Military Affairs Council Award: Tony de la Vega, Tier One Real Estate
Chairman's Service Award: Lynnie Guzman of Holmes Security Systems
The Chamber's Breece Legacy Award: Willie F. Wright, Retired Educator & Community Volunteer
Mr. Ralph & Mrs. Linda Huff of Huff Family Office, Renee Lane, Executive Director of Airborne & Special Operations Museum, and Dan Dederick, Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the Army.
These three winners were the first to be awarded the honor after the Award’s namesake George Breece himself was the recipient of the first one in August of 2022.
This is the first year of the Veteran Business Expo, and it grew out of Fayetteville PWC’s Economic Impact Program, which focuses on expanding access and opportunity in public-sector contracting while strengthening the local economy. It builds off th
Lynlene Apiary and Crafts is owned and operated by mother-daughter duo Carolyn Kleinert and Jolene Kleinert. They are certified apiarists and sell honey, candles made with beeswax, soaps and other crafts at local farmers markets. Photos by GFBJ.Lynle
Big T’s has been a local favorite of Hope Mills since 2000 when Timmy (Big T) and Donna Gray first opened right on Hope Mills Lake. It is a seasonal restaurant, so many of Big T’s loyal customers were happy to hear they would now be open year-round, seven days a week.
