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Chamber honors business, civic Top Guns
By KATHLEEN NOBLE, Staff writer
Chairman Mike Simpson targeted the “Top Gun” theme of Saturday’s 25th Annual Frisco Chamber of Commerce Awards Banquet in his opening message at Embassy Suites-Frisco.
“In these economic times it is even more important that all businesses and people work together and support and cover one another,” said Simpson, executive director of the Arts of Collin County and former Frisco mayor.
The evening’s touching invocation delivered by Jerry Holder, vice president of the Frisco Economic Development Corp., relayed the benefit of having allies in both your professional and personal lives.
“It’s imperative that each of us find our wingman,” he said.
The Frisco Citizen of the Year award went to Frisco’s former First Lady, Sandy Simpson.
Simpson was recently named to 21 leaders in the 21st Century list for her service to Frisco. Sandy is a dedicated community volunteer. She is on the board of Collin County Community College Foundation and is a member of the Frisco Chamber of Commerce and the Frisco Heritage Association. She also serves on the Historical Home Tour Committee and the Historical Marker Committee, the Frisco Garden Club and Frisco Family Services Center board of directors. She is the wife of former Frisco Mayor Mike Simpson.
Silver Citizen of the year was presented to Billy Gene Phillips. Phillips a lifelong Frisco community activist and resident was showcased as a 25-year Frisco Fire Department volunteer, having spent 15 of those years as acting Fire Chief and many years of service as a member of the Frisco ISD board of trustees.
This year’s Spirit of Frisco award recipient was Holder, vice president of HTNB Corp., chairman of Frisco Economic Development Corporation, and pancreatic cancer survivor.
Mike Simpson said Holder embodies the true meaning behind this award.
“Through all of the hardships Jerry has met in the last year, his spirit for the city of Frisco never waivered,” Simpson said.
Holder accepted his award to a standing ovation.
This is “one of the few times I’ve been speechless. I get up every morning and wonder if anything will happen today that I will remember the rest of my life. Most days I think, probably not. Today is an exception, this is one of those days, I’ll never forget,” he said.
The Patriot Award, bestowed on individuals affiliated with the Armed Forces was given this year to Frisco resident, Phil Taylor in recognition of his work with The American Fallen Soldier Program, a project responsible for presenting portraits of fallen soldiers to their families.
The mission of Taylor and his project is to honor and memorialize those who have sacrificed their lives protecting our freedom while serving in the Armed Forces.
Taylor, through the American Fallen Soldier Project, presents an original portrait of a fallen soldier that fully captures his or her appearance and personality to family members at no cost.
Because Taylor was unavailable to accept his award, Frisco resident Jackie Merck whose son Peter Burks died in the line of duty on Nov. 14, 2007, in Bagdad, accepted in his absence.
“There are only two entities that sacrifice their lives for each of us, Jesus Christ and the American soldier,” Merck said.
FarStar, a technology-based creative marketing firm was named Small Business of the Year.
Led by CEO Kevin Lofgren, FarStar was founded in 2001. FarStar acts as a one-stop shop for its clients, routinely developing large-scale ad campaigns to specialty programs that help clients achieve sales and marketing goals.
Other small business contenders included Frisco Automotive & Transmission, Eagle Gymnastics Academy, Voyager Insurance-John Harvey, Frisco Websites, It’s a Grind, and eLink.
The Medium Business of the Year honor went to human resources consulting firm HRchitect.
Matt Lafata, vice president of sales and marketing for HRchitect, thanked the chamber and then recognized the company’s hard-working and talented team.
Sound Perfection Inc., Land Rover Frisco-Randy Brown, Acute Kids Urgent Care, James Hardie Products and Lawton Commercial Services were other Medium Business of the Year contenders.
Centennial Medical Center, a Tenet Healthcare facility, claimed the Frisco’s Large Business of the Year award.
A 118-bed acute care hospital, Centennial Medical Center offers a broad range of medical services including a 21-bed Emergency Department, an Intensive Care Unit, Women’s Services, a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and Nursery, Diagnostic Imaging Department, four operating rooms, Physical Therapy and Telemetry in its more than 292,000-square-foot facility.
The 40-acre campus includes medical office buildings with more than 100 physicians on site.
Centennial specialties include breast surgery, cardiology, oncology, plastic surgery, open heart and vascular surgery, oncology, infectious disease, general surgery, pulmonary medicine, obstetrics, pediatrics, women’s services, and neonatal services.
An expansion of the medical center is scheduled for completion in 2011.
Embassy Suites Frisco, The Westin Stonebriar, Mario Sinacola & Sons, Park Place Lexus-Plano, and American Unit were other Large Business of the Year hopefuls.
Hermansen Land Development Inc. a real estate development and management company founded in 1998 by Kirk Hermansen was acknowledged as Frisco’s Development/Developer of the Year.
Hermansen properties include The Shops of Starwood and Frisco Market Center among others.
Other Development/Developer of the Year challengers were Frisco Square, Harty Land Co., Bill Darling - Darling Homes and Jim Newman - Newman Village.
Sound Perfection owner Tamme Harty took home Entrepreneur of The Year honors. Sound Perfection specializes in home theater automation, security and audio/video distribution in downtown Frisco.
Other entrepreneurial candidates were Bill Sholar and Kim Green of Frisco Website, Jim Newman of Jim Newman Real Estate, Lofgren of FarStar, and John Clements of Allstate Insurance.
Scott Sonju, chair of the Chamber awards committee, said making the selections from all the finalists in all the categories this year was very difficult.
“While we were able to select one winner in each of the other categories, choosing the Community Partner of the Year winner proved more difficult. We finally agreed there should be more than one winner,” Sonju said.
The 2008 Community Partner Award went to both The Sweeney Media Group and Mario Sinacola & Sons.
Mario Sinacola & Sons, founded in 1966 in Detroit, Mich., opened its Frisco based headquarters in 2001. The construction services business offers heavy highway and civil construction, bridge structures, excavation, underground utilities, paving and retail/residential/commercial land development.
Sweeney Media Group is a marketing and public relations firm combining talent, practice and passion to build brands and provides a thorough assessment of a client’s vision and creates a plan to achieve it.
Other considerations for the Community Partner award were Centennial Medical Center, Frisco Square, EDS Credit Union, and Bill Darling of Darling Homes.
The 2008 Chairman Award was presented to Pizza Hut Park General Manager Michael Hitchcock.
Pizza Hut Park, which opened in 2005, is a multi-purpose facility, featuring a 20,500-seat stadium built and owned by the City of Frisco, whose primary tenant is Major League Soccer team FC Dallas.
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