Award winners honored at the Jackson County Chamber 93rd annual dinner Thursday at Pewter Hall in Brownstown were from left, Scott Butt, Trish Butt, Andy Waskom, Shannon Borden, Shawn Malone, Ryan Kemp, Jennifer Meyer, Tonja Couch, Sehrish Sangamkar, Karen Brigdon and Karen Ault.
Chey Smith | The Tribune
Jackson County Chamber Director Dan Robison gave updates on SPARK Jackson County during the Jackson County Chamber 93rd annual dinner Thursday night at Pewter Hall in Brownstown.
Chey Smith | The Tribune
BROWNSTOWN — Guests arrived in blue jeans and rhinestones for the Jackson County Chamber 93rd annual dinner on Thursday at Pewter Hall.
Awards went to those who had made an impact through being an entrepreneur, teacher and committee member in the past year.
The Teacher of the Year Awards are chosen based on nominations given by their school’s principals. This year’s Teacher of the Year Award winners were Jennifer Meyer for elementary school at Emerson Elementary; Karen Ault, who retired May 2024, for middle school at Brownstown Central Middle School; and Karen Brigdon for high school at Seymour High School.
The Business Hall of Fame Award is presented to those with successful operations, respectable customer service and those in good standing with the Jackson County Chamber. This year’s Business Hall of Fame Award winners were The Brooklyn Pizza Company, Small Business of the Year; Family Drug, Medium Business of the Year; and Blue & Co. LLC, Large Business Company of the Year.
Bryce Peak, founder of Jackson County Drone Services, was the winner of the Maverick Challenge, a business planning competition for high school students.
Branch Development Manager and Small Business Leader with Centra Credit Unit Sehrish Sangamkar won the Young Professional of the Year Award.
Ryan Kemp, who works as a financial advisor at Edward Jones, was named Committee Member of the Year.
Tonja Couch, who is also a financial advisor with Edward Jones, received the Spirit of the Chamber Award.
Jackson County Chamber Director Dan Robison gave chamber updates, focusing his attention on a project launched one year ago, SPARK Jackson County, which started with addressing a missing piece of the chamber mission’s puzzle.
The project traces its roots to The Maverick Challenge.
That 13-year-old program offers great opportunities for young business-oriented people, but once the challenge is over, there aren’t resources to help them in their next steps, to put their plans truly in motion and have them ground their futures in Jackson County, Robison said.
“There [was] really nothing in place for those students to take that idea and grow it, right?” Robison said. “We [didn’t] have an environment, a system of resources in place to help them launch that business idea.”
That is the impetus for SPARK Jackson County, which is made up of multiple parts as it continues to expand.
Other projects attached to the program include SPARK Plug for social networking, SPARK Tank for business ideas to compete that will be provided resources with the potential to win prize money, SPARK School for encouraging middle school aged kids to get into business and SPARK Amigos for Latino entrepreneurs in the community.
The chamber also is working on SPARK Place, which will provide a place for those who need community to gather, share ideas and work together.
SPARK Place will be for remote workers, those in their program who need training and in general, for anyone who needs a supportive community around them to boost their ideas.
The Flywheel Fund of Jackson County is the last part of this program that raises money to help fund the great business ideas these young people have.
“If you’re just a big thinker and you have great ideas, SPARK is for you,” Robison said.