By Michael O’Hearn

michael.ohearn@tryondailybulletin.com

 

Members of the Carolina Foothills Chamber of Commerce gathered at the Purple Onion restaurant in Saluda on Tuesday night to honor and recognize volunteer awards recipients for 2015.

 

Janet Sciacca and Mike Karaman co-hosted the event and distributed six awards to community members and business owners who served the Foothills in the last year.

 

Sciacca, who has been with the chamber for 16 years as of December 2015, began the presentation ceremony by introducing new members of the Foothills board.

 

These members include Shawn Evans of Landrum Hardware, Darla Klenier of WNC Edutech, Tammy Martell of Tam’s Tack and Bed and Barn Farm, Melanie Talbot of Green River Barbeque, Chris Tinkler of Old Tryon Country Realty and Matt Troyer of Foothills Amish Furniture.

 

“We had 40 businesses join us in 2015, and we now have 352 members of the Chamber of Commerce in Polk County and Landrum,” Sciacca said at the podium.

 

After announcing the dates for the 2016 Blue Ridge Barbeque and Music Festival to be June 10 and 11 and talking about the foundation grants given to local businesses, Karaman presented the evening’s awards.

 

Two different awards for given for the barbeque festival category, and these awards were distributed to Carl Wharton and Dennis Nagle.

 

“He (Wharton) has served as competition chair for the festival for 22 years and has been instrumental in finding barbeque vendors and bringing in the cook teams from all over,” Karaman explained to the audience.

 

Nagle has served as an operations chair at the festival for seven years, helping coordinate tents and the staging of the events at the Harmon Field gathering.

 

The Skip Seaman Volunteer of the Year Award was distributed to Kim Karaman, owner of Landrum Antiques and Furniture.

 

Mike Karaman said he had the pleasure of honoring his wife with this award, saying, “I had nothing to do with this nomination or voting for this person, because she is my wife.”

 

Madelon Wallace of Walker, Wallace and Emerson Realty in Landrum received the Outstanding Citizen of the Year award at the event.

 

“Anyone who knows her has heard her advocate for the preservation of our area for years, and that the Foothills are one community, unbroken by the state line,” Sciacca said. “This individual took immediate action to preserve our environment. They have been an excellent steward of the lands and the award is presented to Madelon Wallace for her work in stopping the transmission line from coming through Polk County and Landrum.”

 

The Purple Onion’s owner, Susan Casey, was honored with the Business Person of the Year award.

 

“Having an excellent reputation for dedicated, professional staff and providing free live quality entertainment, and who embodies the fun, creative and casual atmosphere that reflects Saluda’s lifestyle, we award this to the leadership and achievements of Susan Casey, owner of the Purple Onion,” Karaman said.

 

Casey said she wanted to thank her staff and the community for presenting to her the business award.

 

Polk County Extension Director John Vining received the last award of the evening, the Duke Energy Citizenship and Service Award.

 

“The big puffy green coat and the beat up 1986 Toyota pickup truck have been fixtures of Polk County’s government,” Sciacca said in her presentation. “Vining has performed innumerable acts of public service, both small and large that have gone unannounced or unnoticed, on a list of deeds regrettably being too long to name here.”

 

Vining was not present at the awards dinner because had two youth girls basketball teams to coach so Jimmi Buell, a former coworker of Vining’s, accepted the award on his behalf.

 

Buell thanked the audience and said Vining deserved the award he received from the chamber.

 

Retiring after 32 and a half years with the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service, Vining has spearheaded a multitude of local projects, from planting and maintaining 156 trees at Polk County High School to developing Rogers Park and Gibbs Amphitheater in Tryon.