It’s always nice to get recognized. It’s even nicer when the recognition comes from your peers in your community!
Back in November, the Klamath County Chamber of Commerce started taking nominations for its 94th Annual Chamber Awards Gala, with the nomination deadline being December 20th. While the partners were attending the annual National Potato Convention at the beginning of January, we were surprised to learn we were nominated for not just one award – but two!
The first category we were nominated for was Environmental Leadership and the second was for the Big IDEA Innovation Award. With all the great businesses that operate in the Klamath Basin, it’s an incredible honor to get nominated for one recognition. But to be nominated twice is incredible! While we were eager to learn if we’d win an award, we had to wait until the night of the Chamber Awards Gala, which was held at the Ross Ragland Theater on the evening of January 17th. Local business leaders and some of their employees dressed up for the occasion, which not only consisted of the awards ceremony itself but also some time for socializing before the big event. Several local restaurants had samples of their best dishes out while floating plates of sweet breads and pastries made their way through the room. The event was emcee’d by Aaron Orendorff, with members of the Chamber handing out the awards. Short, funny skits with Chip Massie chasing the performers off the stage punctuated the ceremony.
While we didn’t receive the Big IDEA Innovation Award (that honor went to Gro-Volution), we did bring home the award for Environmental Leadership! Our efforts for sustainable farming, wildlife habitat preservation, solar energy implementation, soil and water conservation practices, green manure usage, and organic farming efforts were mentioned for the reasons we received the award. We’re proud of the work we’ve been doing to make our farm more sustainable, and the fact we were nominated with the Oregon Institute of Technology (which is the first university campus to run off geo-thermal power in the USA), REACH and Sky Lakes Medical Center, makes the award truly an honor.
Before wrapping up this post, Gold Dust Potato Processors and Walker Brothers would like to thank whomever nominated us for these awards, to the committee for selecting us for the Environmental Leadership award and, lastly, to the Klamath County Chamber of Commerce. The Klamath County Chamber of Commerce not only does a lot for the businesses in Klamath Falls, but they do a lot for agriculture in the Klamath Basin. We’d like to not only thank them for how they help businesses here, but also for their advocacy on behalf of farming and ranching. Thank you!
And congratulations to the other winners and nominees! Here’s to a successful 2015 for all!
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