Chamber to honor top business person
Leading volunteer to be acknowledged for first time at this year's annual dinner

By Bill Donovan
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Somewhere out there in the business community of Gallup is a man or a woman who doesn't know that they have been selected for the Chamber of Commerce's top honor.

He or she will find out, however, Saturday night when the chamber holds its annual dinner at the Holiday Inn and selects the Business Person of the Year as well as the Volunteer of the Year.

This will technically mark the first year that the chamber is bestowing an honor on the year's top volunteer but this is actually an outgrowth of its annual community service award, which was last given out in 2002.

Herb Mosher, director of the chamber, said that the names of those who are being honored is, as usual, being kept secret even from the people who won them.

Tickets for the event, which will begin at 6:30 p.m., are still available for $25 each. Tickets are available by calling the chamber at 722-2228.

The chamber this year is also pushing its annual reverse raffle, which is one of the key fund-raising events for the organization each year.

The raffle is limited to 1,000 tickets at $50 each and the top prize is a Harley-Davidson motorcycle or $12,000. Mosher said there are still some tickets left to the raffle as well.

The event will also see three new board members inducted Gerry Herrera (co-owner of Cnet), Brandy Sanchez (owner of the area Subway franchises) and Wendy Heinz (president of SCS Connect).

They will replace outgoing board members Ellis Tanner, Dale Buser and Leslie Rodriquez.

One of the main goals of the chamber during the next year will be to finalize its efforts to build its own facility. Working with the Northwest New Mexico Council of Governments, the two organizations are now trying to get the funding for the building as well as locate a site.

Mosher said the decision was to keep the offices in the downtown area of Gallup and so far three good sites have been located.

"We'll looking at building a two-story structure with the chamber on the ground floor and the Council of Governments on the second floor," Mosher said.

New Mexico Reps. Irvin Harrison and Patty Lundstrom have pledged to seek funding for the proposal.

— Contact reporter Bill Donovan at (505) 870-2135.