Banquet to celebrate momentum

Past presidents of the Clovis/Curry County Chamber of Commerce will be honored at this year’s annual banquet set for Friday night at the Landing on Cannon Air Force Base.

The event will open at 6:30 p.m. with a past presidents’ reception to honor those who laid the foundation for the recent success of the chamber and the area economy, chamber officials said. More than 12 past chamber presidents have been invited to the event.

“There’s a lot of momentum going on right now, but a lot of them laid the foundation for what we are celebrating right now,” said Ernie Kos, executive director of the chamber of commerce.

The main event will begin at 7 p.m., when the “Celebrating the Momentum” banquet will kick off. At the banquet the gavel will be passed from 2004 president Jay Neff to the new president, Stacey Martin.

Martin said he has been a member of the chamber since 1987 and continues to work in business in Clovis. Under his watch he hopes the business enterprise center will become a reality.

“We will lobby actively this year (for the funds),” he said.

He also intends to continue fostering a strong relationship with Cannon, he said. He also believes honoring past presidents of the chamber should become an annual event.

“I think it’s real important to remember those who went before,” he said. “There are a lot of people who spent a lot of hours (building the chamber up).”

Kos said chamber officials are still ranking the contenders for citizen of the year, volunteer of the year, business of the year, ambassador of the year and the heart award. All of these awards will be presented Friday night.

The main course at the banquet will be rib eye, Kos said, and the deadline for registration will be 5 p.m. Wednesday.

Tickets cost $25 per person and may be purchased from the chamber of commerce, although she expects the event to sell out before the deadline.