PAID ADVERTISEMENT
The Bay County Chamber of Commerce Annual Dinner and Awards Ceremony is scheduled for June 18, 2021, at the Edgewater Beach and Golf Resort. A social and silent auction benefitting Junior Leadership Bay begins at 5:00 p.m. with program and dinner beginning at 6:45 p.m.
This event will celebrate the Chamber’s successes of 2020 and honor the outgoing Chair of the Board, Andrew Rowell who will officially pass the gavel to 2021 Chair of the Board, Chris Moore. The program will also include presentation of the Chairman’s Award, Member of the Year Award and the Lauren Merriam Award, which is the highest recognition given by the Chamber for community service in our area.
Also being at this event is the outgoing Military Affairs Committee (MAC) Chair, Will Cramer. Cramer was the 2019 Board of Directors before becoming the 2020 MAC Chairman.
Lauren Merriam Award explanation
The Lauren Merriam Memorial Award is presented by the Bay County Chamber of Commerce to a member of the Bay County business community who best exemplifies the characteristics embodied by Lauren Merriam, a Past President of the Chamber in 1959 and the original Chairman of the Chamber’s First Friday Club. Most importantly, among those characteristics are commitment to the community’s well-being, as exemplified by involvement in civic, charitable and/or endeavors contributing to the betterment of Bay County and the benefit of its citizens – and the ability not to take oneself, or one’s peers, too seriously. Merriam did a lot for our community and in the process, he enjoyed himself.