Mountain Lakes Chamber of Commerce hosts meeting with inspiring message, presents awards to deserving citizens
Katie Hightower
On Nov. 6, the Mountain Lakes Chamber of Commerce held its annual luncheon for members at Goose Pond Civic Center. A large crowd of people attended the event that was created to thank members for their contributions to the community.
Jonathan Colvin, 2024 Chairman of the Mountain Lakes Chamber of Commerce Board, welcomed attendees to the event and updated members of the chamber’s highlights through the year. He said that the Chamber’s Montgomery Drive-In had a huge turnout and the Washington D.C. Fly-in resulted in bringing Jackson County back in the Huntsville news coverage.
Colvin said the chamber received a lot of help from My Lake Guntersville to help battle the eelgrass issue. He said Jackson County tourism generated $91.4 million and that helped property owners save an average of $700 on their property taxes. Colvin said the tourism department developed and launched a digital marketing campaign and the new Jackson County visitor’s guide was available.
Colvin said the chamber’s workforce solutions assisted 43 business and industry investors and members and that resulted in a 115% increase over the goal to provide workforce solutions to two companies per month. They also tripled the number of Pink Hard Hats participants.
Colvin announced membership services offered a college tuition discount to members, their families and their employees. They can receive a 20% discount from Northeast Alabama Community College and Jacksonville State University and a 10% discount with Athens State University.
After Colvin’s welcome, Rev. Corey Burns delivered an invocation. Raymond Brandon led the group with the Pledge of Allegiance and Whitney Tinker sang the National Anthem.
Keynote speaker, Jason Parks, then delivered an inspirational and motivational speech to the crowd about intentional living. Parks works as a motivational speaker, Bible teacher and professional trainer. He has over 20 years of experience, is the Senior Pastor and CEO of Refuge Church and is the Managing Partner of Parks Group LLC. He served his community through his work fighting food insecurity and with Rooms of Refuge which transforms dream bedrooms for kids suffering from terminal illness. He also partnered with the Tim Tebow Foundation to bring Night to Shine to the Huntsville area. He has served and continues to serve as a board member to several charitable organizations.
“Living with intention means that we are never satisfied with staying the same. We’re constantly pushing the limits of what we can achieve and we’re discovering new ways that we can innovate and that we can contribute,” Parks said.
Parks encouraged business leaders to identify the potential in people and pull it out of them.
“At the foundation of being a leader, it’s all about caring for people. You see in our businesses and our organizations in our community, our greatest resource truly is the human resource and for so many of us we have to be careful not to see people as a means to an end but to see people as the prize—to see value in people, to invest in people, to prioritize relationships over personal gain,” he said
After Parks’s message, several awards were handed out to deserving members of the community who provided significant contributions that made Jackson County stronger and more beautiful.
Rick Roden, Chamber President and CEO, announced the Workforce Development Award to Greg Syslo, Managing Director of Indorama Ventures Limited. Syslo, a member of the chamber board, was dedicated and succeeded in improving talent development in Jackson County.
Roden then announced the Tourism Award to Jennifer Kritner of Unclaimed Baggage Center. For more than 20 years, Kritner shared her time and talents with the chamber and worked tirelessly to promote Jackson County.
For the past 12 years, the Jackson County Sentinel and Mountain Lakes Chamber of Commerce has partnered to recognize outstanding citizens with the Citizen of the Year award and the Lifetime Achievement award. This year, the first-ever Woman of the Year award was recognized.
Roden and Sentinel managing editor, Elizabeth Law, presented Erica Estes with the Citizen of the Year Award. Estes, owner and president of Southern Heating and Cooling, earned the award through her service to the community, charitable contributions, her influence on students and her role as a fair employer.
Roden and Law then proudly presented Raymond Brandon with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Brandon, a Veteran and Jackson County’s Santa Claus, earned the award through his service to the Veterans and family members of the Armed Forces and the families of Jackson County. His hard work reverberates state-wide with his service as the Alabama VFW State Chaplain and State Color Guard.
The first ever Woman of the Year award was presented by Roden and Law. Considerations for the award was narrowed down to five persons with the most nominations the chamber received from the public. Each of the five nominees made outstanding contributions to the betterment of Jackson County.
After two weeks of deliberation, the chamber decided one nominee stood out from the rest. The winner of the Woman of the Year for 2024 was Debbie Light-Moore, owner and operator of Gear Jammers Restaurant. Light-Moore earned this award through the many hours she invested in charitable work. She will be featured on the cover of the next issue of Jackson magazine with a writeup of her contributions.
After the awards, Jonathan Colvin passed the gavel to Brian Presson who will act as the 2025 Chairman of the Mountain Lakes Chamber of Commerce.
There were drawings for prize packages. Businesses that won prizes were the Scottsboro Public Library and Life’s Mirror Images.
