Friday, Jan. 30, 2009

Chamber honors Olathe residents, businesses at annual meeting

Dr. Robert Fry, Fry Orthodontics, was named Friday the Chamber’s 2008 Citizen of the Year.

Accepting the award in front of a standing ovation of more than 400 Chamber members, Fry said he was “surprised and humbled.”

“I love this community, my family loves this community,” he said. “This is very much appreciated.”

Fry has been involved in several local charity efforts. As a winning contestant on “The Price is Right,” Fry donated $22,000 in prizes to five local charities.

Fry led the community effort to build the Olathe Family YMCA and has served on several international medical teams, traveling to Haiti, Russia and India.

He has also received the Johnson County Library Foundation’s 2008 Pinnacle Award for advocacy and public engagement, the 2002 Martin L. Schulman award for achievement in the orthodontic profession and the Greater Kansas City YMCA Volunteer of the Year award.

MacCallum said Fry was a “natural pick” for the Citizen of the Year award.

“The Fry family does this as a labor of love, and we will continue to do so,” Fry said.

Receiving the 2008 Corporate Citizen of the Year award was Farmers Insurance. Accepting the award for Olathe’s largest private employer were Vince Donofrio, Rodney Johnson and Rob Koch.

“We are deeply honored to be recognized and are blessed with caring employees that really enjoy helping others,” Donofrio said. “They expect the company to be involved in the community, they expect each other and they expect their leaders to be active, too.”

Olathe is home to Farmers HelpPoint, ServicePoint and Farmers National Property and Catastrophe Claims operations. The company supports such organizations and causes as the Olathe Marathon, the city’s free concert series, the Olathe School District Foundation and Back-to-School drive for underprivileged children, and the Olathe Food Pantry and Salvation Army.

“Farmers contributes significantly to the quality of life Olatheans enjoy,” MacCallum said. “The company has made a tremendous investment in our community, bringing thousands of jobs to Olathe, and is one of our most generous corporate citizens.”

Taking home the Chamber’s 2008 Volunteer of the Year award was Dyce Bonham, a World War II veteran who started the Kansas Student Loan Program in the 1970s.

Bonham has been involved with the Chamber’s Business to Government Advocacy Program and has served on several local political campaigns.

“Throughout my career I’ve had a passion for small business,” said Bonham, who retired from the loan program in 1992. “I worked with the Small Business Administration to get loans for small businesses, and even collected some loans, too.

“The real core of success in this country is small business.”

Bonham has volunteered with the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, the Olathe Police Advisory Board, the Olathe School District’s Citizens for Excellence, the American Legion, the VFW and the Olathe Medical Center Foundation.

Bonham thanked the Chamber members for the award,

“As you ‘mature,’ honors do not come as rapidly as they did when you were younger,” he said to laughter.

Also receiving awards Friday were Adriane Shands from Metcalf Bank, Ambassador of the Year; Garry Poore, Long Term Care Financial Partners, Five-Star Membership Recruiting award; and Sherm Olson, Olson Outdoor, and Doug Sanders, Bartlett-Olson Membership Achievement award.

Poore also received the Bartlett-Olson Membership Achievement award.

The Olathe Chamber of Commerce presented the awards during its 88th annual meeting.

Chairman of the Board of Directors Kevin Gilmore, who assumed his position from past chairman Char MacCallum during the meeting, said the Chamber will continue to be successful in 2009, despite the economic challenges the city faces.

Priorities for the Chamber this year include sustainability, but not just that of the environmental kind. Gilmore said keeping the community an area leader, ensuring economic well-being and maintaining a high quality of life for Olathe residents all fall under sustainability.

The Chamber, however, also has formed a sustainability task force that will consider “reasonable” green initiatives for Olathe businesses.

Among other priorities are continued business expansion and development in the city, a new legislative software program to help Chamber members track developments at the state level and a new Web site that went live just yesterday.

“I look forward to serving the Chamber and continuing to promote healthy and diverse tourism, innovative member benefits and services and increasing voting in Olathe, among others,” Gilmore said. “I’m confident our Chamber will continue to make a difference in the community.”

Joe Lauria, Fox 4 News, emceed the program.

In 2008, the Chamber helped secure around $200 million in commercial investment in Olathe, creating about 930 jobs.

The Olathe Chamber of Commerce has been awarded a five-star accreditation from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The national chamber has awarded only 42 five-star accreditations in the last 23 years.

Submit an ad