Chamber eyeing an outside event for Citizen of the Year

The Du Quoin Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year banquet will look different in 2021 - as in less of a banquet and more like a classy picnic.

Abigail Hammonds, the interim executive director of the chamber said the era of COVID-19 necessitates fresh thinking about the annual event - traditionally one of the biggest nights on the Du Quoin social calendar.

"We plan to do our banquet in the spring, and hopefully we will be able to swing something outside," Hammonds said, given that the pandemic will still have a foothold in everybody's lives.

"We don't have a site yet," and the committee could still change the event, she added. But it's important to be safe, especially since this year's awards could have more people present than usual.

The 2021 Citizen of the Year isn't going to one person or even a small group of people. It's going to the Perry County COVID-19 teams that touch Du Quoin: The Du Quoin REA Clinic COVID Team, the Marshall Browning Hospital team and the Perry County Health Department team. It's all the medical units who are working to save us from the coronavirus, Hammonds said.

"It's everybody, from the doctors and nurses to the COVID units to the people who clean up and to the people doing the drive-through testing sites," she said.

In fact, the directors of those agencies are being tabbed to decide who to include.

"We knew this nomination would be hard, because it's a lot of people," Hammond said. "But this is their year. They deserve the recognition; they were out working while the rest of us were safe at home.

The 2020 Business of the Year award goes to The Weekly-Press Newspaper.

The 2020 Emerging Business of the Year award goes to Southern Homestead by Sassafras Woodworking.

In past year's the Citizen of the Year banquet is done in January, most recently at the American Legion Hall.

This one will be different, Hammonds acknowledges. "But the more, the merrier."