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Annual Banquet to be held Friday

FAIRMONT — Every year the Fairmont Chamber of Commerce hosts an annual banquet. Chamber President Ned Koppen described the yearly event as “a lot of fun and that they always have a pretty good turnout.”

“My favorite thing is just seeing the people,” Koppen said. “Really it’s just getting together with our membership and seeing those people one more time and hanging out with them a little bit, having a conversation in a relaxed fun atmosphere.”

The idea is to share how the chamber’s doing, all of their officers from the board have a chance to talk during the banquet a little bit, share their financial position and present awards to businesses of the year categories. The event also includes a dinner, a speaker and entertainment.

Planning this annual banquet was a little different in the process due to the current pandemic. Going into it, it starts with what has Gov. Waltz told them they could do as well as restaurants and venues. Next is can they social distance with the space and in terms of limiting the number of people at tables and spacing out the tables.

“Thinking through all of those things, are we able to do those and do it safely?” Koppen said. “Are we able to follow the recommendations of the governor’s office healthcare and what common sense tells us we want to be doing.”

Earlier this month, the chamber kicked off nominations for four different categories. Those four categories are large business of the year, small business of the year, non-profit business of the year, and new business of the year.

Large business of the year nominations are Fairmont Roofing, Mayo Health Systems, Fareway and the Holiday Inn. Small business of the year nominations are United Hospital District Fairmont Clinic, Martin County License Center, The Ranch and Bowlmor Lanes. Non-profit business of the year nominations are Lakeview Methodist Healthcare Center, Step Inc., Red Rock Center and Rotary. New business of the year nominations are Old Alley Quilt Shop, Dominos, Remax and AT&T. The voting process ended Feb, 26.

“The annual banquet is a chance to celebrate the chamber a little bit, celebrate all of our member businesses, highlight some businesses and ownership that have done a great job,” Koppen said.

This year’s annual banquet will be on Friday, March 5 at the Holiday Inn. Koppen anticipates that there will be between 75 and 100 people in attendance. Check-in begins at 6 p.m. with a little social time. The event begins at 6:30 p.m.

The overall message that Koppen wanted to send is that this is where the chamber is at. This is what happened in the past year and this is where the chamber is heading to moving forward. Koppen always wants the community to know that they don’t take their job lightly and that Koppen promises that himself and his staff are going to work hard for all of their member businesses and the business community.

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