PORT ANGELES — Two businessmen were honored for their service during the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce annual awards last week.
Ed Bedford received the Presidential Award.
Mike Millar was named the “Member Extraordinaire.”
Bedford was the recipient of the 2006 Member Extraordinaire award, which is decided by chamber staffers based on member involvement.
Bedford’s “there before, through and after every event,” said outgoing President Jim Hallett of Hallett & Associates.
“He’s been able to step in at a moment’s notice,” he said.
Bedford helped connect the chamber to crab suppliers for the Crab Festival and took over organization of a visit from a Vietnam War Memorial replica, Hallett said.
“When I’m asking for volunteers, he’s either the first to volunteer, or he sees to it that it is done,” Hallett said.
Bedford, who also was named the chamber board’s new vice president, laughed as Hallett pulled a bottle of Bedford’s own home-brewed brand of root beer from a bag.
Bedford’s Port Angeles-based BRP Enterprises Inc., which does business as Bedford’s Gourmet Sodas, produces root beer, cream soda and ginger ale.
In the past, he was with High Tide Seafood and was a wholesale wine and beer distributor.
“Working with the chamber has been nothing but a pleasure,” Bedford said.
“This is just incredible,” he said.
“I thank all of you.”
Millar ‘stepped up’
Millar, owner of ASM Signs in Port Angeles, was given the Member Extraordinaire award because “he stepped up to make things happen,” said Russ Veenema, chamber executive director.
Millar worked on the Fourth of July parade and Concerts on the Pier and coordinated the chamber’s Christmas trip to Victoria.
He has also been elected president of the organization twice.
“He’s all-around a really active chamber member,” Veenema said.
The whole idea of the chamber is wonderful, Millar said.
“When I was president, it was wonderful to see people active then,” he said.
“It’s extraordinary to be extraordinaire,” he added.
Hallett also received a plaque thanking him for two years of service as chamber president.
“He brought a lot of life to this position,” Veenema said.
Hallett turned the helm over to 2012 chamber President Brian Kuh once the awards ceremony ended.
Kuh, a commercial banking officer at Columbia Bank, has lived in Port Angeles since 2004.
Board officers
Officers of the new board are Kuh, Bedford and Jim Wahlsten of Coldwell Banker Uptown Realty as treasurer.
Other board members for 2012 are Julie Hatch, site manager of KeyBank in Port Angeles; Howard Fisher of Double Exposure, Celebration Specialists; Alan Barnard of Windermere Real Estate; Kathy Charlton of Olympic Cellars Winery; Cynthia Warne, representing the Port Angeles Farmers Market; George Bergner, businessman; Shenna Straling, branch manager of the Sterling Savings Bank’s Port Angeles office.
Also, Todd Ortloff, station manager of KONP Radio; Sharon Stevenson, representing the North Olympic Land Trust; Clallam County Administrator Jim Jones; Edna Petersen, owner of Necessities & Temptations gift shop; Jeff Robb, Port of Port Angeles executive director; Jack Harmon, businessman representing the Port Angeles Downtown Association; Port Angeles Mayor Cherie Kidd; and ex officio members Port Angeles City Manager Kent Myers and Olympic National Park Superintendent Karen Gustin.
Andrew May of Mayflower Horticultural, who has served as the chamber’s parliamentarian for 10 of the past 11 years, made his final appearance to oversee a brief vote on a chamber bylaw.
“Thank you for electing me for such a long term,” May said.
“Free at last, free at last,” he joked.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
