From The Star Press
MUNCIE, Ind. — The Muncie-Delaware County Chamber of Commerce celebrated its 125th Annual Meeting at the Horizon Convention Center with a retrospective of the group’s relationship with the community.
The meeting culminated in Muncie Mission Ministries receiving a $10,000 grant through the 2019 Fisher Governance Award, the ninth such award given by the Ball Brothers Foundation. The grant was received by chamber member and Muncie Mission chairman Jim Rosema who has served on the non-profit organization’s board of directors for the last 30 years.
The Muncie Mission is a faith-based organization that provides emergency housing, addiction recovery programs and other services to people in need.
As part of the chamber’s retrospective, Ball State’s office of Archives and Special Collections displayed original documents from the chamber’s history which included snippets from its involvement in the establishment of public parks, the construction of the Westinghouse Factory (now the site of Progress Rail) and the development of the Horizon Convention Center in 1988.
The chamber was originally founded as The Commercial Club in 1894 by a group of local business owners who hoped to draw industry to the area while addressing the economic and social needs of the county’s residents.
At the conclusion of the awards ceremony, outgoing board chair Andy Bowne passed the gavel to the 2019-2020 board chair Jeff Parsons.
Four local businesses received recognition during the ceremony:
- IU School of Medicine-Muncie received the Excellence in Education Award.
- The Spirit of Small Business Award was given to Carl Kizer of Kizer’s Carpet Care.
- LifeStream Services received the Excellence in Public Service Award.
- The Community Impact Award was given to Meridian Health Services.
