Business Awards Highlight Excellence in the Community

Published in Star Democrat | Leann Schenke | January 28, 2019

Business owners, employees and the community gathered Friday, Jan. 25, to celebrate the winners of the Kent County Chamber of Commerce Excellence in Business Awards.

The 48th annual awards ceremony was held at the Garfield Center for the Arts with Chestertown Mayor Chris Cerino serving as the host and Chesapeake College President Cliff Coppersmith as the keynote speaker. Executive Director of the chamber of commerce Loretta Lodge organized the awards.

The Finishing Touch took home the award for Environmental Awareness with Greenscapes Land Care winning the Community Service Award. Shore Studios won Best New Business of the Year and KRM Construction won Outstanding Business of the Year. Chikki Shajwani of Molly’s Place was recognized as Business Leader of the Year.

Bob Ramsey accepted the award on behalf of the Finishing Touch, which recently used the Maryland Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy initiative to help pay for HVAC upgrades and the replacement of more than 1,000 square feet of “low R-value glass.”

Greenscapes Land Care was awarded the Community Service Award for providing services at no charge to several groups in the community including the Kent County Fairgrounds, the Betterton Fire Company, the Chestertown traffic circle and the Animal Care Shelter of Kent County.

Owner of Greenscapes, Casey Hurd, accepted the award.

After launching in 2017, Shore Studios has a list of clients including KRM Development, Washington College and Cross Street Realtors. Shore Studios’ videos have been used by NASA, the University of Maryland Shore Regional Health and the Chesapeake Bay Magazine.

Owner Sam Shoge accepted the award. In his speech, he praised Kent County as one of the best places to do business because of the support he received.

“The amount of people who came up to me and said ‘I really love your work. I’ve seen it on Facebook. I’ve seen it on YouTube.’ All of that is just incredibly encouraging to keep me going,” Shoge said.

Kenny Gray of KRM Constructed accepted the business’ Outstanding Business of the Year Award.

KRM was described as a business that “truly strives to provide its employees with unlimited opportunities to grow both professionally and personally.”

Gray said the company was “honored and humbled to receive the award.” He said winning it also was a team effort.

He said he was also honored considering the companies KRM was up against for the award.

Chikki Shajwani was recognized as Business Leader of the Year for his customer service, social media engagement and for making Molly’s Place a “welcoming destination.”

Shajwani said he was “humbled and honored” by the award. He thanked the team at Molly’s Place saying “the entire team is why I’m here.”

He thanked his brother Nick for supporting him after they moved from India when they were teenagers.

“This is actually him. This is not my award. I’m just here because of him,” Shajwani said of his brother.

All the winners received a plaque from the chamber of commerce and citations from Del. Jay Jacobs and state Sen. Steve Hershey.

Also at the awards, sixth-grade science teacher at Kent County Middle School Amelia Markosian was recognized as the Kent County Public Schools 2018-2019 Teacher of the Year.

Markosian has taught at KCMS for six years. She was described as an “innovative educator who engages her students through the use of technology and hands-on activities.”

Markosian said while the gala is meant to celebrate all types of businesses, as a teacher she is in the “most rewarding business of all.”

“I go to work every day with the goal of making a difference in young growing and hungry minds,” Markosian said. “I want my students to think and dream bigger than they think they can.”

She said she was impressed by her students’ drive especially after a trip to Echo Hill Outdoor School where, after seeing plastic washed up on the beach her student wanted to picked it up, recycle it and “think of possible ways to clean up the trash all over the Bay,” Markosian said.

Markosian praised her students’ drive to help clean up the Chesapeake Bay as well as the support the public schools get from organizations like the Sultana Education Center, Washington College and Echo Hill Outdoor School.

“Our public schools house the majority of our working generation. It is so comforting to know that our community stakeholders value our students and buy into their success,” Markosian. “I want to thank everyone here for supporting and investing in our county’s future leaders.

The nominees for the Environmental Awareness Award were Atlantic Security Inc., The Finishing Touch, Michael Jensen of Unity Landscape Design and USA Fulfillment.

The nominees for the Community Service Award were John Carroll of Village Real Estate Company, UM Chester River Health Foundation, Chester Valley Ministers’ Association, Greenscapes Land Care, Kent County Public Library, Kent School and the Peoples Bank.

The nominees for Best New Business of the Year were Cedar Chase Consulting and Shore Studios.

The nominees for Outstanding Business of the Year were Cross Street Realtors, KRM Construction and Shore United Bank.

The nominees for Business Leader of the Year were Casey Hurd of Greenscapes Land Care, Chikki Shajwani of Molly’s Place and Mary Ellen Valliant of Valliant Wealth Strategies.

Also at the award ceremony, the new chamber board officers and directors were recognized. They are President Richard Thorp, Global Cancer Initiative; past President Stew Seitz, UM Shore Regional Health; Bernadette Bowman, Kent County Office of Tourism; John Carroll, Village Real Estate Company; Karen Couch, superintendent of Kent County Public Schools; Linda Dawson, Dixon Valve & Coupling; Creg Fleetwood, Fleetwood Insurance Group; Barbara Foster, Sumner Hall G.A.R. Post #2; Casey Hurd, Greenscapes Land Care; and Lisa Moody, Washington College.

Lodge also honored outgoing board president Seitz for his service on the board for the last two years. She said with Seitz’s leadership, the board has “grown and maintained a focus on issues important to local businesses.”

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