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2011 Annual Installation Banquet “Carpe Diem”

Everyone agreed, “It was a blast from the past” on June 30th, when the Rosemead Chamber of Commerce presented their 84th Annual Installation and Awards Dinner.

By Cathy Brehm

The Annual Installation and Awards Banquet happens once a year and is the night that the Chamber installs their new upcoming group of Board of Directors, presents to one deserving individual, the Herb Hunter Business Person of the Year Award, honors the Chamber’s “Business of the Year”, and presents to one of their members the “Ambassador of the Year Award”.

RCC Board Member Ed Chen(Athens Services). Hosting the event

Athens Services,this year's Title Sponsor for the event.

This year’s Title Sponsor for the event was Athens Services, represented by Ed Chen. Table Sponsors included: Brown’s Jewelry & Loan, CH Auto, City of Rosemead, Consolidated Disposal, El Monte Rosemead Adult School, Holiday Inn Express, Panda Restaurant Group, Pacific Alliance Bank, Pacific Western Bank, Southern California Edison, Southwest Management, Wal-Mart, and Willdan.

The dinner was held at the beautiful Doubletree by Hilton where it has been held for over 10 years now. It was a 60’s theme, jeans, tie die, peace signs, and wild hair styles. It was the 60’s, the decade of the Vietnam War,Woodstock, Hippies, with sayings like “Make love not war” and “Give peace a chance”. And the guests were encouraged to dress the part. The banquet room was decorated with memories from the decade, multi colored beads hanging in the doorways, tie-dyed scarves centered on the table tops with cute wine flower vases filled with sunflowers, multi-colored napkins and 60’s music playing in the background. And the stage was decorated with a big yellow bus and lots of colored psychedelic images in the background.

Left to Right - Takspa Lekdan - Marketing Analyst Rosemead Chamber of Commerce, RCC Board Memeber-Surendra Mehta & Board Member Ryan Junk UFC.

The evening started off with President Erix Oliva,El MonteRosemeadAdultSchool, conducting a couple trivia quizzes for the guests. It’s amazing what you can remember from 40 years ago and game winners received free drink tickets. Our guest of honor for the evening was Congresswoman Judy Chu, 32nd District, who then installed our new Executive Board of Directors.

Trivia quizzes

Board Member Ryan Junk, Past & Current President Rosemead Chamber of Commerce - Amy Wu & Erix Oliva

The rest of the evening went off fabulously, everyone was in such a free spirited mood, cameras were snapping and guests were laughing. The food was great, there were lots of prizes, awards, games and even a silent auction going on. Many thanks to our Door Prize Sponsors: Little People School, JRC Wrought Iron, Charlie Brown’s Restaurant, Holiday Inn Express, Doubletree by Hilton, DiPilla’s Italian Restaurant, Brown’s Jewelry & Loan and El Patio Bar & Grill. And thanks to Richard Fierro and Consolidated Disposal who donated the silent auction items: Dodger tickets, that were won by Amy Enoto-Perez, Superintendent/Rosemead School District, and two sets on Lakers tickets, who were won Leticia Martinez, Consolidated Disposal, and Amy Wu, Holiday Inn Express.

Free Love!

We were also lucky enough to have as guests, some past Board Presidents of previous years at the Chamber. Uma Chander, 1995-1996, Ernie Ayala, 2001-2003, and Joan Hunter, 1985-1986 and 2003-2005.

Later that evening, the 29th Annual Herb Hunter Business Person of the Year was awarded to James Wang, CH Auto and the Business of the Year was awarded to UFC Gym, Ryan Junk accepting for UFC, and the Ambassador of the Year award to Jean Hall. All awardees were well deserving and quite appreciative of their awards. Board members were also presented with certificates of Appreciation from the Legislative offices that were present at the event, Congresswoman Judy Chu, Senator Ed Hernandez, and Assemblyman Mike Eng.

Ambassador of the Year award to Jean Hall.

Business of the Year was awarded to UFC Gym, Ryan Junk accepting for UFC

And a special thanks to all our milestone members, for without them this event could not be possible. 40 years Membership: California Mission Inn, 35 years: PSA Private Storage Areas, 30 years:GarveySchool District, 25 years: Irish Construction, and 20 years: Consolidated Disposal.

” I was excited and privileged to be able to attend such a great event for the Rosemead Chamber of Commerce. Everyone did such a great job putting everything together and making it a very special night.”, replied Renee Chan of Consolidated Disposal Services.

The Chamber would like to thank everyone that planned, helped, donated and supported this event, “All you need is Love”.