Chamber Of Commerce Banquet

On Saturday, Kelly and I attended the annual banquet hosted by our very own Fannin County Chamber of Commerce.

Considered by many who live and work in the region to be THE most anticipated event of the calendar, this year's event was held at the ultra-posh Brasstown Valley Resort in Young Harris, GA.

Our place of employment (Riverstone MD, PC) is a corporate sponsor of the event, and so we had a table for eight reserved for our group. For dinner, I enjoyed prime rib with roasted asparagus and a ball of mashed potato, while Kelly had the pecan stuffed grouper (fish) with wild rice and grilled vegetables.

Jody Davis, who is the chief financial officer (CFO) of Riverstone, was elected as Member of the Board of the Chamber of Commerce for 2008. It was nice to see a member of our group achieve the position, and Jody was clearly the most junior of the inductees -- he is only 29 or 30 years old. Congratulations, Jody!

Many awards were given out during the evening, and since Kelly and I are new to the community, we only recognized a couple of names. One (name) that markedly stood out to us was that of the Mercier family. The late Mr. Mercier (passed away this summer) and his wife, Mrs. Mercier, were awarded a Lifetime Honorary Member of the COC for their family's contribution to tourism and general support for community life in Fannin County. The Mercier family own the largest (and oldest) apple orchard in Blue Ridge - some 200 acres and thousands of apple trees - and for generations have been a huge attraction to the region. Our family has made a couple visits to the Mercier (store) just outside the orchards and especially love the deep friend apple pies! Yum!

The evening nevertheless was short for us. We essentially ate dinner and left while the live band hired for the evening played their first song. It is not that we were being antisocial, rather, with a 40 minute drive back to Blue Ridge, and Ethan being in Linda's care for the evening, we had to make good time to bring Ethan back home.

Linda Gray and husband Jimmie (?) are just lovely folks, and very caring. Our family will likely return to Brasstown Valley Resort to celebrate Kelly and my third year wedding anniversary, and we will be sure to bring Ethan to enjoy the sights.