Lauren Estes

Hartselle Enquirer

The Hartselle Area of Chamber of Commerce is seeking nominations for the following awards. The annual meeting will be in April.

Hartselle Area Chamber of Commerce Annual Award Descriptions includes: Dr. Thomas M. Guyton Humanitarian Award The Chamber of Commerce established this annual award in 1980. It is a special award – for Thomas M. Guyton. The person who receives this award is a “gift” to the community. It is given to someone who seeks to improve others lives, who gives and gives, but yet never asks or takes in return. This person is very deserving of this award. This person never complains of being too busy to get involved. This person is totally involved in their: church, work, etc.

The Chamber has been giving the E.R. Roberts Business Award annually since 1989. E.R. Roberts opened clothing store in downtown Hartselle in 1921 when he was 20 years old. He started his business on the corner of Main and Sycamore and stayed in business for 69 years until he died in 1990. He built his reputation of honesty and fair treatment to his customers and strong civic pride and support. In his days his reputation was remarkable and today’s day it would be almost unheard of. Mr. R accidentally over charged one of his customers $.17 on his purchase and he spent almost 2 hours looking for this person to give him back the $.17. He was a beloved and successful businessman in our town. He was successful not because of money made but because what he invested himself back into the community. That’s why he’s honored today and why Hartselle is a better place to live and there are still people like E.R. Roberts in the business community. Traits exhibited by this recipient are: Honesty, hard work, strong civic support,