Chamber honors service to community at Banquet

By Jay Strickland
Journal Editor

Tue, May 13 2008

— The Commerce Chamber of Commerce recognized several worthy citizens at the 99th Annual Chamber Banquet Feb. 21.
Agriculturalist of the Year
Robert Grove was chosen as Agriculturalist of the Year, while Bob Monday received the Golden Service award. Annette Busby, Luanne Huffman and Sharon Smith accepted the Distinguished Community Service award for their work with the Commerce Lil’ Angels program.
Robert Grove was named the Agriculturalist of the Year for his continual work on his family farm along the north ridge between Delta County and the old Cooper Highway, the area originally known as Cowhill. Presenter Marsha Morrison said the farm was established by Grove’s mother and father in the early 1930s and livestock has been the focus of the farm for the last 50 years.
“(Grove) has been committed to improving livestock quality, land quality and also serving as a mentor to the youth of our community,” Morrison said.
The land has been famed for over 100 years and much of it was eroded and poor, according to Morrison.
“These issues have been corrected through (Grove’s) methodical land management techniques,” she said. “(His) top priority has been to improve the herd and to produce the highest quality of beef possible.”
Morrison also said Grove’s father started a tradition of using the operation as a mentoring tool for young people in the community by employing college students for many projects.
“(Grove) continues his father’s tradition with local youth and provides an experience that is guaranteed to challenge one’s ability and develop character,” she said.
Golden Service
Bob Monday received the Golden Service award for his many years of kindness to the Commerce community.
Morrison called Monday a “quiet, gentle giant” who learned about service as a young boy growing up in Commerce.
“At age 9, (Monday) took on a paper route, took out a loan and, without his mother’s knowledge, purchased a variety of home furnishings for their home,” she said. “His work ethic and credentials were established at a very young age.”
Morrison said nobody knows when or why Monday became the “go-to” guy for those in need in Commerce.
“If he cannot fix the problem himself, he can persuade others to provide the service and he will not give up until the need is taken care of,” she said. “Many times, this means paying for the service himself.”
Monday will run errands, grocery shop or pick up prescriptions for those confined to their homes, according to Morrison.
“He drives people to appointments, repairs roofs, finds heaters and makes sure elderly residents have what they need,” she said. “He helps families at Christmas time to ensure that they have a good Christmas. He meets the special needs of cancer patients and encourages young people to get a college degree.”
Morrison also said that Monday is an avid gardener and has a “share” garden that he plants to share his produce with others.
“Driving by his garden, you might see citizens sitting on the edge of a raised cement bed with bags full of vegetables, visiting about the business and welfare of Commerce,” she said.
Distinguished Community Service
Annette Busby, Luanne Huffman and Sharon Smith were honored with the Distinguished Community Service award.
In the summer of 2004 the Commerce Kiwanis Club took over the Toys for Tots program under the new name of Commerce Lil’ Angels.
In the subsequent four years, the program has annually provided Christmas gift packages to approximately 375 children of approximately 160 economically disadvantaged families within the Commerce Independent School District, according to Morrison.
“The success of this program is totally dependent on the quality of the work involved in its administration over the past four years,” she said. “There are three persons involved in this program who have created all of the necessary paperwork needed to make this program work.”
Although it is a ministry at Christmas time, Morrison said starting in October of each year, requests for applications start pouring in and from October to Christmas a large portion of time is spent creating the necessary paperwork, making sure the information is filled in on applications correctly and completely, verifying all the application information, generating the publicity and formulating and maintaining the financial recording system for the program.
“This has been done with little fanfare and virtually no public recognition for literally hundreds of hours of labor each year that they expend to touch of the lives of approximately 5 percent of the population of Commerce,” she said.

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