Brittney and Barb Gescheidle, owners of Smokin’ T’s BBQ and nominees for Business of the Year.

The Lake Zurich Area Chamber of Commerce recently held their annual dinner and awards gala, an “Evening of Excellence.” Last year I attended this event for the first time, and made a promise to myself that I would nominate some Long Grove residents for awards in 2015. Smokin’ T’s is a favorite local restaurant not only for the BBQ, but because of the service they do to our local veterans in providing free meals for needy families at Thanksgiving and Christmas. So this was an obvious choice for my nominee as “Business of the Year.” I was also motivated to nominate one of our recently retired Village Trustees, Joseph Barry, for his three decades of service to Long Grove in many different volunteer capacities. And I am happy to announce that Joe was presented with the “Citizen of the Year” award! As luck would have it, Joe was in Hawaii last week so I had the honor of going on stage and accepting the award for him, and we will have a repeat awards presentation with Lake Zurich Chamber officials at our next Village Board meeting on February 9th. And even though Joe was having a much better time in paradise, our Long Grove table whooped it up for him in celebration of his big win. The event was attended by many local business owners, community volunteers, and government officials on the national, state, and local level. It certainly was an excellent evening of fellowship, great food, dancing, and recognition of some of the best individuals our community has to offer.

L to R Outgoing Chamber President Ken Grooms, me (doing my best Joe Barry impersonation), and State Representative Ed Sullivan. Photo credit: ANICHOLEPORTRAIT