Malia Riggs

Elmore Autauga News

The Millbrook Area Chamber of Commerce hosted the MACC Business of The Year Awards at the Alabama Wildlife Federation Thursday afternoon.

Brenda Dennis, The Millbrook Chamber President and CEO thanked the Chamber staff and volunteers, the elected officials in attendance, and thanked everyone for their support of the chamber this past year.

“We have had a fabulous year, and I am just so proud of each one of you. Everyone in this room is the reason we’ve had a great year,” Dennis said.

Dennis also confirmed that the junior ambassador program was able to give over $8,000 this past year. This program is a youth leadership program tailored to assist high school juniors in identifying personal leadership potential through exposure to economic development opportunities, government awareness, environmental stewardship and civic engagement through community service.

The MACC Small Business Awards are nominated by members of the MACC, and the nominees are then voted on by members of the community.

The Emerging Small Business of the Year Award went to Sweet Hart Coffee Co. owned by Luca and Brianna Hart.

“We started out following God’s direction, and we wanted to bring good customer service to this community. We’ve been given so much love and support from you guys and we are just so grateful. We love God and each one of you,” Luca said.

The winners of the Small Business of the Year Award went to the Liveoak Agency owned by Larry and Dianne Liveoak.

The Medium Business of the Year Award went to Epicure & Jack’s Tavern owned by Davin Finlayson.

Finlayson stated he was honored by the award that was voted on by his peers. “.It has been a long road since 2019 when we decided to switch gears. I have questioned whether it was the right decision, fighting with my family, is it worth it, God I wish we would have done it way sooner. To all of those who have stood behind me and beside me, I can’t say thank you enough,” Finlayson said.

The Large Business of the Year Award went to WSFA on local channel 12. General manager Mark P. Bunting graciously accepted the award with members of his staff alongside him.

“Thank you for this very prestigious recognition. I don’t know if you all know about our team that works back at WSFA. We have 87 employees, and they work very hard every day to make sure we give 100% to good quality journalism and it serves the public well. They also work extremely hard in all of our philanthropic efforts,” Bunting stated.

At the end of the awards ceremony, Marjorie Bowden passed the gavel as the 2023-2024 chair, to Steve Mullis who will be the 2024-2025 Chair of the Millbrook Area Chamber of Commerce.