By Cathy Higgins
BAY MINETTE, Ala. — It’s time, once again, for the annual North Baldwin Chamber of Commerce meeting.
In its 66th year, the event is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 26, at the John F. Rhodes Civic Center in Bay Minette.
According to Chamber Executive Assistant Melanie Sikes, it is expected be an event filled with activity.
“We start the evening out with a social time where people can network,” she said in a telephone interview. “Then we’ll move into a nice meal.”
The evening will also include a recap of 2011 chamber activities and a forecast of those planned for the coming year.
“We’ll also present the Harry B. Still Distinguished Service Award and the Business of the Year Award,” Sikes said.
But a highlight of the event, which usually draws about 300 guests, will be keynote speaker Billy J. Brown II of Daphne.
“He’ll just be motivating people to have a positive outlook on 2012,” Sikes said.
Author of “Rising from the Ashes,” Brown is a motivation speaker who shares how he received third-degree burns to more than 65 percent of his body when he was 2 years old.
“During the years to come Billy found out how people treated based on your outward appearance and he had to adapt how he approached people to better accepted and this is when he discovered that he had to own himself and be happy with himself to be able to relate no matter his outward appearance,” states his biography. “Billy had a passion to help out youth and adults to make shifts in their lives and to take control of their present situations in life to be the best that they can be and leave them in a better place than when he encountered them.”
Dress for the event is business casual. Admission is $45 per individual, $250 for a table of six or $330 for a table of eight. Reservations must be made by Wednesday, Jan. 18, by calling 937-5665.
