The nominations are in for the Pike County Chamber of Commerce’s annual “Excellence Awards” and winners will be announced at the Chamber’s annual banquet Wednesday, March 22.

Chamber President Kathy Sauer said the awards are given to Chamber members showing the highest quality service in their economic sector during the year.

“We choose whatever business best shows that they delivered a high-quality product and unique service during the year,” Sauer said. “All of our member businesses are outstanding, but one business will show a reason that will put them above all the rest for the year.”

There are seven categories in all for the awards banquet including “Business of the Year,” “Excellence in Hospitality, Leisure, & Retail Services,” “2017 Excellence in Health & Human Services,” “2017 Excellence in Manufacturing, Industrial & Logistic Services,” “2017 Excellence in Commercial & Professional Business Services,” “2017 Excellence in Philanthropy through Nonprofit,” and “Excellence in Customer Service.”

Businesses were either nominated by their peers or self-nominated. A committee will review the applications and choose one business out of each category.

Sauer explained what the committee is looking for by giving an example of how a nonprofit would be chosen from the nonprofit category.

“We’re looking for the organization that can show innovation and collaboration,” Sauer said. “We need to see that they’ve been out in the community doing high-quality work and had a big impact.”

The keynote speaker at the banquet will be Jeff Nichols, a Troy University graduate and former Navy Seal that is now the program manager at Virginia High Performance LLC.

Nichols started his career in performance training as a graduate assistant at Troy before joining the Navy, where he not only became a Navy Seal, but also the head of the Human Performance Department.

The banquet will be held at 11:30 a.m. at the Pike Cattlemen’s Complex