Lebanon
Christy began his career at the bank as a teller in 1973 and has served as president and CEO since 1990. He will retire at the end of the year. Clay Adams, a longtime area business executive and consultant and a director of Mascoma Savings Bank, will succeed him.
“Steve Christy represents all that is good with Lebanon,” said Rob Taylor, the new executive director of the Lebanon Area Chamber of Commerce. “The area has benefited greatly from his presence at the center of our business community. He will be a tough act to follow.”
A committee comprised of many past recipients of the award voted to honor Christy for his “exemplary deeds of community service,” the Chamber said in a news release.
Among many other roles, Christy has served as a trustee for Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital, president of the Rotary Club of Lebanon and trustee of the Montshire Museum of Science and Vital Communities. He has served on boards of both the New Hampshire and Vermont bankers associations and now sits on the board of the American Bankers Association.
Mascoma Savings Bank has created the Stephen F. Christy Fund to invest in community service and charitable organizations that are of special significance to Christy. The bank’s board of directors has designated that the bank’s 2016 charitable gift to the MSB Foundation will be allocated entirely to this new fund.
Since 1972, the Lebanon Area Chamber of Commerce has presented the “Citizen of the Year” award to a Lebanon resident who represents the finest qualities of good citizenship. Christy will have his name added to the plaque in Lebanon City Hall listing past honorees.
A committee of the five previous “Business of the Year” award winners voted unanimously to honor The Upper Valley Haven for its “outstanding work providing much needed services to the neediest of Upper Valley residents,” the Chamber’s release said.
The nonprofit organization’s staff of 40 and 1,200-plus volunteers serve more than 14,000 people in the Upper Valley each year through a variety of services, including food distribution, problem solving, educational seminars and after-school programs, as well as providing shelter for adults and families with children. The Haven operates the Hixon House, the Byrne House and seasonal shelters during colder months.
“We are beyond grateful to the Lebanon Area Chamber of Commerce for this recognition,” said The Haven’s executive director, Sara Kobylenski. “We are so grateful to the businesses of the Upper Valley for the amount of support that they provide to us.”
The Haven operates on a budget of $2.67 million, 93 percent of which comes from individual and business contributions, the release said.
The Chamber has presented the Business of the Year Award annually since 1999 to businesses that provide a superior work environment for employees, exceptional service to customers and stakeholders, and serve the broader community in deeds and actions. Finalists for this year’s award included Cape Air and Banwell Architects.
Christy and The Haven will receive their awards at the Lebanon Area Chamber of Commerce Holiday Social at the Fireside Inn & Suites on Dec. 7, beginning at 5:30 p.m. Tickets for the event are available by calling the Lebanon Area Chamber of Commerce at 603-448-1203.
Cradle & Crayon Inc., which manages the Child Development Center at 72 Lyme Road in Hanover, is opening a second facility nearby at 45 Lyme Road in the Lyme Road Professional Center. The new site, which is scheduled to open Friday, will feature two classrooms and accommodate 30 children, from 6 weeks to 3 years old. Breakfast, lunch and snacks will be prepared on site and served family style to staff and children. Brenda Danielson, Cradle & Crayon’s executive director, said in a news release that the new space is inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach to early education and “will integrate indoor and outside space and natural elements specifically designed for infants and toddlers.” For more information, email brendadanielson@yahoo.com.
The Enterprise Center at Plymouth is holding a workshop on Recruiting Strategies: Finding and Attracting Top Talent, on Wednesday, from 8-9:30 a.m., at One Bridge Street in Plymouth, N.H. The workshop will discuss strategies for finding the right candidates, focusing on sources like referrals and LinkedIn. Robert Nadeau, director of the Professional Sales Program at Plymouth State University, will be the presenter. Nadeau has served as a senior manager for a Fortune 100 company and a consultant. In addition to his work with the ECP Small Business Seminar Series, he has presented workshops from New York to Los Angeles and in Japan and France.
The Upper Valley chapter of SCORE is offering a workshop, Build a Website with WordPress, on Thursday, from 6-9 p.m. at 20 W. Park St., Lebanon, Suite 316, in the Citizens Bank Building. The workshop is designed to offer an overview of the WordPress content management system. Key topics are page creation, setting up a menu structure, blog post creation, and search engine optimization of the content. The workshop also demonstrates the use of images, image slide shows and the insertion of video content. Gary Horsman and Vasilios Georgitsis will present the workshop. Horsman is in charge of marketing at A Global Reach, a business development and internet marketing company in Woodstock. Georgitsis is president of GlobeInt.com Inc. and owner of NHVT Computer Services LLC, both of Lebanon. Cost is $40, two for $60. Veterans free. For more information or to reserve a spot, visit www.uppervalley.score.org, email score@valley.net or call 603-448-3491.
Items of interest to the local business community are published in the Business & Money section of the Sunday Valley News. Submissions may be sent by email to: biznotes@vnews.com. High-resolution photographs may be attached in .jpg format. All items are subject to editing.