Via Houma Today
The Houma-Terrebonne Chamber of Commerce did it Wednesday night.
The Thibodaux Chamber of Commerce did it Thursday night.
And the Lafourche Chamber of Commerce did it back in mid-December.
What each of these organizations did was to gather and honor extraordinary members of the chambers, along with other notable people and businesses in our local communities.
These groups play an important role.
If you live in Terrebonne or north Lafourche or south Lafourche, you have a Chamber of Commerce that tries to cultivate the business community while also looking after so many other local institutions.
When one of these groups, for instance, honors the Teenager of the Year or the Most Useful Citizen, it is doing more than lobbying for more business-friendly zoning rules or asking for people to shop locally.
What they are doing with their recognition — of those within the organizations and those outside of them — is holding important people and businesses up for public appreciation.
That is something everyone should support.
Our local chambers of commerce are vibrant collections of businesses and people who represent one another, support one another and, in the end, make many of our local institutions much stronger than they otherwise would be.
They also are enthusiastic cheerleaders for our region. They have long recognized that, in many ways, what benefits one business or group in Lafourche or Terrebonne parish also benefits so many others.
These benefits flow to all the members, of course. But they extend far beyond the membership to just about every local business.
Our chambers do a lot of work that no one outside them ever sees or appreciates. But others feel it.
So when they gather to honor their own and others, they are shining spotlights on people who otherwise might never feel noticed or appreciated.
Congratulations to all the honorees who have had the spotlight shone on them at these recent banquets.
Everyone who plays a part in putting on these banquets and ensuring recognition for those in our midst who are so utterly deserving deserves a round of applause and a pat on the back.
Just like the people they have honored, they don’t do any of this for the recognition, but it is nice to shine some light their way every once in a while.
Jobs well done!
Editorials represent the opinion of the newspaper, not of any individual.