At its annual banquet on Saturday night (January 21), at the Granada Theater, the Alpine Chamber of Commerce announced its community winners.
Alpine’s Ambassador of the Year is Dona Ward, the Student of the Year is Emma Downing, the Citizen of the Year is Sheriff Ronny Dodson, and the Business Person of the Year is Bob Ward.
Two KRTS volunteers were nominated: Dallas Baxter, for Business Person of the Year, and Daniel Hernandez, for Student of the Year. The awards were announced by Ray Hendryx of KVLF/KALP.
The featured speaker at the event was author Mike Cox of Austin. He wrote Time Of The Rangers: Texas Rangers from 1900 to the Present, among other works. He is the public informations officer for Texas Parks & Wildlife, and formerly was a communications specialist with the Texas Department of Transportation.
In his address on Saturday evening, he described his family history in the Big Bend and spoke at length about improving tourism in the region.
Texas State Representative Pete Gallego was the final speaker of the evening. He gave a heartfelt goodbye to the community in which he was raised, since he will soon be stepping down from his position at the state legislature, but is instead running for U.S. Congress, in a contest to be decided later this year.