Charlie Daniels at the Civic Center!!!

Posted on May 9, 2008 by Kim

I helped out at the Annual Small Business Banquet tonight as a member of the Chamber Ambassadors. Being a Chamber Ambassador is cool, but a lot of the work we do is during regular business hours, so I feel bad that I can’t participate more than I do. I enjoy it when something comes up after hours and it works out that I can help out! So — when I got the email asking for volunteers for tonight’s event, I checked out my calendar and was super excited that I was able to respond with “yes – I can be there!”!!!!

I always enjoy working the Annual Small Business Banquet and the Annual Chamber Banquet — I get to meet some great people and they are always fun events. But, this particular one got me so much more excited because the Special Guest was going to be Charlie Daniels!!! The Chamber presented Mr. Daniels with a Life Time Achievement Award for his contributions and roots in NC and specifically for this area – he got his start in music right here in Gulf, NC – just up the road a piece from Sanford on the way to Siler City! Click here (http://www.charliedaniels.com/soapbox-2008-011808.htm) for a link to an article he wrote about his ties to our area. I have always loved his music – he’s one of the best!!!! So, the chance to get to meet him reached out and grabbed me!!!

He came early and mingled during the reception and stayed after to sign autographs and take pictures! I didn’t get a chance to spend much time with him, but I did get to meet him, shake his hand, tell him what an honor it was to meet him, and have my picture taken with him! The rest of the banquet was very nice — a reception catered by The Flame, presentations of awards to the Small Business Advocate of the Year and Business Person of the Year, dinner catered by The River Lodge, the chance to see several friends and meet some new people — but meeting Charlie Daniels was the icing on the cake!! Chet Mann mentioned when he was making introductions that the past couple of weeks have been exciting for Sanford — an ex-President of the United States (Bill Clinton) and now Charlie Daniels both visiting our city! I agree – it’s been exciting, but I have to say that the visit from Bill Clinton only caused me to have a passing interest and I didn’t go witness it — but, Charlie Daniels – now THAT is a visit I didn’t want to miss!!! ha-ha

Here are some pictures I snapped to capture the experience:

This one is ME with Mr. Daniels!

I shot this one of him in the lobby mingling during the reception – I didn’t notice that he was being interviewed by Jonathan Owens from the Herald until I got home and downloaded the pictures!