Individuals, Businesses, Organizations Earn Professional Honors

SUN FILE PHOTO Zak Holt, fitness director at Workout Anytime in Greeneville, holds trophies the location won in 2021 as new franchise of the year and for leadership and perseverance in personal training.

Business and professional honor and recognition came to local individuals and business enterprises in 2021.

FOOD CIT Y VOLUNTEERISM

Employees at three local Food City stores were recognized in 2021 for outstanding volunteerism among associates through the Food City Claude P. Varney Volunteer Recognition Program. Cardiela Vickery, Shaun Lister and Zach Dyer were honored by the Virginia-based grocery chain.

Steven C. Smith, Food City’s president and chief executive officer, led years ago in creation of Food City’s Claude P. Varney Volunteer Recognition Program, in memory of the company’s former president and board vice-chairman.

Vickery works at the Food City at 905 Snapps Ferry Road, Lister at the 509 Asheville Highway store, and Dyer at the 2755 E. Andrew Johnson Highway location.

Store winners move on to compete at the district level. Twelve district winners are recognized with an award and a $250 contribution to their chosen charity.

Two divisional winners are then chosen and honored with a plaque and a $750 charity contribution. One overall winner is selected to receive the Claude P. Varney Humanitarian Award and to have a $1,250 charity contribution made on the winner’s behalf.

BLACKBURN, CHILDERS AND STEGALL

JOHNSON CITY — Blackburn, Childers, and Steagall, CPAs (BCS), which has an office in Greeneville, was recognized by Forbes in a listing of America’s best tax and accounting firms for 2021.

Forbes and Statista identified the top 250 firms for tax and top 200 for accounting, and BCS was named among the 172 firms on both lists, according to a news release.

The firm, which was also listed in the Forbes ranking for 2020, was one of five in Tennessee and six in North Carolina ranked in the 2021 listing, the release said.

BCS has offices in Johnson City, Greeneville and Kingsport, Tennessee and Boone, North Carolina.

Firms were chosen based on recommendation from CPAs, clients, attorneys and other financial industry

PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE SUN Greene County was well represented at the 24th Annual Pinnacle Awards in 2021. Pictured from left are Greene County Partnership President and CEO Jeff Taylor, former GCP General Manager Joni Parker, Main Street: Greeneville Executive Director Jann Mirkov, and Town of Greeneville City Administrator Todd

PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE SUN The General Morgan Inn & Conference Center was named one of the best meeting sites in the South in 2021 for the second consecutive year.

experts, the release said.

WORKOUT ANY TIME

Despite opening during the COVID-19 pandemic, Greeneville’s Workout Anytime gym location saw such success that it was named best new franchise of the year at a company-wide conference last summer.

That success, which owner Mike King said far surpassed his expectations, also made the Greeneville location the first to bring in $1 million in revenue in a year, according to a press release issued at the time, and the franchise also won awards for its personal training program and social media engagement.

The Greeneville location of Workout Anytime, located at 1327 Tusculum Blvd., in the Greeneville Commons, opened in May 2020.

King said Workout Anytime has close to 200 locations across the country, including some much bigger locations than Greeneville’s.

“Greeneville isn’t a very large town, and this isn’t one of the big monster gyms like in big cities, but we’ve had nothing but positive feedback from the community,” he said.

GENERAL MORGAN INN

For the second year in a row, Greeneville’s historic General Morgan Inn & Conference Center was named one of the “Best Meeting Sites in the South.”

The boutique hotel at 111 N. Main St. won the 2021 Readers’ Choice Award from national event planning magazine ConventionSouth. The General Morgan Inn was one of 30 winners in Tennessee.

The hotel also won the magazine’s award in 2020 and received an honorable mention in 2019.

Throughout the year, meeting professionals nominate sites they believe provide exceptional service for group events. The nominated sites – nearly 4,000 in 2021 – are compiled onto an online ballot where meeting professionals and fans vote for the “Best of the Best.”

The Northeast Tennessee Tourism Association honored the organizations at the MeadowView Conference Resort and Convention Center hosted by Visit Kingsport.

The Greene County Partnership won three awards, and Main Street Greeneville claimed one.

The Greene County Partnership won awards for Best New Event for Wings and Wheels on the GreenE; Best Marketing Campaign for the Greeneville Mural Trail; and Best Brochure or Guide for its Discover Greeneville brochure.

Main Street Greeneville won the award for Best Rack Card for the card advertising the annual Lyrics on the Lawn concert series.

A total of 71 entries were submitted from around the region in categories for marketing, advertising, events, virtual, attractions, individual achievement, and supporting business awards. A panel of judges associated with the Southeast Tourism Society chose the top entry in each category.

THE GREENEVILLE SUN

The Greeneville Sun in 2021 won eight Tennessee Press Association statewide awards recognizing excellence in print and online journalism, advertising and circulation.

In the Tennessee State Press Contest sponsored by the University of Tennessee and the Tennessee Press Association, The Sun won top honors in the digital presentation category. Contributing to the winning entry were Greeneville Sun reporters Cicely Babb, Eugenia Estes and Ken Little, Director of Online Operations Brian Cutshall, and Scott Jenkins, editor. Jenkins also won second place for editorial writing.

Former assistant sports editor Tate Russell won second- and third-place awards for sports photography.

The Sun also won third place for coronavirus news coverage, a special category added for the 2020 contest. Contributing to the entry were Estes, Babb, Little and Cameron Judd, the paper’s assistant editor and columnist.

The Sun won 22 advertising and circulation awards in the 2021 Ideas Contest, third most in the state among newspapers with similar circulations.

At The Greenville Sun, those ads and promotions were created and facilitated by the following current and former Sun sta฀ffers: Taunya Blazer, Sandi Blalock, Brian Cutshall, Rebecca Garay-Leon, Tanya Hensley, Melanie Hilliard, Shirley Jones, Dale Long, Della Lowe, Wendy Peay, Kelly Pickering, Jayme Pressley, Tammy Waldroup, Hala Watson and Artie Wehenkel.

The Sun placed first in seven award categories: Best Black & White Ad; Best Carrier Contest Idea; Best Newspapers in Education Promotion; Best NIE Sponsorship Recruitment; Best Reader Contest; Best Internet Subscription Promotion; and Best Marketing Materials.

The Sun placed second in eight categories and third in seven categories.