Chamber honors McNichols with Community Service award
George McNichols' evening at the Bedford Chamber's annual dinner went nothing like he expected.
He had made plans to get together with friends for his 50th high school reunion. He broke those plans after learning his daughter Jamie Medlock was in town to give a speech Friday night at the Bedford Chamber dinner, or so he was told.
Looking back, looking forward: Marla Jones, county's new historian
McNichols was none the wiser that he would be the one giving a speech after he was announced as the 2022 recipient of the Bedford Chamber's Community Service award at the Lawrence County Fairgrounds Expo Hall.
An astonished McNichols, who served as CEO of the Hoosier Hills Credit Union until his retirement in 2020, told the audience the award was a total surprise.
"It's an honor to get this award. I had no clue, as you can tell," he said. "We did a lot of good things and the credit union continues to do a lot of good things. It's now a large organization that impacts the community and the state in a very real way and we've impacted the credit union movement at the national level."
McNichols served as CEO of Hoosier Hills Credit Union for 35 years. During his leadership, the credit union experienced exponential growth, providing jobs and financial services to its members and the community. Under his leadership, the credit union grew from just serving General Motors employees and a staff of nine employees to serving 30,000 members. Currently, HHCU employs nearly 200 people at its eight branches serving customers from Morgan County to the Ohio River. In 2015, McNichols was named to the Indiana Credit Union League Hall of Fame and served several terms as chair of the ICUL board of directors during his tenure on that board.
Shance Sizemore, Bedford Chamber president, introduced McNichols calling his career "a fantastic story of prosperity shared with families cities, towns and rural crossroads."
In thanking the Chamber and the community, McNichols joked that next time he would like to know when a big honor is coming his way.
McNichols' honor capped a big night for the Bedford Chamber, which, because of the pandemic, had not had a Chamber dinner since 2019 when Gov. Eric Holcomb was the speaker.
Lonnie Bedwell, a blind adventure athlete, was the guest speaker and shared his story of being blinded in a hunting accident when his best friend accidentally shot him in the face. He described how he faced down many challenges and how he learned to regain his independence and take on challenges such as whitewater rafting and climbing some of the world's tallest peaks, namely Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Denali. Many of the challenges he has experienced with other disabled athletes.
Bedwell said his three young daughters were his inspiration to learn how to do things like mow the yard, use tools and work on roofs building houses and garages and show them "I was still Daddy."
"Blindness is a part of me but blindness doesn't define me," he said. "I have more vision now than when I had eyesight. Vision is just a dream if we don't do something to make it a reality."
Award recipients
In addition to the Community Service award, the Chamber presented four other awards, as follows:
Bedford Beautification: Lincoln Plaza Pharmacy, which underwent a renovation with new decor, fixtures signage and a new gift basket service. Lincoln Plaza Pharmacy is part of Crowder's Pharmacy.
Bedford Small Business of the Year: Magic Morning Bakery. Described as "the place where everybody knows your name," Magic Morning owners Andy and Emily Fortner have made several facility updates including a new logo. "It is one of Bedford's finest success stories," said Sizemore.
Bedford Business Hall of Fame: For nearly 100 years, Bedford Federal Savings Bank has provided investment opportunities, banking and lending services and employment as well as supporting local charities, donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to nonprofits. Sizemore said Bed Fed embodies its slogan, "Where community comes first."
More:More candidates file for North Lawrence, Mitchell Community Schools board races.
Nonprofit of the Year: Hoosier Uplands maintained full operations serving clients in areas such as home health care and hospice during the pandemic. Children's services provided virtual programming to Head Start and Early Head Start families. They delivered meals to children's homes when COVID rates were high and preschool centers closed. The agency on aging and Serenity Now also continued offering services.
In addition, Hoosier Uplands donated $25,000 to La-Or-Ma Shrine Club for a van to transport children to Shriners Hospitals, donated $25,000 to the North Lawrence Career Center and $25,000 to the Men's Warming Shelter.
The Business Hall of Fame, Nonprofit of the Year and Small Business of the Year were all new awards.
The Chamber also presented its 4 Under 40 awards to young professionals.
• Kayla Kern, Realtor at Lawco Living and works in public relations and communications at Crafted Communications.
• Tyson Knight, insurance agent at Springer & Springer Insurance
• Nick Webb, vice president of commercial services at Hoosier Hills Credit Union
• Brandi Weyer, advertising and marketing at WBIW
This article originally appeared on The Times-Mail: Chamber honors McNichols with Community Service award
