DON SIEVERS GETS JACKSON'S R.A. FULENWIDER AWARD

JACKSON, Mo. -- Don Sievers, a businessman who retired from the Missouri Army National Guard as a colonel, was a district governor for Optimist International and has served as president of the Jackson Industrial Development Corporation, is winner of the 2000 R.A. Fulenwider Meritorious Community Service Award.

Sievers received the prestigious award Monday night at the annual Jackson Chamber of Commerce Installation Banquet.

"His footprints are all over the place," the Rev. Walter Keisker, Jackson's centenarian minister, said in remarks at the end of the banquet.

Sievers is the president and chief executive officer of Associated Sheet Metal Inc. His sons, Brian and Boyd, also are involved in the business.

"I love Jackson," he said. "I've been here 59 years and I truly am trying to be an ambassador of Jackson."

Keynote speaker Buz Sutherland, director of the Small Business Development Center at Southeast Missouri State University, praised the way Jackson has always pulled together in the same direction -- community betterment -- despite strong differences of opinion.

Jackson has always been "a city full of community spark plugs," he said.

He pointed to Jackson's phenomenal population growth from 1990 to 1998 -- an estimated 21.6 percent -- as just the latest and most extraordinary example in a history of almost constant growth in Jackson during the 20th century.

He assured the assemblage that filled the Jackson Knights of Columbus Hall that the city is up to the job of handling the growth.

"Jacksonians have a gift for turning challenges into opportunities," he said.

In 1975, Sutherland became the first executive director of the Jackson Chamber of Commerce. He also has served in the state Division of Commerce and Industrial Development.

Sutherland was recruited to speak at the banquet when the scheduled speaker, state Sen. Bill Kenney, canceled after dropping out of the Republican race for lieutenant governor.

Marshall Steen, general manager of Tractors Classic American Grill, accepted the award for Business of the Year on behalf of the restaurant. This is the first year the Jackson Chamber of Commerce has made the award.