Elvis Presley tribute performer Randy Henison wowed fans of “The Hillbilly Cat” Friday night when the Kingsland/Lake LBJ Chamber of Commerce gathered to honor their own at the Fabulous ‘50s 2008 Annual Awards Banquet.

Ann Welder was honored as Citizen of the Year. Barbara Martin received the Distinguished Service Award. Precinct 3 County Commissioner Duane Stueven was recognized with the Public Service Award and Chuck Lacallade was named the Outstanding Chamber Member.

Outstanding Organization was the Lambda Nu Chapter of Epsilon Sigma Alpha Sorority; the Outstanding Business, “May I Help You,” and Outstanding Corporate Business, Security State Bank & Trust.

Welder had to be suspicious when her entire family showed up for the event with bouquets of flowers and she was still glowing with pleasure when 2007 recipient Diane Caruthers made the presentation of her award.

The New Mexico schoolteacher was cited especially for her service on the Llano County Library System Board of Directors and with Friends of the Kingsland Library. She has not only been a dedicated volunteer inside the library but has served as book sale chair and was a key worker toward library expansion.

She delivers Meals on Wheels, is a hospice worker, volunteers for clean-up projects and served on the jury of view for the new official county road map created under S.B. 1117.

Many of the chamber members were dressed for the 1950’s theme and 2007 Distinguished Service honoree, Chris Putnam, drew a roar of good-natured ribbing at his gentlemanly blush when Martin hammed up her ‘50s costume of a pregnant teenager.

Martin has been working with the chamber since she moved to Kingsland with her husband in 1987 and she was an organizer and original trustee of the Miss Aqua Boom Scholarship Trust.

She is a charter member of Lambda Nu and helped charter Friends of Hospice of Seton Highland Lakes, which provides financial aid and assistance to patients in need, as well as volunteering for their care. She assists with the Seton Care A Van for children and serves the Kingsland Hills Care Center beauty shop.

Stueven was identified with the local nickname “Mayor of Kingsland” before Precinct 3 Constable Bill Edwards, the 2007 honoree, presented his Public Service Award. He has been active in almost every phase of the community’s civic life.

The beloved commissioner, who first ran for office in 1995, did not seek re-election and will hand over his position to commissioner-elect Tommy Duncan in January.

Beyond representing the Kingsland area with the commissioner’s court and in road and bridge maintenance, Stueven’s long list of work has included service on Capital Area Council Governments (CAPCOG) committees such as the Solid Waste Advisory Committee.

He has been a member of Texas Review and Comment System (TRACS) is the state’s intergovernmental review system established in the Governor’s Office under state and federal legislation to improve grant application and regional planning consistency.

Stueven has been active in the Texas Colorado River Floodplain Coalition (TCRFC), he chaired the committee to develop the new Llano County Hotel Occupancy Tax and he was instrumental in bringing the county into the statewide Warrant Roundup program.

A former U.S. Army Captain and nuclear engineer for General Electric, Lacallade “hung out his shingle” as an attorney in Kingsland a decade ago and immediately became involved with the Chamber of Commerce. He served more than two years as president and continually as a trustee for the Miss Aqua Boom Scholarship Fund.

A Master Mason for 37 years, Lacallade is a member of the University Lodge F&AM, Austin Scottish Rite, Highland Lakes Shrine and Ben Hur Shrine, where he served 12 years as general counsel.” Not only Masonic charities have occupied his time. Like Stueven, he has been active in the work of the Kingsland Lions Club.

Lacallade is a member of the Highland Lakes Bar Association, has been assistant general counsel for the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) and he sits on the board of ILCOR Corporation in Austin, Texas. He has been a member for five years of the board of directors of Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) Highland Lakes.

Randy and Fonda Williams of Spykes Bar-B-Que conferred the Business of the Year Award on Derington’s “May I Help You.”

“They stayed in business despite being burned down this year,” noted Master of Ceremonies Ron Moore.

Derington began to see the need for company during three years as coordinator of the National Senior Health and Fitness Day. She began in 1996 and, now, in an area population with an average age of near 60, some 200 customers receive personal services through “May I Help You”.

The company employs from 20 to 35 people, depending on current community needs and those needs, they have found go beyond seniors or people recuperating from illness, but also to absentee homeowners and travelers. Services include, but are not limited to care giving, housekeeping, handyman and landscape, sprinkler and lawn service.

As a certified case manager, Derington can make medical appointments for clients and accompany them to doctors’ offices, perform home safety checks, utilize community resources on behalf of clients and correspond with their family members.

Security State Bank & Trust Branch Manager Steve Rogers was on hand to accept the 2008Outstanding Corporate Business award from HEB Food Store Manager Tina Haagsma.

He represents a banking institution that has been in the Kingsland community since July of 1988, but which dates back to 1941 when the original parent bank opened in the old Buckhorn Saloon building in Fredericksburg.

The full-service banking and lending institution goes beyond individual banking accommodations to service of the community of its customers. The bank and it’s officers, also including Vice President Kay Summers, Administrative Officer Della Gibson and New Accounts Officer Wanda Lindsey, volunteer for and sponsor their own community service projects as well as events from the chamber to the schools in Kingsland.

Sheryl Yantis handed on the honor of Outstanding Organization from the Hill Country Master Gardners to Teresa Gray of the organization known to most simply as Lambda Nu.

No organization or civic endeavor in Kingsland was missing from the list of beneficiaries of the local chapter of Epsilon Sigma Alpha Sorority.

In addition to lending a hand to almost every organized event that comes along, members hold the Mad Hatters Tea at Kingsland Hills and perform personal services and visits for residents without family, they fund student scholarships and they adopt needy families each Christmas. Beyond Kingsland, Lambda Nu monies support St. Jude Research Hospital, the March of Dimes, Easter Seals, Ronald McDonald House, Camp Agape for bereaved children and more.