We are tired. Bone tired. But it is the satisfied kind of tired you get after you have given something your all. Last Saturday night we gathered with about 700 of the best and brightest this community has to offer. Business owners, professionals, friends, and family assembled to celebrate the finalists of the 2022 FestivalSouth Best of the Pine Belt Awards, sponsored by Southern Eye Center. And celebrate we did!
We did our best to throw a 1950s themed party for these outstanding winners, and I just hope they enjoyed the evening as much as we did. The participation in this year’s contest was outstanding, with 133,899 nominations and 303,478 votes. That is 437,377 times that Pine Belt residents interacted with this contest, a new record. And some of the categories were decided by 1 or 2 votes. We greeted the finalists with the statement that, “if you are in the elite list of finalists here tonight, you are already a winner.” I hope they took the statement to heart because it is the truth.
It is very humbling to stand on a stage and look out over an audience of these folks who truly keep the Pine Belt running. They are the business owners and professionals who employ us and our neighbors. They drive our economy and boy, do they give back.
One of the finalists, who happened to win in their category, told me after the event, “We were shocked! We were told that the contest is fixed and we didn’t stand a chance!” I reassured them, and I will say it again now, nothing could be further from the truth. The contest is decided by those who participate in the nomination and voting phases. I never have, and I never will, change a result to better my own interests.
My favorite feedback after the contest is from those businesses and professionals who inquire about how close they were to winning. Although I try to tell them they have won by making it to the finalist phase, they are still motivated to work harder in the attempt to win next year. Vince Lombardi said it a long time ago, and it is still spot-on, “Winners never quit, and quitters never win.”
The complete list of finalists and winners is in this month’s issue of Signature Magazine. If you don’t have a copy, you can see the list online at hubcityspokes.com. Click on E Editions then on Magazines. I hope your favorites won!
So we are tired, but we were all here bright and early on Monday morning. Although we could all use a break, and we would love a period of rest and looking back on a great event, we still have a weekly paper, and monthly magazine, and a killer “Football” magazine to produce. We drive on just as the finalists gathered on Saturday night are doing. Newt Gingrich said it best, “Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.”
Christina Pierce is the publisher at Hattiesburg Publishing, which produces The Pine Belt News and Signature Magazine.
