Chamber of Commerce Annual Dinner & Auction

Richard C. Holliday has been named the Greater Westerly- Pawcatuck Area Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year.

Holliday has served a variety of community organizations. He spent 24 years on the board of the Ocean Community YMCA, and in the late 1990s was elected board chairman. That term coincided with the completion of the last major expansion of the YMCA building. He now co-chairs the organization’s capital campaign with Paul Lynch, working to raise funds to renovate and reconfigure the Westerly branch.

He joined the Westerly Land Trust in 1998, served on that board for 10 years, and was instrumental in the Avondale Farm Preserve purchase. During his tenure, the land trust’s acquisitions grew from 45 acres to over 1,000 acres.

Holliday served on the board of the Wood-Pawcatuck Watershed Association for 12 years, and was their treasurer.

He has served on the Westerly Hospital board since 2007, and has worked on numerous committees including Finance, Executive Compensation, Physician Recruitment Ad Hoc, Clinical Care, CHOW Advisory, and the Audit committees.

The Westerly Town Council appointed Holliday to the position of housing commissioner in the 1960s. He donated his time to that position for four years.

The Chamber also bestowed its Key Award on Frank Palaia, who has made extraordinary contributions of time and talent to help the chamber meet its mission over a span of many years.

Palaia leads the chamber’s AED program, which has raised thousands of dollars to distribute automatic electronic defibrillators to schools, fire departments and police departments throughout the community. He wrote the lengthy application materials to the state Department of Health to establish Westerly as the state’s first heart-safe community.

Serving on the chamber’s board for eight years, including a year as president, he has co-chaired the Duck Race and will cochair River Glow in 2010. He has served on the chamber’s Finance Committee, the Greater Westerly Chamber Foundation, Nominating Committee, and more.

The Key Award is not an annual award, but rather, one given when the board feels an individual has truly gone above and beyond the norm in his or her commitment to the chamber.

The event will include the annual chamber Great Escape Auction with over 150 auction items for sale at the event.