THOMASVILLE — A special group of local business and community leaders shared breakfast with Thomas County Schools’ principals, (Business and Education Exchange) BEE chairs, and the superintendent Tuesday morning, May 15.  The breakfast, known as the Superintendent’s Breakfast, was held in the dining hall of Vashti for the third consecutive year.

Dr. Kathy Keown, Director of Personnel and Public Relations, said the breakfast has become an end-of-the-school-year tradition for the school system and the Chamber of Commerce.  

“Each May we hold the Superintendent’s Breakfast with our BEE partners that have been the most involved with our schools or school system during the school year.  These are our BEE partners who were nominated for the BEE Partner of the Year Award,” Keown said.

Keown further explained that for the past nine years the school system has selected one outstanding BEE Partner at the end of each school year to receive the prestigious annual award. She said the nomination process includes each school choosing their most involved BEE partners for the current school year.  

“Those are the partners we invite to the Superintendent’s Breakfast. From that list semi-finalists are selected, and from the semi-finalist list the winner of the award is chosen,” Keown said.

This year’s semi-finalist list included Aaron’s Rental, Abbot and Cobb Seed Company, Commercial Bank, Coolidge Food Champ, Dairy Queen, and Thomas University.

Keown said the system’s BEE committee tries to avoid any kind of bias in the selection process so nominations are sent to out-of-town readers to evaluate and score.  

“We remove the business names from the nominations but we do include information about the size and type of business, what kind of partnership was provided, and what makes the partnership unique,” Keown said.

Following the breakfast and a short program, Dairy Queen was announced as the winner of the 2012 BEE Partner of the Year Award. Jim Davis, his wife Joyce, and his store manager Brenda Simmons were surprised and delighted at the announcement. Davis’ first words were, “I’m tickled and excited. I came this morning not expecting this at all. I am proud of our business. We are more than just a business out to make money. We enjoy so much being a part of the community and serving the families here in Thomas County and Thomasville. I’m proud of what we do and I thank God and my staff for our success.”  Don Sims, Chamber of Commerce President offered his congratulations.  

“We congratulate Jim Davis and the Dairy Queen staff for the extra efforts they have made this year.  They are great examples of extra-mile givers.” Sims added, “The Chamber of Commerce is proud of all our businesses that spend time and resources in support of both students and educators.”

Other businesses or agencies included in the nomination process for the 2012 BEE Partner of the Year Award included A Confident Smile, Astro, Blue Bell Creameries, CNS, Doctor’s Care, Dunkin’ Donuts, Flowers Foods, Flowers Nissan, Hurst Boiler, Ray Glass Battery Source,  Susie Q’s, Thomasville Toyota, Wendy’s, and Zaxby’s.

Past Partner of the Year Award winners include 2004 and 2008 Commercial Bank, 2005 Papa John’s Pizza, 2006 Astro, 2007 Kiwanis, 2009 Wal-Mart, 2010 Bustle Farms, and 2011 Susie Q’s.

As the breakfast ended Keown reiterated that the BEE partnerships are crucial to the success of Thomas County Schools.  She said to the breakfast crowd, “The time you invest with our students and teachers is priceless and the resources you provide are greatly appreciated. Just for a few examples, you provide volunteers who actually come into our school buildings and work with our students; you provide monetary donations; you provide incentives for us to give students and teachers as rewards for academics, effort, and attendance; you make field trips possible; you open up your businesses for students to tour or to job shadow; you offer your facilities to be used for special occasions; you help with special events in the schools; you provide speakers for career fairs; you help provide food for parent meetings, and the list goes on. You have been a tremendous help to us and we thank you for your investment in the future of our students and the success of our community.”