The Business Expo was a fun event. It was good to see so many people out together, visiting and networking and having a good time.
It’s been a while — 2019 — since that scene was last in full swing. Covid-19 is not gone or forgotten, but it’s at bay, although the government is planning for a big surge when winter comes. Sigh.
For now, though, for last week, people shook hands for real and stood in lines next to one another as if all was normal. We almost forgot what that was like.
We enjoyed hearing Chris Robinson, athletic director at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. He’s a dynamic fellow who you just know would blossom wherever he was planted. Could he still throw a 40-yard touchdown strike? He looks as if he could.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
One of the other highlights of the breakfast came when the Pine Bluff Regional Chamber of Commerce announced a handful of awards. One of them went to Lelan Stice, who was named Businessperson of the Year. Such a title for Stice seems a bit of an understatement. Stice is a busy person indeed, having served on a variety of boards, including Neighbor to Neighbors, the United Way’s and the chamber’s.
But where he became the community’s MVP was in his fight against covid. Early on, Stice saw what was happening and prepared for it. He got a freezer that could handle the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine that had to be kept super cold. Without the freezer, no vaccine.
As a pharmacist, he also took appropriate measures to make sure he was in line to get adequate doses of that vaccine and later on, the Moderna one. And when he did get the doses, he didn’t just throw his doors open at his Doctor’s Orders Pharmacy locations and wait for people to come to him; he went to them. Stice was in the middle of numerous vaccine clinics, in Pine Bluff and elsewhere, where he and other medical professionals administered vaccines to hundreds of people. Almost everywhere shots were going out, a tired-looking Stice was close at hand.
It would be inaccurate to suggest that Stice single-handedly moved the needle on covid vaccines. There were other entities giving shots, to be sure. But Stice took much of the lead on the effort, and he and his staff made it happen.
Considering all that, it was probably unfair to nominate any other business for the top award because Stice was surely going to win. Perhaps they should name the award after him. Most assuredly, through his efforts, many people’s lives were saved during a very dark period when covid was so lethal. In short, we can’t think of another business that has ever meant so much to a community at such a dire time.
Congratulations, Mr. Stice. Your work will not be forgotten.