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2 Are Contenders For Service Award

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By LAURA FRAZIER lfrazier@tampatrib.com

The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 14, 2009

SEFFNER - Two community-minded women are friendly contenders for an annual award named for the late Sharon Carter, known until her death in 2007 as the face and the heart of the Seffner Chamber of Commerce.
Chamber President Dennis Schrand said the Sharon Carter Community Service Award was named for the Seffner woman who helped form the organization in 1983 and saw it through to the new millennium.

"If you spoke with someone at the chamber, if you read the newsletter, if you got a meeting notice, ... that was Sharon. She was the chamber," Schrand said.

Carter worked as an unpaid volunteer 40 hours a week for more than two decades.

"The chamber was her life," he said.

The second annual winner of the award will be announced Jan. 26 at the Chamber Choice Awards. The nominees are Terry Flott and Sheri Brown.

Flott runs the Seffner Community Alliance, an organization formed in 2004 to advocate for the best interests of the greater Seffner-Mango area with regard to growth, development, government issues and community character.

"Terry has been involved in so many community efforts working with Hillsborough County throughout the years," Schrand said.

Brown and her husband, Bill, started the Cookson Hill Toy Run 15 years ago. The effort provides toys and monetary donations for children at C.H. Family Ministries of Florida, formerly Cookson Hills Christian Ministries Children's Home, in Seffner.

Brown and her army of sponsors and volunteers have collected 2,000 Christmas presents and $45,000 in cash donations since the project's inception in 1993.

"The toy run is a big deal and a great success," Schrand said. "Sheri makes it possible for those kids to have a great Christmas."

No matter who wins, Schrand said, no one loses.

"We're excited about both of our nominees. A lot of people never get recognized, and we're glad to do it in Sharon's memory. It gives her a good legacy."

Reporter Laura Frazier can be reached at (813) 657-4523.

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