Congratulations to the Leadership Roanoke Valley Class of 2011. Last night marked the culmination of a memorable year for 33 exceptional individuals.
The Class of 2011 joined together one final time last night at Roanoke College’s Colket Center for their Graduation. Greeted by the music of local musician Ross Flora, they enjoyed networking with advisors, sponsors, spouses and each other prior to dinner and the formal program.
The program opened with a welcome from Advisor Melissa Lacombe of Roanoke College and Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce President, Joyce Waugh. Everyone then enjoyed a slideshow from the past year and a wonderful dinner prepared by Roanoke College.
Lead Advisor, Chad Sweeney of Roanoke County, reflected on the past year – from opening breakfast to the various programs – and then recognized retiring advisors Susan Short, Rosemary Winslow, Sara Leftwich, Kelly Sandridge Coleman, Zach Fletchall, Andrew Gentiluomo, Mike Shorten and Chris Walters.
Next, the Lead Advisors were asked to introduce his or her team and then each team shared their program’s highlights, significance and call to action. The brief program presentations were followed by the distribution of individual awards to each participant. Chad then recognized LRVs Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, Advisor Will Farmer, of Cox Communications and LRVs Advisors of the Year Award recipients: Kelly Sandridge Coleman of Goodwill Industries of the Valleys and Melissa Lacombe of Roanoke College.
Congratulations again to our LRV graduates and our advisors who were honored last night. The true purpose of LRV: “to identify, educate, and develop a select group of citizens from the Roanoke region for positions of leadership in the community and build a resource base of community leadership on an ongoing basis.”
Class of 2011, we hope you will take your experiences over the last 10 months, find your passion and be the leaders you were born to be. See you in Leadership Forward!
Blog submitted by Kathleen Lordan and Kelly Sandridge Coleman
What a great video! It shows what a GREAT year we had in LRV 2011! I’ve enjoyed meeting each and every one of this year’s participants.