By Neena Strichart
Mom and I had a wonderful time attending a rather prestigious event earlier this week. California Small Business Day took place in Sacramento Tuesday, May 26, and I was there to accept Senatorial District 27’s California Small Business of the Year award. Our local legislator, Senator Alan Lowenthal, selected the Signal Tribune to be his honoree this year.
The daylong festivities were held at the Sheraton Grand’s ballroom. With a crowd of more than 500 business leaders, legislators, corporate partners and other honorees participating in workshops and listening to speakers, we all had a rather full day.
We also had the opportunity to mingle with other small business owners and gather information from tabletop exhibitors such as Verizon, EDD, State Board of Equalization and CalTrans.
A last-minute surprise was having the keynote address delivered by none other than Governor Arnold Schwarzenneger. He spoke about the importance of small business and congratulated us all for being selected from among 3.7 million small companies in California.
I am so proud to have the Signal Tribune recognized in such a public forum. Mixing and mingling with other attendees, I learned that we are all facing hardships of our own. Some have to downsize office space, while others are laying off workers. I am sure there were many honorees who could not afford to make the trip to Sacramento to receive the recognition they so deserve. The Signal Tribune too is facing tough times, and we are lucky to have such a loyal staff, advertising base and readership. I am lucky to have a husband who understood that company funds could not pay for the Sacramento trip and generously put up the dollars to make the day possible. He also gave up his seat beside me and insisted that I take my mom as my guest. She had a ball.
We flew in from Long Beach on JetBlue Monday morning and spent the day resting and dining and getting ready for the big “Doo-dah” the next morning. I’m so glad we went a day early. It was nice to lounge around like a couple of lazy puppies on Monday before participating in such a hectic Tuesday.
There is SO much more to the story, and I will fill you in next week. I think you’ll enjoy the rest of the story— it’s pretty funny stuff.
