Community members turned out Thursday to recognize those honored during the Tamaqua Area Chamber of Commerce’s annual dinner at the Mountain Valley Golf Course in Barnesville.

During the evening, the Chamber presented Bill Angst with the Joseph Plasko Jr. Citizenship Award and Ann Ostergaard, co-owner of Heisler’s Cloverleaf Dairy, as Business Person of the Year.

And new this year, the Chamber unveiled its Business of the Year Award, which went to EMD Electronics in Hometown.

Angst began volunteering as a coach with the Tamaqua Area Baseball Association when his sons were players. That was 38 years ago - and to this day, he continues his involvement. If he’s not maintaining the fields, including one named after him in Tamaqua’s Dutch Hill section, he’s watching the games from the bleachers.

“I couldn’t tell you how many kids or how many coaches passed through the program,” since he started, he said. “But I can tell you that many of the players of the program became coaches.”

The majority of Angst’s acceptance speech, however, was reserved for thanks. He acknowledged program volunteers, players, coaches, the community, his family, the Chamber and area businesses.

“There are a ton of (local businesses) who support our program,” he said. The business sponsor names are included in advertisements along the outfield and dugouts, he said, as are the names of fire companies who also sponsor teams.

“It’s been a great 38 years,” he said.

As Angst received citations from state Rep. Jamie Barton and state Sen. David Argall, Barton noted that Angst had thanked quite a few people and organizations.

“I think you have it mixed up. We are thanking you here,” Barton told Angst to applause.

Ostergaard, who has co-owned Heisler’s in the Lewistown Valley for 33 of its 66 years, remembered how after graduating from Tamaqua Area High School and the Pennsylvania State University, she had no desire to return to Tamaqua.

But, she said, she met her future husband, Len Ostergaard. The two would stay in the area to run Heisler’s and raise their family.

“We have employed and nurtured hundreds of the area’s young people,” she said. “We are literally everyone’s first job.”

Ostergaard volunteers for many nonprofit organizations, and is a longtime member and vice-president of the Chamber. She noted that Heisler’s supports other local small businesses, and said that the past three years have been especially tough. She’s thankful, she said, to see businesses survive and thrive in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The decision to return to the community after college, she said, is one that she is grateful to have made. She knows others who’ve decided to return “home” to work, volunteer and help the community.

“We, together, are taking to Tamaqua to an all new level and we are just getting better,” she said.

Ostergaard received citations from Argall and Barton, as did EMD Electronics of Hometown.

The Business of the Year has been in the Tamaqua community for half a century, and started with 40 employees as Air Products in Chemicals.

In 2016, Air Products’ electronics materials division was spun off to form Versum Materials, which was acquired by Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany.

Under the Merck umbrella, it began operating as EMD Electronics, and employs more than 370 in both manufacturing and research and development.

Barton served as keynote speaker and talked about the “Power of Positivity.”

He encouraged attendees to make a pact to remain positive throughout their lives. Positivity, he said, yields rewards.

“Let’s stand together as a beacon of light to illuminate Tamaqua, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, the United States - and the world,” he said.

Chamber President Kim Noel led the event, and despite numerous rounds of applause the recipients, she requested more.

“Let’s give another round of applause,” she said while closing the program. “They deserve it for all they do.”