The Spencerport Area Chamber of Commerce has named Tom Friedo the Clyde W. Carter Citizen of the Year, honored Ginny Swarthout with the Civic Beautification award, and named Hi-Qual Heating and Cooling, Inc. owners Bill Hill and Bob Quataert Business People of the Year for the year 2000.

Chamber member Joyce Lobene said she nominated Friedo because he is an excellent business person, who will do anything for his clients and for the community at large.

Friedo is always busy with community projects, said Lobene, such as the work he did to raise money for the Vietnam War Veteran’s Moving Wall visit last year. Friedo is involved with several local organizations including Lakeside Hospital Board of Directors and the Lions Club, she said.

"He is a very generous man who gives much of his time helping others in many ways," said Lobene. "He has been here many years and is always supportive of the community and the people in it."

Lobene said Friedo goes about his community service quietly, without a lot of fanfare or recognition. "He doesn’t look for the limelight," she said.

Friedo said being named Citizen of the Year is an honor he takes seriously. "It's an important award, a humbling one. You don't look at yourself in the light that you're going to be recognized, and then this happens … it's very humbling," he said.

"Everybody in the community does the same thing - that's why Spencerport is such a great community," Friedo said, wondering why he was chosen. "It makes you try to work harder to make the community even better."

It is the support the community showed him during the years he was the owner of Spencerport Insurance that inspires him to volunteer, Friedo said. "Because the community has been so good to me," he said. "It is my obligation to help try to repay the community the support they have given me over the years."

Friedo and the other honorees were to receive plaques at the chamber of commerce’s annual awards dinner Friday, January 26 at the Plantation Party House.

Swarthout was nominated for the Civic Beautification award by chamber member Carole Palmer. "In her tireless effort to make the Spencerport community aesthetically appealing, she has taken a very strong interest in the planting … of our community flower, the daylily," Palmer said.

Residents can look for some of the fruits of Swarthout’s labor this summer when the daylilies in the new display garden she helped plan and planted in conjunction with Cardinal Landscaping of Spencerport begin to bloom at the Lester C. Merz Memorial Park. The daylily is the official flower of the Village of Spencerport and the Town of Ogden

The garden includes old and new varieties of the daylily and different types, such as fragrant, ruffled and spider lilies. "The whole purpose is to show people the many varieties available," said Swarthout. She said she worked with hybridists from Grace Gardens in Penn Yan to make the garden an accredited display garden.

"It certainly is an honor to be nominated and presented with the award," said Swarthout. "But there were a lot of people involved in the project and without them the award would not have been possible."

Swarthout has lived in Spencerport 31 years, and is originally from a small town. "I’ve always been involved and active and I truly believe that to make things happen you have to be involved," she said.

"I am truly proud of Spencerport, we have such wonderful people here, you can’t help but be involved," she said. "There is a lot of pride in the village and the town."

Hi-Qual Heating and Cooling, Inc. owners were nominated Business People of the Year by Palmer because of their responsiveness to community needs. "They are young, hardworking, community minded and very responsive to anything, anytime they are asked," Palmer said.

Quataert said he and Hill are proud to be a part of the community, and honored to be receiving this award. "We’re the local guys and this is a big honor," he said.

Quataert said he and Hill both live in Spencerport and opened their business at 14 Amity Street in October of 1988. "Over the years we have done everything. If we didn’t have money to donate, we donated our time … It’s not always the big things, it’s the little things you do," he said.

Living and working in the community, with children involved in Scouts, and school activities, the men are very aware of the needs of the community. Whether it’s a donation to a fund-raiser, their time spent working on a project, or collecting odds and ends for a Scout troop, "People know if they need something they can come to us," Quataert said.

"It’s easy to say yes when you know the people," he said. "It’s nice to see the results of your efforts. It’s a no-brainer to do things for your own community," Quataert said.

Quataert said he would like to thank the chamber of commerce for recognizing them, as well as all of their customers, and the community. "We don’t do it for the recognition, but it’s nice to be recognized," he said. "It’s nice to know that people know what we do."