At least one name among the city of Anna Maria’s 2023 Distinguished Citizen of the Year nominees should be familiar.
However, none are citizens of the city.
The city received four nomination forms naming candidates for the award before a Jan. 5 deadline for submissions.
The nominees include:
- The island newspapers, The Islander and the Island Sun;
- Anna Maria Island Garden Club;
- Island worker and Palma Sola resident Christine Olson.
Anna Maria residents John Kolojeski and Suzanne Seiter nominated the island newspapers.
They wrote in their nomination form, “In this era when over 2,500 weekly publications have gone out of business around the U.S. over the last 20 years, our little community here on AMI has not one, but two thriving weekly publications filling all the needs of the community.
“Both papers have excellent journalists who could be working at major publications. We get opinions on the important political issues affecting the islands as well as current events, sports, entertainment and environmental updates. People tend to take a newspaper for granted, until it is gone someday.”
City Commission Chair Mark Short nominated the garden club. He wrote in his nomination form that the club deserved the award due to its focus on island beautification and environmental education.
Another reason he made the nomination was the garden club’s effort to beautify all three island cities by helping to fund the addition of wind sculptures in each municipality.
The club contributed $6,000 to both the cities of Anna Maria and Holmes Beach to help fund the addition of three wind sculptures created by Utah-based artist Lyman Whitaker.
Two sculptures were installed at City Pier Park, 101 N. Bay Blvd., Anna Maria, while another was installed outside the Island Library, 5701 Marina Drive, Holmes Beach.
The club also wants to partially fund the addition of a wind sculpture in Bradenton Beach.
Bradenton resident Amy Hill and Sue Gengle, a real estate agent with Holmes Beach-based A Paradise Realty, separately nominated Christine Olson for the award.
Olson has worked on the island for more than 22 years, living there for much of that time, according to Hill.
Hill and Gengle wrote that Olson deserved the award for her work as the founder of To Inform Families First, or the TIFF Initiative, a nonprofit organization focused on improving the timeliness of emergency notifications to family members.
The TIFF Initiative was sparked by the death of Olson’s daughter, Tiffiany, who died following a Dec. 7, 2005, traffic crash. Olson was not contacted by law enforcement until six hours after the accident.
Following the tragedy, Olson created the nonprofit to improve emergency notification times through the creation of the TIFF system, a voluntary emergency contact information program that ties emergency contact information to a state-issued driver’s license or identification card.
The system has been adopted in 15 states.
“Christine is very deserving of this award,” Hill wrote in her nomination form. “I can not say or write enough positive qualities about her! Please, consider giving her this award.”
Mayor Dan Murphy has said that he hoped to present the nominations for the award at a January city commission meeting.
The city commission will meet next at 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 25, at city hall, 10005 Gulf Drive.
Directions to attend via Zoom can be found on the city’s website, cityofannamaria.com.