Top honors to Manning, Stowe
Community accomplishments celebrated Friday night
The Postmaster and the Candy Man took the top honors at the Porterville Chamber of Commerce Awards dinner.
Mickie Manning, the first female Postmaster in Porterville, was the Woman of the Year and Porterville Mayor Milt Stowe, aka the Candy Man to his children, received the Man of the Year honor Friday night at Nuckols Ranch. Both received several standing ovations as they accepted their honors.
Also walking away with awards were Charia Jessi Zeller, a senior at Harmony Magnet Academy — Female Youth of the Year; Zachary Angle, a senior at Monache High School — Male Youth of the Year; U.S. Marines Reserve Toys for Tots — Community Project of the Year; Townsend Architectural Group — Small Business of the Year; Sierra View Medical Center — Large Business of the Year; and Janie Mann, Volunteer of the Year.
Manning before retiring from the USPS mentored and encouraged other women to become postmasters. During her time as Postmaster in Porterville, Manning served on various committees and boards, including for the Family Crisis Center. After retiring, Manning became the interim executive director of the FCC and eventually retired from this position when a permanent replacement was found.
“I don’t usually get overwhelmed but this is too much,” Manning said in accepting the honor. “After retiring as postmaster, I had to make a decision. Do I want to stay here, go back to Bakersfield, Los Angeles, but my heart was here and I decided to stay because of this wonderful community.”
Manning has also been a member of the Zonta Club of Porterville, having served as president of the club and area, director for District 9, Area 2 and is the corresponding secretary; board member of the Kings/tulare Continuum of Care on Homelessness; member of the committee for Project Homeless Connect; member of the Pointin-time surveys; and member of the board of directors of the Pandya Family Foundation Inc.
Manning participated in the task force against human trafficking, created by the Tulare County District Attorney’s Office. She went to the United Nations in New York in March of 2017 with fellow Zonta International members in the Commission of Status of Women Forum, representing Porterville on the global stage.
“Thank you all very much,” Manning said concluding her remarks. “It is a real honor.”
Stowe wiped at tears as he watched a video of his two children and two grandchildren saying how deserving he was of the honor, prior to making his acceptance speech.
“It’s not by accident that I volunteer in this community,” Stowe said. “I want to thank my parents for raising me that way. My dad used to say, ‘If you are not going to get involved then shut up.’”
Stowe, who earned honors for playing basketball and baseball at Porterville College, has been a part of the community since 1975 when he was the head baseball coach, head women’s basketball coach and a part-time instructor at Porterville College. He was inducted into the PC Hall of Fame in 1995 for his baseball achievements.
He has served on the PC Foundation Board for more than a combined 14 years.
Eight years later, he became the Parks and Leisure Services superintendent for the City of Porterville, a position he held for 21 years. In 2003, he was promoted to Parks and Leisure Services chief of operations.
After retiring from the city, Stowe remained active in the community and in 2014 was the Porterville Chamber of Commerce board chair and that same year was elected to the Porterville City Council and eventually appointed mayor.
Senior Adult Day Services, vice chair; Porterville College Hall of Fame Committee; Porterville Anti-drug Alliance; Veteran’s Welcome Home Committee; and Porterville’s Cinco de Mayo Celebration Committee are just some of the many organizations Stowe has been involved with over the years.
“Probably the best decision I ever made was to come to Porterville College,” Stowe said. “From that day on this community has embraced me. I call you friends, but you are family, each and everyone of you is my family.”
Townsend Architectural Group was founded in 2001 by Dennis Townsend. It’s been the only architectural firm in the city for the past 16-plus years. TAG is a full-service firm that provides design and construction document preparation along with bid and construction phase services.
TAG is volunteer coordinator for Habitat for Humanity Building Hope in Porterville and has provided many internships to area students.
Townsend is currently president of the Sierra View Foundation board.
For three months out of the year few are busier than the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program. During October, November and December its volunteers are collecting and then distributing new, unwrapped toys as Christmas gifts to less fortunate children in the community.
According to their bio, 20 years ago the Toys for Tots unit in Porterville was part of the Visalia campaign. Carmen Gonzales, a teacher at Olive Street Elementary and volunteer for the program, decided the local community would be best served if Porterville was its own unit.
After receiving approval, Commision Honorifica Mexicana-americana Inc. became the local non-profit under which Porterville was officially recognized as a separate unit. After Gonzales, untimely passing to cancer, Grace Munoz-rios stepped in as coordinator, a position she has held for the past 10 years.
“As you will see in the program, Toys for Tots does not have a picture because we would not all fit,” Munoz-rios said. “If it wasn’t for the volunteers who come forward every year to help us pull it off, to help all of the children in the area that we serve, Southeastern Tulare County, we would not be able to do the things that we do.”
Sierra View Medical Center is a 167-bed, fullservice acute care facility and is Porterville’s preeminent hospital and healthcare center.
The Sierra View Local Hospital District was formed in October of 1947. In early 1957, hospital construction began and a year later the new 42-bed hospital opened at its present site.
A three-story tower was added in 1985. In 1990, a cancer treatment center was added and in 1995 a five-story patient tower opened.
Expansion continued with the opening of its Medical Office Building on Pearson Drive in 2003. Two years later, the cancer treatment center expanded and recently the new outpatient Dialysis Center was completed. In 2017, SVMC added a new Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory as well as an Urgent Care facility.
“I always say that we are on a journey to excellence because the journey is continuous,” Donna Hefner, SVMC CEO and president. “This honor tonight has truly inspired us to keep persevering to the future and to bring the best high quality and safe patient care to everyone we serve.”
In addition to handing out the awards, the outgoing Chamber of Commerce board and its chair Ramona Chiapa were recognized as well as retiring board members Cheryl Haugen of PSW and Cal Rossi of Southern California Edision.
“Thank you for your tremendous support during my year as chair,” Chiapa said. “My success in this role, truly is our success.”
William Garfield, of the Tule River Economic Development Corporation, is the new board chair. Garfield said he looked forward to serving the community and was grateful to be the next chair.
The awards dinner was also the last for chamber CEO and President Stephanie Cortez, who announced in September she would be stepping down at the end of the year to pursue other interests, including teaching at Porterville College. Cortez has guided the chamber since 2014.
“Yes, I’m leaving but it’s not a goodbye,” Cortez said. “I will still be part of this community. I will still support this community and I will probably be a little bit of a louder voice in the community.”