A record crowd of Chickasha business leaders came to their feet, applauding, as the 2007 Ambassador and Volunteer of the Year came to accept their awards during the Chickasha Chamber of Commerce’s banquet Friday night.

Margaret Davis presented Sharon Shoemake with the Ambassador of the Year award, and then returned when Chamber Chairman Matthew Mollman presented Davis the Volunteer of the Year award.

Mollman presented a few remarks to the gathered group, considered the largest attendance at a chamber banquet.

“It is all about quality of life,” he said. He said that the chamber had been building good relationships with the city, the Economic Development Council and Chickasha Main Street. He said that such hard work and relationships had Chickasha improving for the future.

“The only way it won’t happen is if we let apathy come in,” Mollman said.

The chairman then introduced the guest speak, former governor George Nigh. Nigh was elected to the Oklahoma legislature as a senior in college. He serves as Lt. Governor for several years before being elected as governor.

Nigh shared a number of humorous stories about his time in the legislature, as governor and as president of the University of Central Oklahoma.

Some of the anecdotes included receiving a Japanese flag in a trip abroad because the hosts misunderstood him as the “governor of Yokohama.”

Nigh also told about his efforts to make Oklahoma, the song from the broadway play, the official state song. After an impassioned plea from an opponent of the measure, Nigh contacted the Oklahoma College for Women, the future University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, to arrange for their singing group to come to the capitol. Nigh also contacted Rich Bond, the only Oklahoman to play Curly in the broadway musical. With Bond and the singing women, singing “Oklahoma,” Nigh made the motion to adopt the song as the state’s song.

Nigh used the play to convey a message to the gathered business leaders. When Rogers and Hamerstein were preparing the play, they had to decide on a title, eventually settling on “Oklahoma!”

“Do for Chickasha what they did for Oklahoma,” Nigh said, “put an exclamation point at the end.”