2019 Person of the Year
Deliciously Vivid

  Each year, for the past 18 years anyway, Delta Communication solicits names for inclusion in the Person of the Year award contest. What Delta has always looked for has been individuals who go well beyond the call of duty, people that step forward and succeed in making County Clay a better place.
  For the last many years, our honoree has been a single effort, one person, that stands out above all others on the list.
  This year, it's all different. This year, when we called out for nominees, the emails and calls came back in strong support for a volunteer group to be selected.
  For 2020, the awardee of the Clay County Person of the Year award is Deliciously Vivid.
  The start up nonprofit group kicked off their efforts in late Summer of 2019. Their first organizational meeting was held in August and a diverse group of Clayonians showed up for duty. It was mostly a bunch of new faces. Our guess, from those 40 or so, all of em knew, this Land of Little needed help. Without it, last person out, turn off the light bulb please.
   From the git go, their purpose was clear, their efforts would be to make the place look better and grow tourism in our 342 square miles.
 
 


Deliciously Vivid leadership



Communicator newspaper Editor Jessica McLaughlin provides:
  Earlier last year, Josh Shamblin was voted in as Mayor of the Town of Clay. It wasn't too long after that he announced, he was going to resign from the position.
   After so many people reached out to Shamblin, and offered their help, he decided to remain as the Mayor of Clay. It wasn't long after that a new group came to be.
   Several people gathered at the first meeting of this group that had no name at the time. Their intentions were to beautify the town, and to boost tourism for the county. At the time, the main goal was to place interactive murals through the town. So many ideas were bounced around the first meeting, but they had to decide who the members of the organization would be.
   Without any questions or nays, Dwayne Cottrell was named Chair. Mayor Josh Shamblin, Ashley Truman, Vanessa Dunigan, and Donna Salisbury we're all given positions in the group. Cindy Mullins later replaced Tabitha Adkins.
   Then came time to name the group. With the focus being beautification and painting, they decided to call themselves "Deliciously Vivid."
   Many citizen submissions were turned in for the first two murals. Everyone was given two cents to vote on their favorite submissions. It just so happened the same individual won both entries. Both murals went up, and received much attention during the Apple Festival. They even decided to throw in an extra one to go along with the Welcome to Clay County mural.
   Becoming a non profit organization became a goal and would open them to grants to fund projects, along with support from our own citizens. In December of 2019, Deliciously Vivid became an IRS approved, non profit organization.
   When support kept pouring in from the community, there was suddenly talk about an all day celebration for Halloween. They only had just a few short weeks to prepare for this event. Yet somehow, they were able to pull it off with great success. There was a parade, and many activities for the children to take part in.
   Deliciously Vivid  received arm loads of gratitude from the community. Many requested that next year, event would be a three-day fun fest instead of just one day.
   To no surprise, they were able to pull off two more events with very short notice. One being a highly successful gun show that's brought in a lot of proceedings to fund the upcoming events and beautification. The other being a fun, and beautiful celebration of Christmas.
   Deliciously Vivid became more than just a beautification group, they became a group to bring our citizens together, and bring back life to the county.
   After seeing what they have accomplished so far, we are excited to see what they are going to bring in 2020, and why they've been named group of the year for 2020.   JM

  We asked Mayor Shamblin for comments on the selection. From Mayor Josh Shamblin:  The group started in August. Dwayne Cottrell brought up the idea to do murals. I said that would be great, but we needed it organized. He brought on Vanessa Dunigan, Ashley Truman, and Donna Salisbury. As we organized and began to plan projects.
   Cindy Mullins was added to the team. We started with the Welcome Wall downtown. We then did the butterflies on the side of the Elk River Inn. When we finished that, we were approached to help in a festival on Halloween weekend. The group jumped in and provided a free event for the community to enjoy. In November we put on a gun show that drew a huge crowd. Then in December the group did a Christmas Celebration that included a tree lighting and gifts for kids in the community.
   In 2020 we plan to complete more murals. We also plan to do at least one event a month for the community. That includes another gun show, an adult prom, and other events that will draw interest to Clay.
   As far as my words, this group has made my time as Mayor so much less stressful. They have the same vision as me to make Clay into a tourist destination. They work long hours for free. They are happy to build community. I have never been a part of a group that worked so seamlessly with one another, as well as with anyone else in the community. They make me proud to be a part of them.      JS


 


  And from the Ace Cub Reporter, it's been a long time since a group came on the scene and were successful. Instead of being beat back by the "we don't want that" Bluebloods, team DV told the sticks in the mud, step aside and make way for new stuff in Clayberry.
  Instead of tired old people doing the same thing year after year, this group has a bag of new ideas and enough energy to pull em off.   County Clay has greatly benefited from DV in 2019 and there's little doubt, we're expecting even more in 2020.   AW


Congratulations Deliciously Vivid!!