The Perry Chamber of Commerce held its 2025 Annual Dinner on Tuesday to honor members and organizations from the past year.

The dinner was held at La Poste, and Chamber Director Lynsi Pasutti shared several great highlights from 2024 that the organization was apart of, with big ones being the Bouton Trail Connector, the PerryNext Recovery Efforts after the closing of the Tyson Foods Pork Plant, and the RVTV event prior to the Iowa-Iowa State Football game in September. She took a moment to thank Julie Scheib for her contribution over the past 26 years as part of the chamber. Pasutti then revealed that the chamber is becoming an affiliate to the Greater Des Moines Partnership in order to offer more resources in Perry. 

Following that, Guest Speaker Cole Adair spoke about growing up in Perry, going to college in Pella, but ultimately returning home because his wife, who was an elementary teacher, wanted to stay in the community for her students. Adair stated that the people connected to the area “Choose Perry,” whether they live, work, or have kids in school. 

The chamber presented three awards as the Jack Finneseth Memorial Volunteer was Ned Menke as he serves as the President of the Perry Basketball Association. He echoed comments made earlier by Adair.

“As we look ahead, I’m a little bit of an outsider. I didn’t grow up in Perry, but I’ve lived here my entire adult life, and we choose to live here because of all the things that Cole had said. It’s a great place to raise a family, it’s a great place to go to school, have your kids go to school, to work at, and I love so many people in this room, and it’s why I’ve chosen to live here for the last 19 years. Thanks again for this incredible honor.”

The second award was the Spirit of Perry Business of the Year as that went to Perry’s Academic, Cultural, Enrichment Services, or P.A.C.E.S. where Director Mary Hillman accepted the recognition, and the third award was the Chamber Ambassador of the Year with Larry Vodenik taking home the honor. Also, Paige Scheib of Edward Jones was named the 2025 Big Boom Bracket Battle Champion after she defeated Perry Fire Chief Grason Hill by three dollars.

Julie Scheib

Tiffany Coleman

Mary Hillman

Ned Menke

Larry Vodenik

Paige Scheib (Winner of 2025 Big Boom Bracket Battle)