The Livingston-Overton Chamber of Commerce has honored Lori Richards with the Ambassador of the Year Award for her work in the community.
The Chamber awarded four members of the community Legacy Awards, honoring each of them for showing selfless support toward the Chamber. The Ambassador of the Year Award recognizes Vol State Campus Director Richards for taking strides to help the city.
“If we don’t invest our time and our efforts into the community, then who’s going to do it,” Richards said. “We’ve got to do it for our next generations and our following generations to make sure that our community is thriving and is prospering.”
Richards said she has been heavily involved with bringing back Leadership Overton to the Chamber, contributing toward her achievement.
“As soon as I heard there was a possibility of bringing it back, I really wanted to do that, because that, I think, is part of our future,” Richards said. “Bringing in these new people, showing them what Overton County has to offer and what they can look forward to in our community.”
Richards said she is so honored and so grateful to have achieved the award. Richards said she hopes to continue meeting the expectations that were set with the award.
“I’m trying to be very involved since I recently retired this past March,” Richards said. “It’s given me some extra time to be able to do some things and give back to the community.”
Richards said at the Vol State Cookeville campus, she has had the chance to participate in many leadership classes, benefiting the community through networking opportunities and projects, like a disk golf course at Winningham Park.
Richards said inspiring others to give back to their community would be the ideal result from winning the award.
“Through Leadership Overton, that’s really what I have been seeing,” Richards said. “The people wanting to be involved in the community.”