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Citizen of the Year

Anschuetz honored for community involvement

News Photo by Steve Schulwitz Bruce Anchuetz was named the 2016 Alpena Outstanding Citizen of the Year during the Alpena Area Chamber of Commerce. Besides being a successful businessman, Anchuetz is a strong supporter of many charitable causes and volunteers for many worthy causes.

ALPENA — The Alpena Outstanding Citizen of the Year is one of the most prestigious awards a resident of Alpena County can earn.

This year’s winner is Bruce Anschuetz, who was presented the award Thursday night at the annual Alpena Area Chamber of Commerce dinner. A moment before his name was announced a line of family and friends filed in to celebrate the moment with him.

An emotional Anschuetz said he was in shock to win the award because he believed there are others who were just as deserving. He said words to describe what he was feeling were hard to find.

“I can’t believe it, I can’t believe it,” he said. “This is beyond imagination because I’m just a little fellow in Alpena.

Anschuetz has been a mainstay in the Alpena area for many years. Besides owning and operating a successful car dealership, he is involved with United Way, 4-H, Red Cross, Alpena Public Schools, Alpena Longbeards, as well as service clubs and many others organizations.

Chamber Past President Luciana King introduced Anschuetz and read off a long list of his accomplishments. She said not only does Anchuetz go out of his way to help make Alpena a better place and to help others, but he does so without expecting anything in return.

“Not only does he give of his time, services and money, he also tends to go above and beyond when he does give,” King said.

Anschuetz said he grew up in Alpena and it is a special place to him. He said there is no place else he would rather live.

“It is where I was raised. I love it and I’m going to be here the rest of my life,” he said. “Right now I’m very humbled and very shocked.”

There were many other awards presented at the dinner. The MidMichigan Medical Center-Alpena 22nd annual Health Leadership award was awarded to Alpena Alcona Area Credit Union and City of Alpena.

The Alpena Community College 21st annual Northeast Michigan Workforce Development Award went to ESI and Mary Beth Stutzman won the 7th annual Culture Change Agent Award.

Harborside Cycle won the Up and Coming Award and Joann Dehring was selected the chamber’s Ambassador of the Year Award.

The Outstanding Customer Service Award was given to The Drug Store, while Business of the Year was presented to Omega Electric.

There also was a new award handed out this year, the Connecting the Classroom and Business Award, which was presented to Elly Diamond.

Steve Schulwitz can be reached via email at sschulwitz@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5689. Follow Steve on Twitter ss_alpenanews.

News Photo by Steve Schulwitz Bruce Anchuetz was named the 2016 Alpena Outstanding Citizen of the Year during the Alpena Area Chamber of Commerce. Besides being a successful businessman, Anchuetz is a strong supporter of many charitable causes and volunteers for many worthy causes.

News Photo by Steve Schulwitz
Bruce Anchuetz was named the 2016 Alpena Outstanding Citizen of the Year during the Alpena Area Chamber of Commerce. Besides being a successful businessman, Anchuetz is a strong supporter of many charitable causes and volunteers for many worthy causes.

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