Chamber’s Alvah Chapman honors to Camillus House, Bill Talbert

The Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce went back to in-person trustee lunches last week by delivering several major awards that Covid-19 had delayed, honoring three community leaders of past, present and future and the long-serving Camillus House.

In presenting what had been annual awards that skipped 2020 because of the pandemic, the chamber reached out to honor the long-time leader of another major civic organization, the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau, presenting the Alvah H. Chapman Jr. Award of Excellence to William D. Talbert III, outgoing bureau president and CEO. Successor David Whitaker was in the audience to applaud Mr. Talbert.

Mr. Talbert said he was accepting the award not in his name but for the bureau, because “it’s about the team, family first, a team effort.” He then introduced the key members of the staff of the bureau, where he is now a special consultant.

The Chapman award was also presented to the Camillus House, which was started in 1960 as a small soup kitchen to feed Cuban exiles. CEO Hilda Fernandez noted to the lunch crowd that that night Camillus House would be housing 1,700 men, women and children as well as providing a bevy of other services.

The Chapman young leaders award went to Frankie Ruiz, 43, co-founder of Miami-based PR Racing, which served as the launching pad of the Miami Marathon. He now is with that organization as chief running officer and was named this year as well as the City of Miami’s first chief wellness officer, working on initiatives in the mayor’s office and the parks department.

Mr. Ruiz told the crowd that his father, who was present, had worked in sales at the Miami Herald under Mr. Chapman and another family member had cleaned Mr. Chapman’s pool. He recalled his father reading him Christmas cards from Betty and Alvah Chapman.

Besides the Chapman awards, the chamber gave its Henry M. Flagler Community Builder Award to Larry Adams, who volunteered in leadership of more than 30 Miami civic organization during a 42-year career at Florida Power & Light, which then was based in Miami. He wound up as the vice president of the company for Miami-Dade.

Mr. Adams, now 95, worked with the company during the day and worked his way through the University of Miami at night. He has been chairman of the chamber but might be best known for his service to the Orange Bowl Committee, which he also led.