The Salem Area Chamber of Commerce used its 75th annual First Citizen Awards Banquet to do more than honor community service. This year’s event also offered a clear picture of the kinds of leadership local business and civic leaders are elevating: workforce development, nonprofit capacity, arts and culture, and long-term investment in the community.
Held April 18 at the Salem Convention Center, the banquet named Laura and Dan Dorn as 2026 First Citizens and recognized Alex Ferry, Tony Frazier, Carlee Wright and Larry Tokarski for work spanning business, education, philanthropy and community life. Rather than pointing in one direction, the awards reflected several of the issues that continue to shape the city’s future: who is building the next generation of workers, who is strengthening the nonprofit sector, who is helping define downtown identity, and who keeps backing that work year after year.
Laura and Dan Dorn, this year’s top honorees, were recognized for decades of civic involvement as well as their role in expanding opportunities for students interested in the skilled trades. The Chamber’s presentation pointed especially to their work with Advanced Construction Education and the Career Technical Education Center, where students gain hands-on construction experience. Dan has helped lead student-built home projects, while Laura has listed and sold those homes without taking a commission, sending proceeds back into the program. Laura Dorn brought the recognition back to partnership, saying, “Dan, we couldn’t do this without you. All the things that I do. You never say no, and you always support me.”
Alex Ferry, named Outstanding Young Professional, was recognized for building a business while staying deeply involved in civic and professional networks. His acceptance speech delivered one of the night’s clearest lines about how younger leaders move into community roles. “The opportunities I’ve been given, the relationships I’ve built, the ability to be a part of something bigger than myself. None of that happened by accident. It happened because I showed up.” In a city that often talks about leadership succession, the quote landed because it was direct and practical rather than ceremonial.
Tony Frazier received the event’s first-ever Nonprofit Leadership Award, a notable addition in the banquet’s milestone year. His work at the Salvation Army Ray and Joan Kroc Center was described as going well beyond recreation, with a focus on education, workforce development and family support. The Chamber highlighted his work helping expand programs that connect young people and families to career training and opportunity. Frazier boiled his leadership philosophy down to a simple framework: “It’s very simple. It’s this. It’s mentors, mission, and mindset.” Later, he added, “Leadership is not a rank, it’s a choice.” That fits the point of the award. Nonprofit leadership is not peripheral civic work. It is part of the city’s infrastructure.
Carlee Wright, honored with the Distinguished Service Award, represented another kind of local influence that often gets underestimated in business conversations. Through Press Play Salem, her work at the Elsinore Theatre and years of arts and culture advocacy, Wright has helped shape how people experience the city. She made an explicit case for why that matters economically: “I truly became a cheerleader for Salem, set on dispelling the myth of there’s nothing to do here, and dedicated to showing how arts and culture contribute to our economy, why visitors spend money here, and why this city has an identity worthy of investing in.” She later described Press Play as “my love letter to Salem, and it’s the one that’s meant to be shared.” It was one of the night’s strongest arguments that cultural life is not separate from economic vitality.
Larry Tokarski’s Legacy of Leadership Award brought the long view. His name has long been tied to business leadership, philanthropy and support for nonprofit institutions across the Salem area. In his tribute to Tokarski, Dick Withnell described his impact as wide, often quiet and deeply embedded in projects that outlast any single board term or public recognition. Withnell said Tokarski “sees people not as problems, but as gifts.” He also pointed to Tokarski’s long-running belief that “business and industry would be more successful if we had a talented workforce pipeline,” tying his legacy not only to generosity, but to a sustained view of community-building as economic work.
Taken together, this year’s honorees reflect the kind of work the community continues to reward: building opportunity, strengthening institutions and investing in Salem over time. The strongest message of the evening was not just that these individuals had given back, but that their work touched systems that last — schools, nonprofits, workforce pipelines, small-business networks and the civic identity of the city itself.
