OTHELLO — Attendees of the 50th Annual Greater Othello Chamber Awards Banquet and Raffle celebrated award winners and a new chamber president, and had a first-hand look new logo and branding package for the community of Othello.

Othello City Administrator Wade Farris served as the master of ceremony for the evening.

Held at the Bethel Assembly of God Church, the banquet attracted a packed house, a higher turnout than had been expected, according to Chamber Manager Bianca Mendoza.

Mendoza was also pleased with how the crowd remained throughout the evening. The majority stayed until the end of the program, which hasn’t always been the case in the past.

“I was really happy with the turnout,” Mendoza said.

The new logo and branding package is the result of a rebranding process which began back in November. It started with a series of roundtable discussions comprised of five focus groups, each made up of about 25 people. Community input was taken into consideration.

Designed by Arnett Muldrow and Associates, the new logo is a depiction of sunshine with a sandhill crane soaring through it.

“We picked between different variations of the logo,” Mendoza said, “but ultimately chose the final result because they felt it best represented the city of Othello.”

The color scheme is made up of orange, sage green, a light peachy tan, gray and brown. The orange was chosen to represent the great sunsets Othello has in the summer. The sage green is to represent the various crops, and the light peachy tan to represent the land.

“These colors will be the first thing people see when entering Othello,” Mendoza said. “They’re all earthy colors.”

New fonts were also chosen to complete the rebranding package. For the primary typeface, a traditional, classic clean font was chosen. For the secondary typeface, the font will be legible, with a contemporary and neutral look. And for the third, a handwriting-style font was chosen to represent a more personal touch.

During the banquet, the 2016 award winners were also recognized, including:

Citizen of the Year Richard P. Bunch, MD

Business of the Year Sloan-Leavitt Insurance Agency, Inc.

Civil Servant of the Year Debbie L. Kudrna

Teacher of the Year (6-12) Jennifer McCourtie

Teacher of the Year (K-5) Sandra Garza

Teacher of the Year (K-5) Brenda Young

A new chamber president was named as outgoing president Connie Agenbroad passed her gavel over to Patty Garza, who will serve as the Chamber’s 2017 president.

“It was a great banquet, it went very smooth,” Mendoza said.

Mendoza emphasized that the chamber would like to thank everyone who supported the winners and the Chamber and who helped make the banquet possible.

“I want to thank our youth helpers,” Mendoza said.

Those included the Distinguished Young Women court and contestants, the Othello Rodeo Queen and the Future Business Leaders of America club.

The youth helpers followed directions well, and really helped out a lot, Mendoza said.