Publisher’s Letter: ‘SC Times’ Named Business of the Year

By PFM Founder Norb Garrett

This past week, the San Clemente Times was selected by the San Clemente Chamber of Commerce as the 2021 Business of the Year at its annual Installation and Awards luncheon held at beautiful private golf club Bella Collina San Clemente.

Associate Publisher Lauralyn Loynes and Managing Editor Shawn Raymundo joined me to accept the award, which is truly an honor to receive in recognition of the great work our entire team did to help unify, support and inform our community during the recent pandemic and for the past 16 years serving our community.

It also speaks to the incredibly important role that a free and independent hyper-local press plays in our democratic process—one that we at the San Clemente Times take very seriously.

We share this award with all of the other small businesses in San Clemente who battled and pivoted to survive during the past 24 months in the face of an unforeseen crisis.

We’re honored to work with such great marketing partners and will continue to work hard to play a vital role connecting residents and visitors to their businesses across our many media platforms.

The Chamber itself—led by Susie Lantz and Arlen Flores—has been hugely helpful to San Clemente businesses throughout the pandemic and must also be commended for its resourcefulness over the past couple of years.

Congratulations also go out to others recognized by the Chamber: Bob Hayden (Outstanding Lifetime Achievement); Eileen Kawas (Citizen of the Year); Beth Apodaca and the Dorothy Visser Senior Center (Nonprofit of the Year); Rick Divel (Volunteer of the Year); Danielle Smith (Volunteer of the Year); and the Outlets at San Clemente (Sustainable Leadership Award).

Thanks again, San Clemente Chamber of Commerce, for the recognition and for all that you do for our business community.