The Jaffrey Chamber of Commerce has named Bonnie Coll Cutter as the Citizen of the Year, Project Shakespeare as Nonprofit of the Year and the Shattuck Golf Club and Dublin Road Taproom & Eatery as Business of the Year for 2022.

Coll Cutter was nominated by friend and fellow business owner Marc Tieger.  Coll Cutter, who owns Coll’s Garden Center and Florist, also is an avid town volunteer, including maintaining the town’s flower boxes.

“The person I am nominating for our citizen of the year is a perfect example of why Jaffrey is so special,” Tieger wrote in his nomination.

In an interview, Coll Cutter said she was “totally blown away” when she was told she had been selected.

“My exact words were, ‘Are you sure it said my name?’” Coll Cutter said. “I’m a behind-the-scenes kind of girl. I just never, ever thought it would be me. It gave me more pep in my step, that what I’m doing is being acknowledged, being seen and making my community happy.”

“Bonnie, her love of community, her ability to spread sunshine on the darkest of days, and her part in making Jaffrey a better place to live and play, make her my choice for the Jaffrey Chamber’s 2022 Citizen of the Year,” said chamber President Cyndy Burgess.

The 2022 Business of the Year is the Shattuck Golf Club and its pub, the Dublin Road Taproom & Eatery.

Doni Ash purchased Shattuck in 2019, and under his ownership, the business has undergone several improvements and renovations. In addition to being a golf course, the Shattuck also allows residents to access miles of trails on the cart paths along the property during the winter for snowshoeing and skiing, at no charge.

Cathy Furze, one of the people who nominated the Shattuck and Dublin Road Taproom, said Ash’s involvement with the community reaches beyond the doors of his business. Ash and the Shattuck work with nonprofits such as Jaffrey’s transitional shelter, Shelter from the Storm, and the chamber’s Ron Despres Memorial Golf Tournament is held there.

“The Shattuck Golf Club is home to one of the top courses in New England for the course and its management. With all the improvements that have been made under Doni’s ownership, The Shattuck is definitely an asset to Jaffrey and the Monadnock region,” Burgess said.

The 2022 Nonprofit of the Year is Project Shakespeare, a youth theater company that puts on productions of Shakespeare every summer, plus the annual traditional production of Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol” in the winter.

Clay Hollister of Jaffrey, who was one of the citizens who nominated Project Shakespeare, wrote, “It is hard for me to imagine a local organization that has a more unique, inspirational and totally positive impact on the children in our community than Project Shakespeare. Deborah Shakespeare Thurber, the creator and driving force behind Project Shakespeare, is a veritable dynamo of imagination, determination and love focused on expanding the world of our kids to the rich and varied worlds of Shakespeare.”

All three awardees will be honored during the Jaffrey Chamber of Commerce’s annual meeting and gala, scheduled this year for Feb. 9 at 5:30 p.m. at the Woodbound Inn in Rindge. Tickets for the gala are $40, and include a sit-down meal. Tickets are available on jaffreychmaber.com, or by calling the chamber at 603-532-4549.

Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172, Ext. 244, or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.

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