Photo provided by: Heather Wanniger, Sweet Lemonade Photography
By FRED KRONER
fred@mahometnews.com
Mahomet Chamber of Commerce 2020 Award Winners
Overall Business of the Year – Area Garbage, Bud Boller
Small Business of the Year –Yellow & Company, Elizabeth VanHoutan McDermith
Food Service Business of the Year – Filippo’s Pizza, Brigi and Jerry Paris
Health & Wellness Business of the Year – The Rock Counseling Group, R.J. and Staci McNicholl
Startup Business of the Year – Ruff Dayz, Tim and Lacy Belangee
Community Servant of the Year – Mahomet-Seymour schools superintendent, Dr. Lindsey Hall
Volunteer of the Year – Raptor Power Systems, Evan El Koury
The Mahomet Daily will post a series of profiles on each of the award winners, who were recognized at the annual Chamber of Commerce banquet on Friday night at Mahomet’s Grace Church. To see the other articles, click on the link associated with each business name above.
RAPTOR POWER SYSTEMS, Evan El Koury
It’s natural for people to volunteer or assist in areas that are beneficial to them personally or to their business interests.
Evan El Koury’s dedication and commitment to the Mahomet Area Chamber of Commerce, however, doesn’t provide any boosts for his Main Street business, Raptor Power Systems.
“We don’t sell locally,” El Koury said. “We build custom powered distribution units for military data centers and sell equipment for cryptocurrency mining.”
His clients include the U.S. Navy, NASA, Apple and Netflix.
And yet, El Koury is an active volunteer locally with the Chamber of Commerce. He works on the web site, helps with social media, is the Chamber treasurer and is a chairman of the Home Show committee.
“I spend a lot of time with it,” El Koury said, “probably two hours a day.
“It’s almost like a second job. I try to be involved and enrich the community. I pretty much go to every event and every lunch.”
El Koury was honored at Friday’s Chamber banquet as the Volunteer of the Year.
He was raised near Manhattan and went to college near Washington, D.C.
“There was always traffic everywhere,” he said. “The town I grew up in was a small town, but I didn’t have that feel in Champaign.”
The family checked into several outlying area communities before settling on Mahomet.
“For me, I Ioved the trees and the Victorian-style older homes,” El Koury said. “We drove through one neighborhood, and I said, ‘This looks like home.’”
Since early 2017, it has been home for El Koury, his wife and children, a 7-year-old son who is in first grade and a 2-year-old daughter who attends First School.
“I’m wildly surprised at how many things the town puts on for its size,” El Koury said. “You see things you’d normally see in larger cities.
“We’re able to support so many different events.”
The village expansion helps create a positive atmosphere for volunteers.
“When you see the growth, it makes it easier to put the time in,” El Koury said. “I like seeing so much growth in a short amount of time.”
