The Suffolk Times honors its 2017 People of the Year
Times Review Media Group honored more than a dozen local residents for their service and work in the community at the 2017 People of the Year awards ceremony Thursday night.
The winners, who were announced in the first issue of the newspaper in January, were formally honored with plaques and video tributes during the ceremony at Martha Clara Vineyards in Riverhead.
The annual awards, which have been handed out since 1987, are given to leaders in public and community service, education, business and sports. The overall Suffolk Times Person of the Year for 2017 was Eleanor Lingor.
Other winners from The Suffolk Times were William Price, the Public Servant of the Year; Sarah Benjamin, the Educator of the Year; George Giannaris, the Businessperson of the Year; Mindy Ryan, the Community Leader of the Year; Grace Syron, the Sportsperson of the Year; and Love Lane First Fridays Organizers were the northforker People of the Year.
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Additional winners from Riverhead included the News-Review’s Person of the Year, Byron Perez; Public Servant of the Year, Richard Ligon; Educator of the Year, Felicia Scocozza; Businessperson of the Year, Irwin Garsten; Community Leader of the Year, Ron Fisher and Sportsperson of the Year, Bill Hedges.
The event was sponsored by Peoples United Bank with food supplied by Plated Simply. Additional partners in the event were Mattituck Florist, Mattituck Greenport Laundry and Sav-On Printing.
Photo caption: The winners from The Suffolk Times and Shelter Island Reporter: (from left) George Giannaris, Sarah Benjamin, William Price, Mindy Ryan, Eleanor Lingo, Christine Lewis and Grace Syron. (Credit: Madison Fender)
