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County chamber holds its annual awards dinner

HONORED — The Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce held its annual dinner and awards ceremony Wednesday night at St. Florian Hall in Wintersville. During the event, the chamber handed out its annual awards including, from left, Frankie DiCarlantonio of Scaffidi’s Restaurant and Tavern, young professional of the year; Michael Florak, community relations director for the business of the year, the Franciscan University of Steubenville; Chris Orris of Valley Hospice, chamber ambassador of the year; local educator Patricia Fletcher, who accepted the posthumous awarding of longtime local volunteer Anita Jackson with a lifetime achievement award; and Lisa Ward of Coleman Professional Services, new or emerging business of the year. - Paul Giannamore

WINTERSVILLE — The Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce heard how the film industry is opening economic doors across Ohio and presented its annual awards during a dinner at St. Florian Hall Wednesday night.

The keynote speaker was Ivan Schwarz, president of the Greater Cleveland Film Commission.

Honors for the evening were led by the posthumous presentation of a lifetime achievement award to longtime area volunteer Anita Jackson of the Franciscan University of Steubenville. Her efforts, and those of the late Sharon Hibbits of Neighborhood House, were singled out by chamber Chairman Tony Mougianis of Apollo Professional Cleaning and Restoration.

“They were people who were givers. They gave back to the community. They weren’t just here to receive,” Mougianis said.

Longtime area educator Patricia Fletcher accepted the award for her friend and recalled Jackson printed a magazine in 1985 called “Our Town, Steubenville.”

“She said we didn’t have to be a big city to have our own magazine,” Fletcher recalled, noting Jackson ended the first edition with the words, “Find your own space.”

She said Jackson would have been thrilled to accept the award.

Other honorees included Frankie DiCarlantonio of Scaffidi’s Restaurant and Tavern, young professional of the year; Franciscan University of Steubenville, business of the year; Coleman Professional Services, new or emerging business of the year; and Chris Orris of Valley Hospice, ambassador of the year.

During his speech, Schwarz recounted a career that took him around the world, included work on the series “Entourage” and serving as co-producer with Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg on “Band of Brothers” before ending up in his post in Cleveland.

His goal is to build the movie and film and TV industry in Ohio to build the economy, create jobs that keep young and talented people in the state to make a living and to promote the state as a center for the industry.

He cited a Cleveland State University study showing a $400 million economic impact by movies and filming the state and that for every dollar invested by the state of Ohio in the film industry, $2.01 is put into the state’s economy.

He said his work with the film commission is threefold: Advocacy for the industry (he wrote the state’s tax credit program that has seen the film industry spread across the state); attraction of the industry to the state; and building of the work force through training people how to understand the language and culture of the industry, film industry law and financing.

He said people just don’t think about Ohio or Cleveland, and its citizens often don’t help because they ask visitors, “Why are you here?”

“I want people to say ‘welcome’ instead of ‘why,'” he said.

“You can do anything in Ohio except the mountains or the desert. It’s a beautiful state. It’s a great backlot,” he said. Schwarz said there is a sense of community in the state and people want good things to happen in their towns. He noted a young person earning $150 a day on a film job in Cleveland can afford to buy a house, something they couldn’t do in Los Angeles.

The state recently invested $7.5 million in Cleveland State to create a school of film, television and interactive media. Schwarz is helping advise the school and wants not just sound stages but state-of-the-art facilities in technology and other cutting-edge needs for the industry not only for today but for years in the future.

“We are going to accomplish this. I want Ohio to be a player in this industry,” he said.

Schwarz advised that while star power is what people think about, it’s not what works for long-term establishment of the film industry. He said Wisconsin gave away much to try to land a Johnny Depp movie.

“Movie stars aren’t going to drive this. The jobs are going to drive this,” he said.

With the proliferation of platforms beyond the TV and cable networks to include Netflix and Hulu and more, the potential needs for content are growing.

He said the film school would be the only one in the Midwest.

(Giannamore may be reached at pgiannamore@heraldstaronline.com. Follow him on Twitter @Pablomg228.)

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