Nominees announced for GRIT tourism awards

FORT SMITH — It’s yet to be unveiled, and already the Bass Reeves Legacy Monument is carrying more than its weight in bronze — at least with its peers in the tourism community.

The Bass Reeves Legacy Initiative, the contributing body to a bronze statue of trailblazing U.S. Deputy Marshal Bass Reeves, has been nominated in the category of Attraction Partner of the Year for the first-ever GRIT Awards (Giving Recognition in Tourism), to be presented April 19 by the Fort Smith Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The larger-than-life statue of Reeves by Western artist and sculptor Harold T. Holden will be dedicated over Memorial Day weekend and is expected to be a tourism draw “for years to come,” said Craig Pair, chairman of the all-volunteer Bass Reeves Legacy Initiative. He said he and others working on the five-year project are “honored to even be considered” for the GRIT award.

Pair and others will gather at 9 a.m. Thursday (April 5) at Pendergraft Park downtown to break ground for the base of the statue.

“A lot of work has gone into it,” Pair said of the monument project. “We’re glad to see that others are as excited about it as we are.”

Other nominees in the category of Attraction Partner of the Year are Clayton House, the Fort Smith Museum of History and the Fort Smith National Historic Site.

GRIT nominees in the category of Restaurant Partner of the Year are Boom-a-rang Diner at the Park at West End, Golden Corral, Rolando’s Nuevo Latino Restuarante and Taliano’s Italian Restaurant. Lodging Partner of the Year nominees are Courtyard by Marriott, Hampton Inn and Suites and the Holiday Inn City Center.

In the category of Business Partner of the Year, nominees are the Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority, the Fort Smith Regional Alliance, Forward Fort Smith, the Southwest Times Record and The City Wire. Nominees for the Polly Crews Hospitality Person of the Year include Ben and Jennifer Boulden, Linda Seubold and Lynn Wasson and the late Bert Wright.

Nominations came from the public and from within the region’s tourism industry.

“It was so heartwarming to hear area tourism and hospitality professionals give praise to their colleagues,” said Sherry Scorby, convention/events sales director of the Fort Smith CVB.

“I think they are a very comprehensive representation of our Fort Smith tourism industry,” she said.

Winners will be named during the April 19 awards banquet, which will christen the new Movie Lounge, a dinner-cinema-event space at 7601 Rogers Ave.