Wiscasset Area Chamber of Commerce is in the black and is growing in members, chamber officers said at the group’s annual dinner Thursday night, March 3.

The chamber finished the year with $20,675, treasurer Frank Hansen of Wiscasset’s Freedom Fellowship Church said. “We’re solvent ... Our current budget is in the black, and we’re going to make sure it stays that way.”

The remark drew applause throughout the banquet room at Water’s Edge Banquet & Function Facility in Edgecomb.

In the past year, the chamber has gotten brochures into Bath’s information center and built an information booth at the Creamery Pier in Wiscasset, chamber president Sherri Dunbar said; more new things are in the works, including a kayak event and plans to help Wiscasset Parks and Recreation’s scarecrow festival grow, she added.

“It’s really amazing what we’ve accomplished, and I’m really proud to be a part of it,” Dunbar, of Tim Dunham Realty in Wiscasset, told fellow members. The chamber later honored Dunbar’s service as she prepares to end her time as president, but stay on the chamber’s board. Monique McCrae of The First will be the group’s next president, Dunbar said.

The chamber gave Cheryl “Shep” Rust, owner of Le Garage in Wiscasset, the lifetime achievement award; Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway Museum of Alna, the growth and development award; Sarah’s Cafe in Wiscasset, community impact; and Sarah’s Cafe employee Susan Robson, volunteer of the year.

“I was kind of shocked,” Robson said afterward.

Rust said that, because so many people have done so much for the area the chamber serves, she was a little overwhelmed by her award.

“It’s nice to be recognized,” the railway museum’s president, Stephen Zuppa, said. The night’s keynote speaker, Kerem Durdag, chief executive officer of Biovation in Boothbay, later mentioned the thousands of hours that the museum’s volunteers put into a recent project. Durdag cited the project’s success as an example of what can happen when people think big.

Using explorers Lewis and Clark as another example, Durdag said the men had no idea what they would find as they headed west. “They had fear. They had a lot of worry ... and yet bit by bit they made a plan, all achieved by (believing) they’ll figure it out.”

Durdag encouraged attendees to believe in themselves, and not make excuses. “You  can make your own rules ... What is the journey you want to go on, and figure it out,” he said.

Stephen Heald,  attending on behalf of his sister, Sarah’s Cafe owner Sarah Heald, said in an interview that he was jubilant that the chamber honored the business. “I’m very proud of my sister,” he added.

“I’m happy,” Sarah’s Cafe employee Josh Pottle said. “She’s the one that gave me my job.”

Also Thursday night, the chamber played a video message from U.S. Sen. Angus King, I - Maine. “You have really contributed to the life of your community,” King said in congratulating the businesses on their work in the region.

Jenna Howard of the Midcoast Chamber Council praised the Wiscasset chamber’s administrative assistant Pat Cloutier. “Pat has really helped us improve the way we talk about you all in our promotional material,” Howard told attendees.

“You all know what a special place this is, so it is our pleasure to tell the story ... all around the world,” she said.

“