Searcy Chamber Volunteer of the Year called humble

Jamie Mobley, chairwoman of the Searcy Regional Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, presents David Cavender with the chamber’s Volunteer of the Year award. Cavender, who lives in Jacksonville, is a member of the Ambassador Committee at the chamber and is a past chairman of the memorial golf tournament and the Business Expo Committee.
Jamie Mobley, chairwoman of the Searcy Regional Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, presents David Cavender with the chamber’s Volunteer of the Year award. Cavender, who lives in Jacksonville, is a member of the Ambassador Committee at the chamber and is a past chairman of the memorial golf tournament and the Business Expo Committee.

— David Cavender of Jacksonville doesn’t like to talk about himself, but actions speak louder than words.

He was named Volunteer of the Year by the Searcy Regional Chamber of Commerce for his good deeds.

Cavender was honored in November by the chamber, for which he is an ambassador.

“I was floored by it, absolutely surprised,” he said.

Jennifer Skinner, public relations coordinator for the chamber, said it wasn’t a surprise to anyone who knows Cavender.

“He is huge in all of our events that we hold,” she said. “For our business expo, he puts out all the signs. He does a lot of the heavy lifting around here. He goes out to our ribbon-cutting events. … If it weren’t for him, we’d be in trouble in a lot of our events.”

Skinner said Cavender is “really humble and quiet; he will literally hide from the camera. He’s reliable and just does a lot of hard work.”

Cavender brushed off the praise.

“There are folks who serve the Searcy Chamber that are much more deserving than I am,” he said.

Cavender has been an employee of the Arkansas Federal Credit Union for 19 years, and he is a member of several chambers; however, he said Searcy is special.

“They’re just an incredible community, and they work so hard, everyone, just to make it better for the whole community. They are close-knit, and they just welcomed me with open arms,” Cavender said.

He’s been in charge of the Chairman’s Memorial Golf Tournament, which takes place each July in Searcy, and has spearheaded the White County Business Expo committee in the past.

“I’ve gotten tons of experience and learned so much from the folks who were involved in the business expos in the past, and just putting things together, enticing potential members, or customers, then just helping out with the local community,” he said. “Getting people set up and building that relationship with everybody in the community — it’s sort of one-stop shopping at those, but you have to get out there and talk to people.”

Cavender, 49, said that while growing up, he had good examples of volunteerism in his parents, Cleo and Juanita Cavender, who are deceased.

David Cavender’s father was a World War II Army veteran who worked at what was then Fort Roots Veterans Hospital. Cleo Cavender also had rental property, as well as other entrepreneurial endeavors. The elder Cavender and his best friend, Faybourn Curtis, owned the building on Bailey Street that housed the first Pathfinder Inc., a nonprofit corporation in Jacksonville that serves developmentally delayed adults and children.

“They all, including my mother and Wilma [Curtis], donated all kinds of volunteer hours for that [facility],” David Cavender said. He said his parents worked together. He said some people might describe his mother as a stay-at-home mom, “but she was absolutely not that. She was an amazing woman; they were a team.

“I saw all that [volunteerism] as a child. I volunteered all kinds of time on the rental property.”

Cavender and his wife, Melissa, have three children: Justin, 19; Juanita, 11; and Marissa, 8.

He said the chamber award is “such an honor, and it’s so important to me that I am involved, that the credit union’s involved. Of course, I have a boss that’s allowed me to do what I love to do every day and be involved, … giving me the freedom with my job to go out and volunteer in the community and build those relationships for our credit union.”

Cavender said his goal is to be more involved in the ambassador committee, as well as more local companies, “and seeing what their needs are, especially with small business — that’s definitely a focus of ours. That’s the lifeblood of the community, so anything we can do in that area, we definitely want to be involved.”

Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.

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