Conway Corp. employee honored with chamber Good Neighbor Award

Crystal Kemp, seated in her office at the Conway Corp. Customer Care Center, holds the Lloyd Westbrook Good Neighbor Award. Kemp, 49, was vice president of the chamber before taking a position in 2000 at Conway Corp. She is a member and past president of the Kiwanis Club and has been a Girl Scout troop leader for 17 years. She and her family volunteer at Bethlehem House, a transitional homeless shelter in Conway.
Crystal Kemp, seated in her office at the Conway Corp. Customer Care Center, holds the Lloyd Westbrook Good Neighbor Award. Kemp, 49, was vice president of the chamber before taking a position in 2000 at Conway Corp. She is a member and past president of the Kiwanis Club and has been a Girl Scout troop leader for 17 years. She and her family volunteer at Bethlehem House, a transitional homeless shelter in Conway.

Crystal Kemp can talk all day about the work that Conway Corp. does, or the importance of the Girl Scouts, but she’s less interested in talking about herself.

Her preferred modus operandi is working behind the scenes to highlight other people.

Now, the spotlight is on her.

Kemp, manager of marketing and public relations for Conway Corp., was named in February as the recipient of the Lloyd Westbrook Good Neighbor Award from the Conway Area Chamber of Commerce.

“It’s an honor to be recognized for contributions to this community,” she said. “We’ve lived here 25 years; clearly, we love it and want to give back.

“Why it’s special to me is because it’s named for Lloyd, who was so important in my professional and personal development.”

Before Kemp took her talents to the city-owned utility, she worked at the chamber after she and her husband, Mike Kemp, moved to Conway in 1993.

Brad Lacy, president and CEO of the chamber, said Crystal Kemp is the perfect choice to receive the award.

“First things first; there’s no doubt she’s deserving of the award of being a good neighbor,” Lacy said. “She’s dedicated much of her life to what I would call youth-related organizations and activities and worked tirelessly with the youth-leadership program and Girl Scouts as well. She has definitely given back and contributed to the community.

“I do think this year is interesting because of her relationship with Lloyd and our decision a couple of years ago to name the award for him. Sometimes, things are serendipitous, and I think this is one of those times.”

Westbrook, who died in 2016, hired Kemp and became her mentor.

“He encouraged me, and he poured into my career, my service; he was a cheerleader for me,” she said.

Even after she took a job at Conway Corp. in 2000, Kemp said, Westbrook would call to congratulate her when he saw the marketing department had won awards.

“He’d say, ‘You’re doing good things over there,’” Kemp said.

After he hired her, Westbrook urged Kemp to join a civic club, and she chose Kiwanis. One of few women in the group at the time, she served as its president.

She didn’t have to be talked into volunteering; she was steeped in a lifetime of community service.

Kemp, 49, is the oldest of four children. She was a Girl Scout, and her mother, Janis Brown, was her troop leader.

Kemp said her father, Melvin Brown, was a school superintendent, and her family moved every three years. She graduated from what was then Laneburg High School in Nevada County and went to Arkansas College, now Lyon College, in Batesville. That’s where she and Mike met.

She said there were lots of service opportunities in college. She was in a Greek organization, served as a resident assistant in the dorm, was yearbook editor and worked on the newspaper staff. Kemp earned a degree in media arts, via the public-relations and newspaper track.

“I think I learned while I was there that I enjoyed writing and public relations. I just wasn’t geared for the deadlines like Mike,” she said.

He earned a media-arts degree with a photography and newspaper track.

They married in 1991, after she graduated from college. Mike was already in Forrest City working at the newspaper, and she joined him.

“I was fortunate enough to land a job at the chamber there,” she said. Kemp started with clerical work and became membership director, using skills she learned on the college-yearbook staff.

The couple moved to Conway in 1993, when Mike took a job as a photographer at the newspaper.

She went to the Conway Area Chamber of Commerce to look for a position. Westbrook was the new CEO and president, a second career for him after a long one as a county extension agent.

Although Westbrook didn’t have an opening for her then, a month later, his bookkeeper quit. He called Kemp.

“I was not a bookkeeper,” she said, but she took the position anyway. “I said, ‘I’ll do whatever job I can do because I think this is something I enjoy and want to keep doing.’”

It didn’t take long for Kemp to make an impact at the chamber. She said Westbrook was open to all her ideas — creating a membership directory, selling ads in the newsletter — and she was promoted to membership coordinator.

Kemp was vice president of the chamber when she left in 2000 to take a position as marketing coordinator at Conway Corp.

“At that time, Conway Corp. was looking at a cable system. They wanted some focus on marketing services where

there is competition,” she said.

Richie Arnold, longtime CEO of Conway Corp., said hiring Crystal was an easy decision.

“I knew Crystal, of course, for her long tenure at the chamber. She worked for Lloyd Westbrook, and he happened to be my father-in-law,” said Arnold, who retired a year ago in May. “I hired her, and she leaped at the opportunity, and it has worked out beyond anything I could have hoped for. She did take our penetration rate on our advanced services way up to where most people were getting our expanded package; then we began to market digital … and everything that came along since. She took to it immediately; it’s been fun to watch her.

“As far as a good employee, the first thing is, she’s a quick learner, very smart. She picked up on how we could improve right away and began to implement some changes that were a bit challenging for us.”

Arnold said Kemp is a good teacher, too.

“The thing she really excels at is training … beyond strategy, but the training of people. She was a pleasant surprise in that area,” he said.

Kemp said one of her favorite projects has been the company’s rebranding campaign, which included fresh logos and the shortening of the name in printed materials from Conway Corporation to Conway Corp.

She said the name Conway Corp. (hard “P,” by the way) was more “friendly.” Conway Corp. “is like your friend or your neighbor,” Kemp said.

“The fun part of that project was getting to feature the people out there doing the work every day, and even hearing from customers telling their experiences with Conway Corp. and what it means to them,” she said.

“I think the best part of my job is getting to tell Conway Corp.’s story — the history of what Conway Corp. has done, and it’s the story of what the people do today,” she said.

In the 1920s, when the city faced the possibility of losing Hendrix College and Central College (now Central Baptist College) because of financial problems, leaders developed a plan to capitalize the earnings of the city electric system over a year and issue bonds to save the institutions. The plan was approved by Conway voters.

Conway Corp. was chartered in May 1929 to promote education and aid educational institutions in Conway, according to its incorporation papers.

Kemp said Conway Corp. employees are “still out there taking care of customers — so much that people take it for granted, and that’s OK. I want to remind people it’s their neighbors out there in a storm when the power is out. Conway Corp. gives back to the community. To work for a place, you feel like you get to be part of that; it’s pretty cool.”

Beth Jimmerson, marketing coordinator at Conway Corp., said it’s “an honor to work with Crystal and see firsthand her dedication to Conway. She has played a significant role in the lives of thousands by investing in Conway’s youth through Bethlehem House, Girl Scouts, Faulkner County Youth Leadership and other programs. Her quiet, behind-the-scenes commitment is a testament to her character, and she is incredibly deserving of the Lloyd Westbrook Good Neighbor Award.”

Kemp said she’s just trying to “pour into” others to help them become leaders in the community, just like so many people did for her.

Kemp and a friend, Sonja Keith, started a Daisy troop in Conway 17 years ago when their older daughters were in kindergarten at the same time. Kemp has led a troop — or two, or three — ever since then.

Today, Kemp leads a troop of seven high school juniors, including her daughter Sarah.

It’s hard to think of Girl Scouts without thinking about cookies. In her almost 20 years as a Girl Scout leader, Kemp has sold countless Girl Scout Cookies. She’s even donned a cookie costume to hawk cookies to passing motorists.

Kemp has the uncanny ability to estimate just how many boxes of cookies she’ll need to sustain her until the next year.

“The last box is gone about the time the new ones arrive,” she said.

Although she doesn’t eat many cookies, she savors her Samoas. Kemp said the cookie orders had arrived the week she was interviewed.

“I’m a lot of people’s cookie dealer,” she said, laughing. “After they’re all delivered, I want a Samoa.”

Another way Kemp has solidified her “good-neighbor” status is through the Faulkner County Leadership Institute. She was in the class of 1995, and their community-service project was starting the youth leadership program.

On a Facebook post about his wife’s award, Mike touted her “yeoman’s work” with the

Faulkner County Youth Leadership Institute, now the Conway Area Youth Leadership Program.

“I have a special investment and pride in that program,” she said.

Their older daughter, Katie, went through the youth-leadership institute, and this year, Sarah is a member.

“It’s teaching them what’s out there in the community they can impact,” Crystal Kemp said.

Crystal said her favorite memory of working with the youth institute is from almost 20 years ago, when she went on a youth leadership retreat at the C.A. Vines Arkansas 4-H Center in Ferndale.

High school juniors and seniors participated in several activities, including a “trust-fall” exercise. Each student climbed into a tree and fell back onto the locked arms of the others.

Kemp said although she wouldn’t do it today, something made her climb up that tree, too.

“I did it with them catching me. It was the most frightening thing,” she said.

“It impacted me and made me realize that … you do believe [the students] can impact this community,” she said. “It was impactful to them that as an adult, I trusted them. Everything was bigger and better that year.”

And she said the trust-fall exercise made an impression on those students, who, as adults, still comment about the experience when they see her out and about.

Kemp isn’t alone in her volunteering.

“As a family, we volunteer at Bethlehem House; we prepare a meal for the soup kitchen every month,” Kemp said.

She said Sarah has gone on her own to volunteer at Bethlehem House, and Katie and Sarah have been on mission trips. Kemp has led church children’s ministries, too.

“One thing that’s important is to let your kids see that you need to be focused on things outside yourself,” she said. “You can’t just talk about it; they have to see it’s important to you, too.”

Sarah said she’s definitely seen her mother walk the walk.

“I think one of the qualities I most admire about my mom is her passion,” Sarah said. “She always fights so passionately for what she believes in, and I feel that she’s set an example for those around her. She pours so much into the youth of the community through Girl Scouts and youth leadership. She’s an amazing person, and she truly deserves this award.”

Judi Lively, executive director of Bethlehem House, said it’s “awesome” that Kemp received the chamber award.

“Crystal just has a heart to help people, and she follows that up with action. She and her family have been volunteering here for years, bringing dinner,” Lively said. “But it’s about relationships as much as anything here, so I think she’s been a real inspiration to people here in that.

“I think, from my perspective, people who come [to Bethlehem House] have often lost so many relationships that they feel kind of alienated. Crystal is very inviting and very welcoming. She has certainly gone above and beyond.”

The Kemps served on the Bethlehem House Board of Directors for several years, Lively said, and Crystal helped with marketing.

“It’s her heart that makes a difference, and it’s her heart I think that was the real reason she was given that award,” Lively

said. “We are one place that she’s poured out her heart, but I’m sure we’re not the only one.”

Arnold agreed. “You won’t find anybody who has had dealings with Crystal who doesn’t understand she is a good neighbor. She helps people in the community, at work; she’s just a caring person,” he said. “You think about a good neighbor — that’s what you want.”

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

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