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Published Friday, January 27, 2012 in Local

Photo by Jeffrey Leo

Steve Mader, left, the 2012 Citizen of the Year, is presented with the award by last year’s winner, Coweta School Superintendent Blake Bass.

2012 Winner: Mader named Coweta's Citizen of the Year

By Sarah Fay Campbell

The Newnan Times-Herald

Steve Mader is the 2012 Citizen of the Year.

Mader was one of six nominees for the annual award, given this year by the Kiwanis Clubs of Coweta County.

The nominees were recognized Thursday night at the awards banquet, which was held at the Coweta County Fairgrounds.

The nominees were Mader, Norma Haynes, Bette Hickman, Don Nixon, Malcolm Jackson, and George Alexander.

"It has been said that a good deed is never lost," said emcee Nancy Walden. "All of our nominees have given unselfishly of their time and talent to make the county a better place to live. I would like to take a moment to honor those outstanding citizens that have received this award in the past." A slide show presentation was then made of highlighting previous winners.

Annie Joe Berkowitz, the 2010 Citizen of the Year, introduced each of the nominees. "This is such a privilege," Berkowitz said. "If I could only share with you all the data about the nominees that was sent in to us, you would be here for quite a while."

"I truly don't know what to say," said Mader after accepting the award. "I can tell you how honored I am but I have to tell you -- I don't know who the selection committee is, how you decided on this. You truly did make a mistake, because there are some great people in this room. Trust me, I'm honored to be with them."

"We're not the winner. Coweta's the winner," Mader said. "Truthfully, Norma has dedicated her life to everything she's done. She deserves this, too. Bette Hickman dedicated her life, too," he said. In fact, Hickman "probably got me started. She was the first one to come to me in the early '90s and get me involved in things like this," he said.

"Don Nixon, George Alexander and Malcolm Jackson, all these people have dedicated their lives -- and Coweta is a winner."

Mader is general manager of Southtowne Motors in Newnan. He was named the Georgia Automobile Dealers Association TIME Dealer of the Year in 2010, and, in July, he was the first recipient of the Newnan Rotary Club's "Rob Tornow Service Above Self" award. Mader served as chairman of the Newnan-Coweta Chamber of Commerce in 2010.

Mader volunteers with the Boys and Girls Club, and serves on the school council at Smokey Road Middle School. In 2010, he was named the Georgia Association of Middle School Principal's 2010 Outstanding Educational Patron for the state, and he received the 2010 Outstanding Leadership Award from the Boys and Girls Club of Metro Atlanta.

"Thank you very much for this honor," Mader said. "Truthfully, there are just a lot of people to thank."

First and foremost, his wife Nancy. "She allowed me to get out and do the work I needed to do and end up in Newnan," Mader said. "If it wasn't for a couple of bankers in town, I wouldn't have been here. They loaned me the money to buy into the partnership, into Southtowne. I have three partners. God bless them, they allow me to do whatever I need to do and want to do in Newnan, with no restrictions," he said.

"There are a lot of people to thank in this deal," he added, including "a fine management staff -- including my son -- who work about 75 hours a week so I can go to meetings and do things like this. They all work very hard. So it's a combination of things that allow me to be here."

"It's great to get a pat on the back. When the pat on the back is this large, it really stirs the soul," Mader said.

He also thanked his priest, Father Austin Fogarty. "He's a great spiritual leader," Mader said.

"I want to thank Smokey Road for coming out for us," Mader said. "Thank you, Wildcats."

"And last but not least, Walt Thompson," Mader said.

"I just can't tell you how much this means to me," he said.

The Citizen of the Year program began in 1992. Each year's winner is selected by a committee made up of previous winners.

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