Every community has one or more people whose contributions over time form the glue that binds so many aspects of that community’s life. In Fayette County, Vicki Turner is one of those people.

Turner was named the Fayette County Chamber of Commerce 2006 Outstanding Business Person of the Year at the chamber’s 40th Anniversary Annual Banquet held Jan. 20 at Wyndham Peachtree Conference Center.

“It was truly an honor,” the Fayetteville-based AIS Computers co-owner said after the event.

That honor was indeed a reflection of her work and commitment to the chamber and its work throughout Fayette County.

Along with her selection as the 2006 Outstanding Business Person of the Year, Turner has amassed other honors from the chamber. Those include the 2004 Board Chair, 2005 Dreambuilder Award, 2001 Chairman’s Award and 1997 Ambassador of the Year.

Turner began her participation with the chamber 20 years ago and has been an active member for more than a dozen years.

One aspect of Turner’s participation, that of chamber ambassador, is especially important to her.

“Ambassadors help mentor new chamber members. They help them learn the community,” Turner explained. “I came in as an ambassador and I’ll go out as an ambassador.”

Vicki Turner’s participation in the Fayette community extends far beyond the chamber. She is the current president of Fayette Senior Services and serves on the board of Fayette Community Foundation. Turner has been a Kiwanis member for eight years, serves on the board of Fayette Arts Center & Gallery, Fayette Society of Fine Arts, Fayette Endowment for the Arts, Piedmont Fayette Hospital and is co-chair for Fayette’s Tour de Georgia fund-raising efforts.

“And I work, too,” Turner said, smiling. “I tell everybody I have a full-time job.”

Turner’s penchant for community service began early, growing up in a household where the volunteer and community-based activities by her mother and father made an impression that endured into her adulthood.

“They were very giving and they really enjoyed it,” Turner said, recalling her father’s 32 years as owner of Reid Alignment in East Point, his 25 years with perfect attendance with the Lions Club and her mother’s volunteer activities and her membership with Eastern Star.

“I’ve been in the community for 33 years and have been volunteering for 27 of those years. It began when my kids were in elementary school. It continued through their middle and high school years and just kept going from there.”

Fayette Chamber of Commerce and the Fayette County have benefitted from having Vicki Turner in their midst. The honors and acknowledgments she continues to receive are numerous. But Turner, too, has benefitted, and in ways that are as much intrinsic as anything.

“I’ve built so many friendships at the chamber,” she said. “It’s like an extended family.”

Turner and her husband Tommy are owners of AIS Computers in Fayetteville.

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