At the Nov. 20 Carmel City Council meeting, Mayor Jim Brainard presented Mo Merhoff with the Range Line Pioneer Award for her many contributions to the Carmel community and Indiana as a whole.
Merhoff’s experience and lengthy list of accomplishments includes graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Purdue University, executive directorship of the 1994 World Rowing Championships in Indianapolis, serving as Olympic Press Officer at three Olympic Games and 10 World Rowing Championships and, most recently, heading up Carmel’s Chamber of Commerce for 20 years.
Before her retirement during the pandemic, Merhoff successfully merged the Carmel and Fishers chambers into OneZone.
“A chamber of commerce in a city is important to its advancement,” Mayor Brainard said. He added that chambers help work out issues with the business community and promote businesses in that community, which in turn creates good jobs leading to economic development and quality growth.
Mayor Brainard stated that Merhoff’s willingness to sit down as friends to hash out issues and her spirit of partnership, innovation and creativity helped to make Carmel a much better place.
The Range Line Pioneer Award was established in 1992. It is conferred to a person who lives in or out of the community who has been a friend to the city.