The West Seattle Chamber of Commerce honored Pete Spalding as West Sider of the Year and AmericanWest Bank as Business of the Year at their annual Awards Breakfast Wednesday morning April, 18.

Also honored were The Grove West Seattle Inn as Emerging Business of the Year and the West Seattle Garden Tour as Westside Not-For-Profit Business of the Year.

The Chamber cited Spalding's work as a "tireless advocate and civic leader for West Seattle. Pete has been an active member of the West Seattle Food Bank board, serves on the Southwest Precinct Advisory Council, the Pigeon Point Neighborhood Council and other community groups." In thanking the Chamber for the award Spalding mentioned that he tries to live up to the phrase from Mahatma Ghandi who said, "be the change you want to see in the world."

AmericanWest Bank's award was accepted by branch Manager David Kim. The bank which changed hands and named this past year (it was formerly Viking Bank) was selected from a pool of more than 40 submissions. The Chamber program said, " Many nominators mentioned 'friendly, personal and professional', but it was AmericanWest Bank's community involvement and support of non-profits that earned them the title."

In the description for the The Grove West Seattle Inn award the Chamber said the hotel which was remodeled last year is a "strong addition to our business community." Chamber President Dave Montoure in his remarks noted that in a survey done last year the two things mentioned as most frequently needed in West Seattle were a hospital and a hotel. "Now we have some place for our parents to stay when they visit," Montoure said laughing.

The West Seattle Garden Tour (coming up July 15) now in it's 18th year was noted by the Chamber as a, "fun, family friendly event," but more than that for donating the "net proceed to support Seattle based community gardens and other non-profits that promote horticulture, education and the arts."

The speaker for the event was economist Matthew Gardner of Gardner Economics who, in a frequently humorous talk offered a generally upbeat forecast for the economy. Gardner is a frequent guest on CNBC and cited regularly by media for his opinions on economic developments.

In his remarks he noted that "Seattle remains the best west coast location relative to potential growth," matched only by Phoenix, Arizona and that this area is the only west coast market that exhibited strong income growth in 2011.