On September 17th, 2011 Hola Media Network hosted the Hola Awards at the Clear Space Theatre Company in Rehoboth Beach Delaware. Kevin Andrade, owner of Hola Media Network, organized the first Hola Awards in 2009 as a way to recognize members of the community who have gone above and beyond in their efforts to positively benefit the Hispanic community of Sussex County.

This year the community nominated individuals for 3 categories – Delaware Electric Co-op’s Athlete of the Year, Harvard Business Service’s Entrepreneur of the Year and Auto Plus & Marine’s Excellence in Community Service. Once the nominees were compiled the voting began on Facebook, Holaawards.com and by calling in to Maxima 900, the flagship radio station of Hola Media.

Guests began arriving at 6:00 pm to enjoy a night of good food, spectacular entertainment and of course, to see who of the nominees the people had chosen as the winner. The night began with dinner, served by SoDel Concepts and Plate Catering. Local singer Evelyn Gonzalez was the first of the night’s entertainment as she sang to the audience. Guests also enjoyed entertainment provided by the band HeroStreet, from Philadelphia and Israel Brito, from Ecuador. Hosts Kevin Andrade and Dayana Yuncosa took the stage to begin introducing the nominees and showcasing their achievements.

They began with nominees for the Athlete of the Year - Aris Reynoso a senior soccer player at Sussex Tech, Michelle Laz a 14 year old playing on three teams including the USA National Region 1 team and Gerardo Leiva, a former professional soccer player for the Ocean City Sharks who now coaches Aztlan, one of the teams making up the Delaware Premier Soccer League. All three nominees are exceptional athletes and have incredibly futures ahead of them, but there could only be one winner – this year’s award went to Michelle Laz.

The next category was Entrepreneur of the year which included some of the community’s most accomplished business men. This list included Matt Haley, owner of SoDel Concepts and president of La Esperanza Community Center, Evelio Velasquez, owner of CAD imports, store manager of the Millsboro Rent-A-Center, and Luis Rodriguez, owner of El Mercado in Georgetown. Each of these men has truly shown the community that hard work will pay off. This year, the Entrepreneur of the Year award went to Luis Rodriguez whose belief in a unified community made him truly deserving.

Finally, the award for Excellence in Community Service, the reason the Hola Awards ceremony was created in 2009. Each nominee in this category has contributed an incredible amount of selfless acts to the Hispanic community. Included in this category were Neda Biggs, non-profit immigration attorney at La Esperanza Community Center, Sister Maria Mairlot, a nurse at Delmarva Rural Ministries who also stays active in church as a Sunday school director and head of the Hispanic adult choir, Pastor Enrique Avalos, who endlessly helps members of his congregation as well as the community, and Jose and Virginia Somalo, whose not for profit newspaper, Hoy en Delaware, has been keeping its readers updated about community events as well as financial, educational, medical and social issues. Each nominee of this category has truly gone above and beyond what is expected of a community member. Voted by the community, Jose and Virginia Somalo were given the award for Excellence in Community Service. Though each category could only have one winner, all the nominees are exceptional individuals and deserve to be honored.