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Michael Stanley, left, accepts a framed certificate in recognition of Grace Community Health Center's win in the Not-For-Profit Entity at the 2012 Excellence in Entrepreneruship Awards (EIEA) Hometown Event. Stephen Taylor, second from left, and Larry Combs make the presentation.

GRAY, Ky.— Grace Community Health Center—winner of the 2012 Excellence in Entrepreneurship Awards (EIEA) —was recognized as one of the region’s top entrepreneurs at an EIEA Hometown Event in Knox County.

Grace Community Health Center, which serves the health-care needs of patients in Knox, Whitley, Clay, and surrounding counties in Southeastern Kentucky, celebrated its win in the Not-For-Profit category on Oct. 25 at a reception at its clinic in Gray, Ky.

Michael Stanley, CEO, and Alesia Anderson, director of operations, accepted the EIEA award on behalf of Grace Community Health Center last month at a luncheon program and regional awards presentation hosted at The Center for Rural Development in Somerset.

The EIEA program was established in 2001 to recognize small business owners, entrepreneurs, and non-profit organizations in Southern and Eastern Kentucky for their successful business accomplishments and entrepreneurial spirit.

“The mission of Grace Community Health Center is to show the love and share the truth of Jesus Christ to Southeastern Kentucky through access to compassionate, high quality, primary health care for the whole person,” said Stanley. “I am so glad to be a part of such a team. It is truly a holistic approach to medicine, where we are taking care of not only the health-care needs but also meeting spiritual needs.”

Grace Community Health Center, which started in 2008, has clinics in Knox, Clay, and Leslie counties.

Other 2012 EIEA award recipients include: Jeff Parmelee and Terry Randall, Total Rehab Center, Somerset, Ky., For-Profit Small Business; Masato Sugimura, Lincoln Manufacturing USA, LLC, Stanford, Ky., For-Profit Business; Shane Richmond and Scott Maddux, Wildcat Harley Davidson, London, Ky., Start-Up Business; and Hong R. Zhang Durandal, owner, and Peter H. Hackbert, mentor, Energy Hunters LLC, Berea, Ky., Young Entrepreneur.

The EIEA program is sponsored by Eastern Kentucky University’s (EKU) College of Business and Technology, Kentucky Highlands Investment Corporation, Southeast Kentucky Economic Development  (SKED) Corporation, and The Center for Rural Development.

For more information, contact The Center for Rural Development at 606-677-6000 or EKU’s College of Business and Technology at 859-622-2334.