Owners of small businesses that have overcome adversity to achieve success are invited to apply for the 15th annual Southwest Florida Blue Chip Community Business Award. Oswald Trippe and Company Inc. is coordinating and sponsoring the program to recognize successful small businesses and share their stories as models for other entrepreneurs.

Award winners use stamina, creativity and hard work to meet challenges head on, overcome adversity and vault financial hurdles.

The competition is open to companies that meet the following criteria:

– For-profit business;

– Operating under the same ownership for at least three years with principal office located in Lee, Collier or Charlotte County;

– Employs five to 400 people; and

– Has overcome adversity to achieve success.

The deadline for submissions is Monday, Sept. 14. Business owners may nominate themselves or be nominated by someone else, and help is available to draft applications. For information and applications, contact Stacey Mercado at 433-7189 or smercado@otc1.com.

Independent judges will select one Lee, Collier or Charlotte County business from the field of applicants to receive the 2009 Southwest Florida Blue Chip Community Business Award. The winner will be recognized Thursday, Nov. 5, during a luncheon ceremony at Harborside Event Center, located at 1375 Monroe Street in Fort Myers. Registration begins at 11 a.m. The program starts at 11:30 a.m.

The keynote speaker will be Todd Huston, who as a teenager survived a boating accident and leg amputation to become the only disabled athlete to hold a world record in an able-bodied sport, climbing to the highest elevations in all 50 states in 66 days and shattering the original record by 35 days.

Recent winners demonstrated the entrepreneurial spirit and a drive to succeed and saw obstacles as opportunities: The Indigo Room (2008); LeeSar Healthtrust Partners and Media Vista Corporation (2007); Fox Electronics and Mikkelsen’s Pastry Shop (2006); Congress Jewelers and Island Caf (2005); Arturo’s Ristorante Italiano and Invest SW Title Services (2004); Clean Air & Allied Supply and Priority Marketing (2003); The Thomas Riley Artisan’s Guild and Christ Centered Book and Music (2002); and Gulf Coast Printing Services and Ark Naturals Products for Pets (2001).

Founded in 1982, Oswald Trippe and Company is the largest employee-owned insurance agency in Southwest Florida. OTC provides comprehensive insurance and risk-management services to families and businesses throughout Florida and North Carolina.