Cross Insurance Center preps for big annual awards dinner

More than 1,000 people are expected to sit down for dinner together Friday night in Bangor.

Staff and volunteers at the Cross Center are busy getting ready for one of the city's biggest nights.

The Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce annual awards dinner is Friday at 4:30.

Each year they honor businesses and individuals in the community.

They'll be serving family-style dinner and we know chicken and potatoes will be on the menu and chocolate-dipped strawberries too.

What's really impressive? The kitchen staff is a core team of five.

My team is amazing. I couldn't do it without them. I couldn't do it without the volunteers. I've got some volunteers from job corps coming in to help us. "we're focusing on our quality and hoping that we make a lot of people happy tomorrow night," Ryan LaRochelle, Executive Chef at Cross Insurance Center, said.

Tony Vail, General Manager of Cross Insurance Center, added, "We have a fantastic team. Everything is going really, really well. We couldn't be more happy and excited. Everybody's pitching in. You can see all the different volunteers and folks just doing what they have to do. Getting things done."

We're told there will be some surprises Friday night.

We'll have live coverage from the event starting Friday at five.