Del Rio Chamber Banquet Draws Nearly 300 to Honor Local Military, Community Leaders

Enchanted Jardin hosted nearly 300 people on the evening of March 5 when the Del Rio Chamber of Commerce and Military Affairs Association held their annual awards banquet, bringing together local business owners, civic leaders, and members of the Laughlin Air Force Base community for a night of dinner, remarks from a guest speaker, and award presentations.

The three-hour event, which ran from 7 to 10 p.m., featured award presentations from all three organizing bodies: the Chamber of Commerce, the Military Affairs Association, and Laughlin Air Force Base. The banquet recognized local businesses and civic leaders alongside Laughlin-affiliated honorees, underscoring the close ties between Del Rio's civilian institutions and the base that has long anchored the regional economy.

The Military Affairs Association, a non-profit that operates under the Chamber's umbrella, exists specifically to tend to that relationship. Its stated purpose is to promote goodwill between Laughlin AFB and the Del Rio community, help military personnel integrate into the city, coordinate efforts to strengthen existing base missions and support potential new ones, and ensure the long-term future of the Laughlin-Del Rio partnership. Among its standing goals is the ambition to be recognized as the best in Air Education and Training Command base-community relations, a standard that places Del Rio's civic engagement in direct competition with communities surrounding other AETC installations across the country.

The MAA also maintains a task force focused on Laughlin's future, provides class sponsors for each new pilot training class at the base, and coordinates efforts across military, city, county, and school channels. When senior military visitors come to Del Rio, the association sponsors their engagements; when new service members arrive for permanent assignment, the MAA works to welcome them and connect them to the community.

The Chamber itself counts roughly 300 area businesses among its members and offers programming throughout the year including monthly meetings, mixers, seminars, and marquee annual events such as the Business EXPO and Big Game dinner. The awards banquet sits alongside those events as one of the organization's most visible annual occasions, drawing a crowd large enough to suggest it functions as a genuine civic gathering rather than simply an internal recognition ceremony.

The Del Rio Chamber of Commerce is located at 1915 Veterans Boulevard and can be reached at (830) 775-3551 or frontdesk@drchamber.com.