Predators owner gets Kiwanis award

Freeman is 'Outstanding Nashvillian' of 2008

Nashville, Tennessee, Tennessean
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090519/SPORTS02/90519029/1002/SPORTS/Predators+owner+gets+Kiwanis+award

The Kiwanis Club of Nashville has named Predators owner David Freeman as its 2008 Outstanding Nashvillian of the Year, and he will be recognized at an awards luncheon on June 5.

The award is handed out annually to the Nashvillian who has been the greatest benefit to the Nashville metropolitan community during the past year.

The nominee must be one who has gone beyond the call of duty and given unstintingly of his or her abilities and/or resources for the betterment of the Nashville area.

"During a time when Nashville needed something very good to happen, David stepped up and led a group of people to purchase the Predators and keep them in Nashville," said Key Holleman, past Kiwanis president and chair of the Outstanding Nashvillian Award Committee. "He has often said that this was done not because he was a huge hockey fan, but because of a sense of civic duty and interest in what good it would do for Nashville.

"David has helped increase local commitment to the Nashville Predators by his visibility in the community as well as his efforts to increase support and ticket sales and by highlighting various high-school championship teams with on-ice recognition. He has been in and around the community and Nashville is better off for keeping the Predators here as Nashville’s hockey team."