Home Instead Senior Care, which provides companionship, housekeeping and personal care to elderly clients in the Roanoke Valley, was honored Thursday as the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce's Small Business of the Year.

Chris and Betsy Head launched the independently owned franchise in 2001. Today it provides nonmedical services to 125 clients and employs 130 full- and part-time caregivers.

The award selection committee noted the company's "solid business plan" and its encouragement of community involvement, said Joyce Waugh, chamber president.

Other small businesses honored by category at Thursday night's chamber dinner included: small business advocate, won by Lynda McNutt Foster, director of Fast Training; construction/real estate, won by Hughes Associates Architects; manufacturing, won by M&W Fire Apparatus; microbusiness, won by Anstey Hodge Advertising; technology, won by Interactive Achievement; business-to-business services, won by The Renick Group; business-to-consumer services, won by Home Instead Senior Care; wholesale/retail, won by Burris Computer Forms; Legacy Award, won by Blue Ridge Beverage Co.; not-for-profit arts and culture, won by the Taubman Museum of Art; not-for-profit health and human services, won by Rescue Mission Ministries.