Due to the pandemic restrictions in place at the time, the 109th annual Kosciusko Chamber Awards were held virtually in March instead of in-person in January.
With those restrictions lifted, an in-person celebration of the award recipients was held Wednesday at the Blue Barn Berry Farm & Event Venue, Syracuse, with a meal catered by Farmhouse Kitchen & Catering. The event had a number of sponsors, with the major sponsor being Lake City Bank.
“As you all know, we normally do this in January on the coldest day of the year,” Chamber President and CEO Rob Parker said in his welcoming remarks. “So, thankfully, we’re doing this today. It’s not the hottest day of the year, but what a great time we should have today.”
After a blessing from Glenn Hall, executive director of Kosciusko Home Care & Hospice Inc., a group photo of everyone in attendance was taken outside of the venue, followed by the meal.
Parker began the program for the event by introducing the staff and owners of Blue Barn Berry Farm and Farmhouse Kitchen & Catering; recognized local and state officials; and recognized Chamber Board of Directors, ambassadors and his staff.
He discussed some of the things the Chamber has been doing over the past couple years.
“We started the To Go Kosciusko Facebook page. That Facebook page, started right before the pandemic really hit hard, and within just a few weeks, maybe a month, we had over 11,000 (followers). I think we’re over 12,000 now,” Parker said. “The really cool thing is, the pandemic is over, largely, and we’re still getting 8,000 interactions on that To Go Kosciusko every single day. So people are engaged with To Go Kosciusko, they’re learning about the food choices we have in our community.”
In the future, he said the Chamber will create more Facebook groups because people like to stay connected and sometimes a Facebook group is a good way to do that.
One of the videos that the Chamber did more recently that Parker said was “really awesome” was the vaccination video.
“That video, if you haven’t seen it, has now had over 44,000 views. So a little video done by the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce now has 44,000 views. And the week that we released that video, we saw a 35-45% spike in the people who got the vaccine,” he said, adding that those videos the Chamber does are “changing the face of our community.”
Kosciusko Cash is another program Parker highlighted.
“And that is our gift certificate program that we use to promote our members in our community,” he said.
In 2020, the Chamber Board of Directors decided to throw $50,000 into that program for a “buy one, get one” offering. Within the first 40-45 days, Parker said they got $80,000 out of the Chamber and into the community.
That fact is amazing, he said, when you consider that the county’s COVID numbers were the worst in November and the Chamber was still able to help businesses that were struggling.
The Kosciusko Chamber is part of the Indiana Chamber Executive Association. There are 93 chambers in Indiana.
“Over the past couple years, we’ve been honored to receive two awards for innovation and things we’ve done,” Parker said. “This year, we were recognized as a finalist for Chamber of the Year.”
The county chamber is working with smaller communities in Kosciusko to have branches of the Chamber, starting with Milford. Parker said they envision that growing to other small communities in the county.
“We want to make sure that everyone has a voice and we want to make sure we’re pulling our resources together to make this the best possible community that we can,” he said.
Three years ago, the Indiana Chamber of Commerce came out with Healthy Communities.
“This is something that I’m passionate about for our communities, and we want to be as healthy as we possibly can. It’s a lot of heavy lifting to get individuals across that healthy line. It’s not just physical. It’s social, it’s mental, there’s community, there’s purpose and career. How do we make people feel as healthy as possible?” he said.
The Chamber leaned in with K21 Health Foundation, Live Well Kosciusko and other groups and now there are five pillars “in our community that are working every day to try to drive and to have impact in one of those areas of well-being,” he said.
As the community becomes healthier in all those aspects, “we become a community that people can’t leave and it attracts people to come here. So it creates better quality of life and better quality of place,” he said.
LaunchPad found that there was a real lack of people in the child care industry, so the Chamber started fingerprinting to get more people into child care services. “You’ve got to get fingerprinted in order to watch children, but there’s just no place in town to do that. So we have it in our office and it’s quite busy. It’s challenging, but it’s the right thing to do,” he said.
They also met with the County Commissioners and Area Plan Commission to make significant changes in the zoning ordinances for the county. Parker said, “We should be able to see more child care businesses start because of that, and that’s what we’re really hoping will happen.”
Upcoming Chamber events include a golf outing Aug. 25 and the Taste of Kosciusko on Sept. 11 in downtown Warsaw from 4 to 7 p.m. The Taste of Kosciusko will be held in association with The Kettleheads so there will be beer, and there will be a corn hole tournament.
Lake City Bank President and Chief Executive Officer David Findlay lauded Parker and the Chamber staff for elevating the Chamber “to a place that it’s never been in my 20 years in Kosciusko County.” He talked about how things have gotten back to normal after the challenges of the last 18 months. Findlay talked about the growth and prosperity of LCB and Kosciusko County and how the bank will celebrate its 150th anniversary in Warsaw in 2022.
Parker then presented certificates to the previously announced award winners, including: Business of the Year for 2020, Polywood, award sponsored by Lake City Bank; Rising Star, Winona IT, sponsored by Horizon Bank; Making A Difference Award, Salvation Army, sponsored by Old National Bank; LaunchPad Family Friendly Business, Wawasee Community Schools, sponsored by Kosciusko Home Care & Hospice; Health & Wellness in the Workplace, Kosciusko County government, sponsored by PNC Bank; Government Excellence Award, coroner Tony Ciriello, sponsored by Zimmer Biomet; Young Adult Professional of the Year, lawyer Travis McConnell, sponsored by Crossroads Bank; and Chamber Ambassador of the Year, Heather Lardino, 1st Source Bank.
The Woman and Man of the Year awards went to Angie Ritchey, Lake City Bank, and Dr. David Hoffert, Warsaw Community Schools.
Ritchey said thank you to the community and to those who nominated her.
“I think we live in a rich community for individuals who have compassion and who have concern for those around them. And I’m just so fortunate to be a part of Kosciusko County, so thank you again,” she said.
After the event, Hoffert said, “Being a fourth-generation kid, realistically, for this community, the people that are on that (Man of the Year) list are the people that I’ve looked up to and always heard about. I feel absolutely humbled and in a lot of ways unworthy of being on that list.”
In the last year, he said a lot of people stepped forward in the community and 2020 was a year like no other. Economically, people supported the small local businesses; for child care, people found new ways for that; and as for education, he said it took the entire community to keep them open.
“I feel like I’m a benefactor of a lot of their work and their dedication to our local community. So a big thank you to all of them,” he said. “And then to our local community, just thank you for the continued support. I’m honored, and being a Warsaw graduate, being able to serve in the role of superintendent, looking at that, it’s a dream come true in so many ways. I’m just so absolutely honored.”
