At their annual Holiday Party, on December 7th, the Fremont Chamber of Commerce unveiled their awards for efforts made in 2011 by area businesses, organizations and individuals.
The Fremont Chamber Board of Directors gave a unique ‘Certificate of Appreciation’ award, titled ‘The BeeGees Award for Stayin’ Alive,’ to Kirk Richmond, of Far East Handicrafts, for his exhaustive efforts to stay in business through a tough year. They also presented a ‘Move ‘Em Along Award’ to Officer Loren Street and the City of Seattle Police Department in gratitude for their support to all businesses but most especially retailers in dealing with chronic loiterers, drunken louts and aggressive panhandlers.
The Chamber also gave certificate awards to:
- Groundspeak – the ‘Caching In on The Center of the Universe’ Award for their wildly popular geo-caching event in August
- Cougar Mountain Productions – the ‘Walking Into A New Era’ Award for their work on the 2012 Walking Guide
- Michael Jerret, Ryan Thurston and Bill Blau – the ‘Three Musketeers’ Award for the Aurora Bridge safety barrier
- Paul Nordstrand and History House – the ‘Dorothy/No Place Like Home’ Award for housing the Fremont Chamber
The Fremont Chamber also has half-a-dozen established awards they distribute annually, with a statuette that the recipient can keep for one year.
The ‘Jim Daly, Press On Regardless’ Award is given in the name of the founding Fremont Chamber President (and late owner of Daly’s Home Decorating.) This year’s recipient Phill Briscoe (of Briscoe Network Solutions,) also served previously as a Chamber President but received this acknowledgement for the most recent three years of work as the dedicated, relentless chairperson of the Chamber marketing committee.
The other revolving awards went to:
- Nathan Marion (of the Fremont Abbey Arts Center) – ‘The Bertha K. Landes, or The Big Bertha’ Award for taking charge and taking action, and gathering together representatives from all the Fremont community groups for a communications summit
- Maque daVis (of the Fremont Arts Council) – ‘The Fremont Patches Pal’ Award for bringing fun to Fremont with 21 safe and satisfying Trolloweens!
- Revel & Quoin restaurant and bar – ‘The Chamber Pot of Commerce’ for business practices that make Fremont look good, specifically for cleaning up the previously blighted area of North 36th Street at Phinney Ave North
- Marko Tubic (of Edward Jones Investments) – the ‘Local Hero’ Award for serving nine terms as a most excellent President of the Fremont Chamber of Commerce
- The Seattle Department of Transportation & Deputy Mayor Darryl Smith – ‘The Hammering Man’ Award for quickly, and with relatively few problems, repaving North 34th Street and finally (we all hope) ending nearly a decade of construction between Fremont Avenue and Troll Avenue.
To find out more about the Fremont Chamber, or to nominate someone (or a business or organization) for the 2012 awards, contact the Chamber Executive Director, Jessica Vets, at director@fremont.com