On Wednesday, April 27th, the TriCounty Area Chamber of Commerce celebrated its 95th Anniversary at its Annual Dinner – an event that had not been held since April of 2019.
This event is always a night to celebrate but this year was even more special celebrating our 95 years serving the business community. We were excited to celebrate our anniversary, but we were even more excited to celebrate our Members!
Baran Schultz, owner of Schultz Technology, was presented with our Chairman of the Board Award. Initiatives were expanded and new programs and member benefits were started during Baran’s tenure. Baran will be best known and thanked for extending his contribution of his time volunteering to serve an additional year as Chairman for the TriCounty Chamber. Instead of a typical two-year term, Baran extended his service to three years to enable Rich Newell, CEO of Pottstown Hospital – Tower Health, and next in line to become Chairman, to focus his time and energy where it was needed most – his hospital – during the pandemic. Baran served from July of 2018 to June of 2021.
The Chamber Executive Committee received the Chamber Commitment Award. I personally presented these awards to recognize the support that this group of individuals provided to me and the organization through the last two years. In getting this organization through circumstances that none of us saw coming, I could not have asked for a greater group of supporters, advisors, and mentors. The awards were presented to: Rich Newell – Chairman of the Board and President and CEO of Pottstown and Phoenixville Hospitals – Tower Health; April Barkasi – Chairperson Elect and President and CEO of CEDARVILLE Engineering Group, LLC; Lisa Lightcap – Treasurer for the Chamber and Vice President Commercial Banking Relationship Manager at Tompkins VIST Bank; Baran Schultz – Immediate Past Chairman and Owner of Schultz Technology Solutions; and Joseph K. Koury, Esquire – Solicitor and Attorney at O’Donnell, Weiss & Mattei, P.C.
Bill Vitiello, Chamber Board Member from the Victory Bank, and recipient of the Chamber’s 2019 Volunteer of the Year Award presented the 2022 Volunteer of the Year Award to Drew Griffin of Delicious Marketing. Drew reached out as he was considering Chamber Membership, interested in the TriCounty Chamber’s podcast – Chamber Chat. Upon joining the Chamber, he offered his assistance. He started to attend the podcast recording sessions at the Chamber office and began with recording and posting on Facebook Live during those recording sessions and when the pandemic restrictions went into effect, he introduced the Chamber to Stream Yard and we began broadcasting weekly shows on Facebook Live with Members getting safe exposure for their business. It is not all about Chamber Chat; Drew always has the Chamber and its success on his mind, and we are extremely appreciative of the ways he goes above and beyond, encouraging us to innovate to our benefit.
Montgomery County Community College was also a recipient of a special award at the Annual Dinner. The College was presented with the Chamber Champion Award to recognize them for their contributions to the success of the Chamber programs. The College opened their doors to provide a “home base” for the Leadership TriCounty Class of 2022 providing them with an accessible location for in-person presentations as well as the technology to accommodate the necessity to have virtual interaction with the class available. In addition, we wanted to recognize them for the partnership that we are developing to expand the Chamber Chat programming and showcase the work of the faculty and students to record a special quarterly and community focused version of Chamber Chat.
The final award presentation of the evening was recognizing every other Chamber Member business that was in attendance. Every business name was called from the podium and came forward to claim their award – recognizing them for their support as a 2021 Mission and Vision Partner as well as a 2022 Tier Investor, or just a 2021 MVP, or just a 2022 Tier Investor, and those not fitting into those categories were presented with our “Making the Difference” award and were acknowledged that “your support has meant so much for the 2020-2022.”
We are so happy with the evening – we have heard nothing but positive comments from those in attendance!
David Roland, Market President/Senior Vice President at Truist shared – “Eileen- congrats on another super annual dinner last evening. It had to have been particularly rewarding after two years of all the struggles due to Covid. It was great to be out again seeing faces that aren’t on my laptop! I have gone to a lot of events and dinners in my 40-year banking career, as I am sure you can imagine. The speaker last night has to have been the most enjoyable I have ever heard speak. He was excellent as was his message; he took the cake. A great story, excellent presentation skills and seems very genuine. Well done!”
#tcaccbettertogether