The Southwest Michigan Regional Chamber has announced the nominees for next month’s annual Business Recognition Awards Ceremony and Annual Meeting.
The chamber’s Sarah Spoonholtz tells us the awards are held to honor businesses, individuals, and non-profits that have been making a difference in Southwest Michigan.
“So many of our businesses, they are so incredibly excited and honored when they do get a nomination because it means that some of the things that they have been doing and things that they have been going through, especially in recent history, are positive things and they have been impacting people and their staff have been doing an amazing job,” Spoonholtz said. “So, they just are so thankful that we get to honor them.”
There are several categories of awards. They include Best New Business, Economic Impact, Small Business, and Community Placemaking. And that’s not to mention the annual Pat Moody Award, which recognizes “Moody-like devotion” to business success and community service.
Spoonholtz says the award winners will be decided by those who attend the breakfast and ceremony. The chamber used to select the winners, but changed to the more democratic process of letting attendees vote a few years ago. She says that’s really ramped up the anticipation.
“We got some feedback one year that was like, ‘You know, we love that you do this, and we’re so happy to be recognized, but we felt like walking into this room that we already knew we weren’t going to win.'”
Now, no one knows who’s going to win until the votes are counted and the winners are announced.
Spoonholtz says more than 630 people attended the Business Recognition Breakfast and Awards Ceremony last year, and they’re on track to beat that this year. Tickets are still available with early bird pricing set to end on Friday. The event itself will be February 21 starting at 7:30 a.m. at the Mendel Center’s Grand Upton Hall.
The full list of award nominees is below:
The 2025 Award Nominees are:
Business Focused:
- Best New Business
- The Garage on Ferry Street
- Modern Roofing & Construction
- The Lab. Martial Arts & Fitness
- The Squeeze Bar & Grille
- Economic Impact Award
- Corewell Health Primary Care Bridgman
- Four Winds Casinos
- Honor Credit Union
- Monte Package Company
- Small Business of the Year Award
- Schmidke Construction & Contracting
- M&W Tire
- Pipestone Creek Golf Course
- Villwocks Outdoor Living
- Non-Profit of the Year Award
- Harbor Country Mission
- New Heights CCDA
- Present Pillars
- United Way of Southwest Michigan
Community Focused – New for 2025:
- Community Placemaking:
- Berrien County Parks – Silver Beach Project
- City of Coloma – Norma Jean Somers Splash Pad
- Unified Civics Monument Project – Two Kings. Two Cities. Together.
Individual Focused:
- Rising Star Award
- Chris Britton, New Heights CCDA
- Sarah Lancaster, South Shore Health & Racquet Club
- Johnathon Scott, Modern Roofing & Construction | The Lab. Martial Arts & Fitness
- Stephanie Ott Williams, Base Bowls & Company
- The Pat Moody Award
- Joe Giannola, Giannola Investments
- Michelle Heit, New Buffalo Township Supervisor
- Bernice Mason, Community Volunteer former Chamber Ambassador
- Dave Schaffer, Kruggel Lawton CPAs
