EDITOR’S NOTE: South King Media Founder/Publisher Scott Schaefer serves on the Board of Directors for the Seattle Southside Chamber of Commerce.

On Thursday night, Nov. 4, 2021, the Seattle Southside Chamber of Commerce held its annual Business Awards celebration online, awarding honors in six different categories.

Hosted by chamber CEO Andrea Reay, produced by Executive Vice President Samantha Le, with technical direction from South King Media, the nearly one-hour online event celebrated chamber members making a difference in our region’s business, education and non-profit communities.

Winners for 2021 were announced in six categories:

  • Public Servant of the Year: Will Lugo, City of SeaTac Director of Emergency Response
  • Business Leader of the Year: Legacy Gaming
  • Educator of the Year: Nikhil Joshi-Teacher, Raisbeck Aviation High School
  • Non-Profit of the Year: Multi-Service Center
  • Best Place to Work: Wesley Homes
  • New Business of the Year: SeaTac International Mall

The event also served as a fundraiser for the chamber’s Success Foundation, as well as to showcase its Workforce Discovery Lab Program, which continues to bridge the workforce gap in our community (donate to either program here).

“The Workforce Discovery Lab is a hands-on skill building and career pathway preparation and exploration program for local youth attending Highline and Tukwila area high schools, focused on supporting the lowest barrier, highest earning potential jobs in our community,” the chamber said. “The program invests and ensures that the career pipeline for our business community remains open and strong while each cohort of students develop a variety of skills that improve their ability to succeed in a professional setting as well as explore career pathways.”

HOW NOMINEES GOT NOMINATED
Any member in good standing with the Chamber was eligible to be nominated and receive an award.

Anyone – not just members – were able to nominate.

“This year we received hundreds of nominations from the community and we are so grateful for every submission,” CEO Andrea Reay said. “In the past the three members that received the most nominations per category were automatically recognized as finalists. We recognize that this can create a perception of favoritism-which is most assuredly not our intent. Please know that the Chamber values each and every member equally. There is no us without you! Moving forward, to help guard against any misperception members will only be recognized in a single category – the one in which the receive the most nominations for. This will help ‘spread the love’ as it were and ensure we’re able to recognize more in our community as well. Every year in July we start asking for nominations and close early September. So be on the look-out to vote again in July of 2022.”

VIDEO
Watch an edited video of the awards celebration below (running time 47-minutes, 26-minutes):

For more info, visit https://www.seattlesouthsidechamber.com.
 

Founder/Publisher/Editor. Three-time National Emmy Award winning Writer (“Bill Nye the Science Guy”), Director, Producer, Journalist and more...