Annual Meeting & LocalMotion Awards in Review
An evening of celebrations and hard earned recognition took place last week at the Goei Center during the 6th Annual Meeting and LocalMotion Awards. In addition to delicious samplings from Local First members such as Terra, Connie’s Cakes and margaritas from Lindo Mexico, attendees also enjoyed a musical backdrop provided by Triumph Music Academy.
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Foster of The Diatribe kicked off the speeches at the Annual Meeting with some spoken word poetry regarding growth and collective goals and desires from the community in Grand Rapids.
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Rather than giving her previously written and practiced State of Local First speech, Executive Director, Elissa Hillary rewrote her speech the day of the event to be more tailored to her observations and reflections of the West Michigan community. She posed the question to the audience, “What if we calibrated our lives to a more human scale?” following her discussion of Big Culture in which complex social systems cause us to lose our ability to relate on a level of humanity and instead make us feel, as consumers and community participants, small. Elissa reminded us all that “Local First means People First,” and that Local First strives to build communities with integrity while straying away from the Big Culture that overlooks humanity.
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Over 60 businesses were nominated for the LocalMotion Awards and all of which were required to participate in the B. Corp Quick Impact Assessment in order to qualify. Mike Chase and Anissa Eddie announced the LocalMotion Award recipients and the evening concluded with well-deserved congratulations and well wishes from Local First and the local loving community of West Michigan. The LocalMotion Award winners are as follows:
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The Change Agent Award: Brewery Vivant
nBrewery Vivant provides promotes active lifestyles by providing bicycle education, providing volunteer opportunities for their employees and customers, and Vivant has also made the investment to put solar panels on the roof of the brewery in the coming year.
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Local Hero Award: Dan Broersma & Ken Freestone
nDan and Ken have joined together to create GreenMichigan.org – a website designed to curate everything a person might desire to know about being a conscious consumer, how to live more efficiently and sustainably.
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The Mover & Shaker Award: Love’s Ice Cream
nLove’s Ice Cream believes in transparency demonstrating their intentional, researched, and honest approach to providing people with locally and as-organic-as-possible ice cream.
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The Triple Bottom Line, Longstanding Business: Catalyst Partners
nCatalyst Partners provides mentor services to businesses working towards sustainability. Catalyst Partners strives to improve business practices from the ground up based on the constantly evolving standards.
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The Triple Bottom Line, Up & Coming Business: Gluten Free Bar
nGluten Free Bar became B Corp certified in October of 2015, which demonstrated their dedication to the Triple Bottom Line. GFB creates locally produced, gluten free, GMO, soy, and dairy free products in their sustainable, certified gluten-free facility.
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The Guy Bazzani Local Legacy Award: The City of Grand Rapids
nIn 2011, the City of Grand Rapids launched mygrcitypoints, a recycling incentive program that partners with, supports, and promotes local entrepreneurs and businesses. The program increased recycling in the city by 80{6be771524f35e681d5eb1711abbe9ad08f29540a742404ae9fff00be7e8f65de} and reduced waste by 13{6be771524f35e681d5eb1711abbe9ad08f29540a742404ae9fff00be7e8f65de}. The partnership with Heart of West Michigan United Way created additional volunteer campaigns, which collected over $3,000 in donations to purchase school uniforms for the GRPS Homeless Assistant Program.
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Learn more about the LocalMotion Awards.