The Economic Alliance of Lewis County held its annual banquet Friday, Feb. 7, at the Jester Auto Museum and Event Center in Chehalis.
The event, which included silent and live auctions, served as an occasion to highlight and celebrate the contributions of several people in the local business community.
The event started with a warm welcome by the alliance’s former chair, Luke Moerke, and the passing of the gavel to incoming Chair Stuart Cavness.
Cavness took the opportunity to stress the importance of the Economic Alliance and highlight its goal of bringing new businesses to the area and serving as a resource for those already here.
Next, Economic Alliance Executive Director Richard DeBolt took center stage to give his own welcome to the attendees. DeBolt took a moment to honor the elected officials in the crowd and to formally thank outgoing members of the alliance, including Moerke and Cameron McGee, owner of Calypso Window Washing.
The alliance distributed four awards to members of the community.
The first of the four, the Gail and Carolyn Shaw Industry Award, was given to Dale Merten, chief operations officer of ToledoTel, who was unable to attend.
The Community Commitment Award went to Angie Twining and Samantha and Spike Magnuson, owners of Lewis County Coffee Co., who thanked their hardworking staff and the community for their support.
“Lewis County Coffee for us is not just coffee, it’s people,” Samantha said. “We wouldn’t be able to do what we do to give back to the community without amazing people.”
The Buck Hubbard Staff Award was given to Lisa Goodman, marketing director of the Benaroya Company.
Lastly, The Chronicle’s owner and publisher Chad Taylor announced this year’s recipient of the Russ Mohney Recreation Resource Stewardship Award, which is given every year to a community member who has shown exceptional commitment toward conservation. It is awarded through a partnership with The Chronicle, where Mohney was a revered outdoors write, and the Economic Alliance.
Lewis County Commissioner Scott Brummer filled in for J. Vander Stoep and spoke on his behalf to introduce the honoree, Jay Gordon, who currently works as the policy director for the Washington State Dairy Federation. Gordon also serves on the board of advisors to the Office of Chehalis Basin and as a board member of the William D. Ruckelshaus Center.
“If you are a conservationist, you owe a lot to Jay Gordon,” Brummer said.
“If you have been impacted by floods, you owe a thanks to Jay Gordon.”
Gordon stressed the importance of receiving the honor by sharing a story about Mohney, the awards namesake, raising $34,000 for a little girl in Winlock in need of an organ transplant during his time as a local radio personality.
“I appreciate it. Thank you. And we still got a lot of work left to do in the community,” Gordon said.
The keynote speech followed and was split three ways between Stacy Denham and Michael Thomas, the new Chehalis and Centralia city managers, respectively, and Ryan Barrett, Lewis County manager. The three managers spoke on their visions for the future, their goals and the challenges ahead. All three spoke, at least in part, about retaining and training employees in order to better serve the community.
“My vision for the future is a thriving, resilient county that fosters growth,” Barrett said. “An organizational culture is not a poster on the wall, it’s how do your employees feel on Sunday night with the work week ahead.”
