At annual Vail Valley Partnership Success Awards, businesses and the community are big winners

You should get an award if someone names a baby for your business.

That’s not the only reason that Gracie’s Coffee in Gypsum was honored Friday as the Vail Valley Partnership’s Emerging Business of the Year. But the kind of service that keeps customers coming back through an entire pregnancy is indicative of the kind of impact those honored at the annual Vail Valley Partnership Success Awards have on their community.

That commitment to the community was on display during the awards ceremony at Edwards’ Riverwalk theater. The celebration was hosted by the Vail Valley Partnership’s Chris Romer Erik Williams, both resplendent in jackets that could have been torn straight from a great-aunt’s living room in the Technicolor 1950s.

Most of the awards were chosen by a committee made up of winners from the previous year. The only winners chosen by Partnership staff were the Chairman’s Award and the Member of the Year.

In accepting his Chairman’s Award, Gary Woodworth of the Gallegos Corporation told the audience that the “most important thing we can do is give back,” advice he’d received long ago from Gallegos Corporation founder Gerald Gallegos.

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Woodworth was the first of many to express humility and gratitude in accepting his award.

Creating a great culture takes teamwork. In accepting Vail Health’s award as the valley’s Best Place to Work, Jen Law, the organization’s human resources director, said she’s been impressed with the teamwork at Vail Health in her two years on the job.

Accepting her individual Community Impact Award, Grace Anshutz of the Eagle Valley Community Foundation noted that people are the “average of the people” you work with. Her award is thanks to those she works with, she said.

The Eagle Valley Community Foundation was also honored as the Nonprofit of the Year. Speaking for the several people gathered at the front of the room, organization director Melina Valsecia said she’s not only proud of all the people gathered around her but for all the other organizations with which the foundation partners and collaborates.

Those partnerships are valuable for virtually every community group. Accepting the Community Impact Award for Your Hope Center, group board president Carrie Benway said that the organization’s services are made possible through both the internal team and through partnerships with other groups.

Your Hope Center’s Clinical Director, Dr. Teresa Haynes, echoed that sentiment.

“We could not do what we do without our partners,” Haynes said, also crediting Benway and the board for building the team at the behavioral health facility.

Business with a purpose can lead to growth on both the bottom line and in that purpose.

Accepting his award for Small Business of the Year, Seagull’s Cycles owner Kyle Foster noted that his company has gone from an emerging business, and from a dream to a business, and to a business that now organizes rides to benefit SpeakUp ReachOut, a group working to prevent suicide in the valley

“The business side is fun,” Foster said. But, he added, the purpose-driven part of Seagull’s is better.

That impact can range from just a few people at a time to hundreds.

Accepting Colorado Mountain College’s award for Business of the Year, campus dean Marc Brennan noted that the college last week graduated more than 300 students in a host of fields.

But throughout the theater, “What people are doing is absolutely amazing,” Brennan said.