Moving to a slick online production to maintain social distancing, the Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce honored local businesses and individuals in the fourth-annual Port Angeles Community Awards — awards largely dominated by how well local people and businesses responded and adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Among the award winners were Sequim native Chelsea Winfield, owner of Amma’s Umma, who won the award for Young Leader of the Year.
Winfield donates 50 percent of her profits to adoption assistance and gave more than 2,500 organic cotton masks to Olympic Medical Center during the pandemic.
Winfield said she reached out to the community and her customers about how she could best serve them and pivoted to the community’s needs.
“I have an incredible team of young, powerful, ambitious women around me. I’d be nothing without them,” Winfield said.
The other finalists for young leader of the year award were Jeremy Gilchrist, chief operating officer with the Olympic Medical Foundation, and Dylan Godsey, director of coordinated entry at Serenity House of Clallam County.
The awards, sponsored by the Peninsula Daily News, were handed out by PDN publisher Terry Ward.
More than 100 nominations were received this year. The top three finalists in each category were selected by a panel of judges from the community.
This past year created unique challenges and opportunities for local businesses as they continued to serve the community in light of the pandemic that largely shut down most walk-in businesses for much of the year.
Other winners included:
Citizen of the Year
Steve Deutermann, board president of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula, who served on the capital campaign for the new Port Angeles clubhouse.
Other finalists for citizens of the year were Clallam County Health Officer Dr. Allison Berry, who is leading Clallam County through the COVID-19 pandemic, and Patty Pastore, who leads a group of volunteers as she cleans up abandoned homeless sites, parks, ravines and other areas in Port Angeles.
Business of the Year
Lumber Traders Inc., parent company of Angeles Millwork & Lumber Co. and Hartnagel Building Supply, for sponsoring local nonprofits during community Saturdays and providing personal protection equipment to health care workers.
The other finalists for business of the year were Little Devil’s Lunchbox, which has won awards for its food and which has kept employees working throughout the pandemic, a nominator said, and PNW Mobile Detailing, which has donated to the community in several ways and also supported local demonstrations against racial inequality and promoted the Shop Local movement.
Organization of the Year
The Clallam County Economic Development Council, for providing information and resources to help businesses hurt by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The other finalists for organization of the year included Habitat for Humanity of Clallam County, which continued to get people into homes during a pandemic, and the Port Angeles Police Department, for its focus on community engagement and policing.
Emerging Business
Jason and Rose Thompson, owners of Fogtown Coffee Bar, which donated coffee services for charities, provided free brown bag lunches for school students, started a fund to help unemployed service workers and repackaged 800 pounds of flour into 5-pound bags during a flour shortage.
The other finalists for emerging business of the year were Sasquatch Bakery and Ridgeline Homecare Cooperative, a unique employee-owned business that provides in-home care to elders.
Educator of the Year
Hamilton Elementary School music teacher Dan Cobb.
Terry Ward, publisher of the Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum, serves on the Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce board of directors.
