Chamber awards celebrate leaders going above and beyond

The Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce’s annual meeting returns June 16 at Emerson Suites at Ithaca College, where the organization will be celebrating its 125th anniversary and the winners of this year’s round of Chamber awards.

This year’s winners are the owners of Salt Point Brewing Company (Entrepreneur of the Year), Finger Lakes Land Trust (Howard Cogan Tourism Award), the Paleontological Research Institution (Not-for-Profit Organization of the Year), Cayuga Health System (Distinguished Business of the Year) and Aly Evans (Noel Desch Key Person of the Year). Each shared great appreciation for the Chamber’s and community’s recognition.

At Salt Point (saltpointbrewing.com), co-owners Sarah and Chris Hesse and Camilo Bohorquez are thrilled to have received the award but stressed that it’s really their staff who deserve the most recognition.

“It’s just our incredible staff,” Chris said. “They do a good job in making all the people that walk in the door feel welcome and like it’s a home and a place they can be.”

Jennifer Tavares, president of the Tompkins Chamber, said the Salt Point owners earned the award through their effective navigation of the pandemic. Sarah explained that, in 2020, the business was preparing to move from its old location to its current location across from the town recreation fields in Lansing, but the pandemic meant they had to refocus on pivoting and surviving.

“We had the capacity at that time to do some more barbecue,” she said. “So, we started cranking out tacos on Tuesdays, barbecue on Fridays and Saturdays. And we did a restaurant menu, and we would just do it all to-go, and we even launched a website and did pre-order with online ordering and pre-ordering capabilities. And that was really how we kept our staff employed and we kept the beer moving and we kept our lights on.”

Like Salt Point, Cayuga Health System (cayugahealthsystem.org) is also being recognized for its exemplary handling of the pandemic. Tavares explained that the hospital system has done much more than the COVID-19-related efforts for which it’s been best known the past couple of years.

“Cayuga Health System, there’s obviously a lot of reasons to celebrate them and everything that they’ve done in the last couple of years to help our community navigate just an unimaginable crisis,” Tavares said. “But I think what really set them apart this year is that, in addition to all of that, they somehow have been simultaneously working on big economic development projects, big investments in our community that will result in new access to health care, new housing, new mixed-use projects.”

Tavares referenced a wide array of advancements, particularly Cayuga Health’s recent purchase of space at The Shops at Ithaca Mall (see tinyurl.com/
2dlrvrjk). John Turner, Cayuga Health’s vice president of public relations, said Cayuga Health staff have more on the horizon they’re excited for.

“Looking ahead, Cayuga Health is focused making sure our services are easily accessible by our patients and the community, which centers around our projects at Cayuga Park (formerly Carpenter Park), the Shops at Ithaca Mall, and new buildings for [Cayuga Medical Associates] and Cayuga [Physical Therapy] in Cortland,” he said in an email. “Secondly, we are strengthening our connections with other organizations in the community. One thing COVID taught us is community links are essential to improve the health of our community.”

Also being celebrated for her community support the past year is Evans, the executive director of Foodnet Meals on Wheels (foodnet.org), who began her role almost a year ago (tinyurl.com/28jb3kv2).

“I’m actually kind of speechless about it, which was odd for me,” she said in regard to her award. “I don’t do what I do for accolades or reward. I do it because it’s what you do to make your community a better place. So, I’m honored; I’m humbled. I didn’t know Noel Desch, and so, the award is named after this person that I’ve never met, and I hope I have the ability to live up to that standard.”

For Not-for-Profit of the year, Tavares said the Chamber wanted to recognize the Paleontological Research Institution (PRI, priweb.org) because it is one of the county’s “best-kept secrets” and “a lot of people in the community don’t realize the reach that PRI has.” PRI is the nonprofit behind Cayuga Nature Center and the Museum of the Earth, but PRI Integrated Marketing Manager Areya Muraca agreed that PRI’s efforts tend to fly under the radar.

“Sometimes I feel like people forget about PRI and the museum here just because we’re not in downtown,” she said. “But we still offer lots of great things for the community, and this year also marks our 90th anniversary for PRI. So, we’ve been here a long time and doing lots of great things. And so yeah, nonprofit of the year, we’re really excited about it, obviously. And we’re excited to keep offering programs to the community.”

PRI Director Warren Allmon also shared appreciation for the award, saying it’s good recognition of all the effort PRI has gone through over the past two years. As he explained, when the pandemic hit, the Museum of the Earth was featuring an exhibit all about bees, and the exhibit’s funding was large enough to support building an online tour as well.

“The pandemic came along, and every museum in the world had to pivot to online exhibits, but we had this bees exhibit that already had an online version,” he said. “And we looked at each other and we said, ‘Huh, that’s interesting. We should just make every exhibit from now on have an online mirror image.’ And so, that was just fortuitous that we made that decision just when the entire world, literally all the museums in the world, had to figure this out. … And now, every new exhibit we open is developed in parallel online and in person.”

Last but certainly not least is the Finger Lakes Land Trust (fllt.org), which has seen considerable press coverage recently thanks to its acquisition of the Bell Station property in Lansing (tinyurl.com/2buo9ldz). The tourism award the Land Trust won is not awarded annually, Tavares explained, but the nonprofit has gone above and beyond in past years and deserved proper recognition.

“There’s been a lot in the last couple of years, but especially the last year, that the Finger Lakes Land Trust has done to really work hard to preserve some of the natural lands in Tompkins County, to turn something that could have been very negative for our community in the long run into an opportunity to create new outdoor recreation assets and natural spaces for the community and for visitors to enjoy,” she said. “So, we just felt it was a good time to recognize them for their hard work and really elevate the awareness of that within the community.”

Land Trust Executive Director Andrew Zepp said he’s grateful for the Chamber’s recognition, and the Land Trust still has plenty on its plate for the coming months.

“Right now, we’re working on several different sites along the Finger Lakes Trail, where we’ve conserved significant land along the trail,” he said. “And now this summer, we’re working with partners to enhance public access. And that’s in both the town of Ithaca and the town of Caroline. And then right in front center is Bell Station. We closed on the acquisition, but now we have to work with the state to create a new public conservation area and also introduce that to the public and make sure that is well treated. So, that’ll keep us busy.”

As much as the Chamber awards are about celebrating progress, all sources acknowledge that the past two years have taken a toll, and many continue to face challenges. At Salt Point, for example, Sarah said the business is facing a staffing shortage that’s already impacting sales.

“We are kind of right at the threshold of having to cap the amount of food like, say, pizzas, that we can produce just because of the amount of people that we can find that have that level of skill to be able to work with us,” she said. “I think the residual effect of COVID is, on the one hand, rebound of tons of people wanting to come out, especially in this capacity — outside with counter service, informal, kids, dogs, everything — and then on the other side is not being able to find the people that that can support that level of insanity.”

At Foodnet, Evans said that increasing prices have greatly affected operations.

“The biggest challenges that we’ve been facing that are pandemic related and aren’t necessarily about the virus itself in humans — that’s still an issue and a concern — but it’s mostly the food costs and availability of food and, now, gas prices,” she said. “So, those are things that are really affecting us. And we have to be on top of that because you don’t want to waste money. We just had a fundraiser, but we don’t want it all to go into the gas tank.”

Despite these challenges, award winners shared a general optimism for what’s to come, as well as excitement for the upcoming award ceremony. To learn more about the Chamber and its awards, visit tompkinschamber.org.

Jessica Wickham is the managing editor of Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to them at editorial@VizellaMedia.com.