Community Builder Awards gala set for Thursday

BERTHOUD — BizWest will honor winners of the second annual Community Builder Awards Thursday in Berthoud.

The event will take place March 2 at Grace Place in Berthoud. Registration is available here.

BizWest has named the winners of the awards — a program that recognizes nonprofit organizations and individuals, as well as individuals and companies from the for-profit sector for their volunteer or philanthropic activities.

Winners in 10 categories will be honored. Honorees include:

• Corporate Citizen of the Year — Eldora Mountain Resort, for dedicating more than $120,000 in donations to local nonprofits, including nominator TEENS Inc., in addition to furthering its robust environmental program.
• Corporate Volunteer of the Year — Kerrie Luginbill, chief strategy officer, Old Town Media Inc., for work with nonprofit causes, including Project Self Sufficiency, Rotary and Habitat for Humanity.
• In-Kind Supporter of the Year — Woody Carlson, mobile laundry program manager, Homeward Alliance. Carlson and Pat Friehauf launched the all-volunteer mobile laundry program in 2019 after learning about a similar program in Denver. The mobile laundry truck washes, dries and folds laundry (same-day service) for individuals and families who are homeless or at risk of homelessness in Larimer County. 
• Next-Generation Leadership — Matt Ward, Ward Electric Co. Inc., for support of nonprofits and organizations throughout the region, including through the JoyforWard Foundation, founded with his brother, Mark. Through Ward Electric and JoyforWard, Ward focuses particularly on organizations benefiting children and children with special needs.
• Nonprofit Organization of the Year:
  • Human Services — Partners Mentoring Youth, for youth mentoring, prevention education and strategic partnerships, serving a record number of youth in 2022.
  • Medical Services — SummitStone Health Partners, for transforming lives by providing compassionate, culturally sensitive behavioral healthcare to more than 10,000 Larimer County citizens annually.
  • Basic Services — Dance Express, for improving  lives through dance. Dance Express, a modern dance troupe for individuals with and without disabilities focuses on creating quality, artistic dance productions balanced with the joy of dance. 
• Nonprofit Collaboration of the Year — Northern Colorado Continuum of Care, a two-county collaboration of more than 40 member organizations working to make homelessness rare, short-lived and non-recurring in Larimer and Weld counties. 
• Nonprofit Executive of the Year — Cyndy Luzinski, executive director, Dementia Together, for her work alongside people living with dementia and their care partners, impacting thousands of people in Northern Colorado and beyond.
• Social Enterprise — Bridge House Community Table Kitchen, a social enterprise of Bridge House and a successful commercial catering business that demonstrates what is possible when mission and business merge. The program combats food insecurity for adults experiencing homelessness and food-insecure families by producing meals that are healthy and nutritious by cooking in real-time and from scratch. 

The Community Builder Awards program is supported by a coalition of nonprofit organizations, including the Better Business Bureau Serving Northern Colorado and Wyoming, the Community Foundation of Northern Colorado, Greeley-Weld Habitat for Humanity, Community Foundation Boulder County, Pathways, United Way of Larimer County, United Way of Weld County, the Weld Community Foundation, the Weld Legacy Foundation and the Weld Trust.

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