Dec. 9—GOSHEN — Members of the Goshen Chamber of Commerce honored the year's standout community and business leaders during the chamber's annual meeting Thursday at Maple City Chapel.

Included among the event's highlights was the naming of Sharon Welsh, a commercial real estate broker with Endeavour Commercial, as recipient of the 2022 Jerry Trolz Legacy Award.

According to Chamber President Nick Kieffer, the chamber's Legacy Award, established in 2004, was renamed to the Jerry Trolz Legacy Award in 2019 in honor of Trolz, a longtime chamber member and supporter of the Goshen community who Kieffer coined the "Godfather" of the chamber.

Speaking of Welsh, Kieffer said she represents the spirit of the Jerry Trolz Legacy Award "through and through."

"There's not a chamber function or program where Sharon has not left her mark," Kieffer said. "She is still one of the trusted leaders in our community — her career in banking and real estate will back that up. Volunteerism runs through Sharon's veins.

"Sharon, thank you on behalf of the chamber and on behalf of our community for all you do," he added. "We appreciate you."

Upon receiving the award, which was a surprise for Welsh, she chided Kieffer for keeping the honor a secret.

"I'm a little disappointed, because Nick tells me everything, and he didn't tell me about this," she said with a laugh. "This means everything to me. Wow. I don't think about doing this to get any honor. I just love Goshen, I love the chamber, I love Nick, Kathy, Vince.

"But I think moreover, I think a lot of you knew Jerry Trolz, and he was one of my dad's best friends," she added. "So, this is especially, especially important to me, and means a lot, and I thank you very much."

Additional award-winners announced during Thursday's meeting included: Janus Motorcycles, which received the 2022 Chamber Maple Leaf Award for businesses with less than 50 employees; Monteith's Best-One, which received the 2022 Chamber Maple Leaf Award for businesses with more than 50 employees; America's Freedom Fest, which received the chamber's 2022 Community Contribution award; Ashley Jordan with Acts of Service, part of the Community Foundation of Elkhart County, who received the 2022 GEL (Goshen's Emerging Leaders) Award; and Brent Carrick of First State Bank, who received the 2022 Volunteer of the Year award.

NEW PRESIDENT

Also Thursday, Kate Steury, owner of Shirley's Gourmet Popcorn Company in downtown Goshen, was announced as the chamber's board chair for 2023. She will replace outgoing 2022 Board Chair Julia Fisher of Salon J.

"I'm truly excited to be a part of the Goshen Chamber's leadership team for 2023," Steury said following the announcement. "Of course, our community's greatest resources are you, all of our volunteers, your willingness to work for the common good of our community and accomplishing some uncommonly great things."

Looking ahead to 2023, Steury said she actually got her focus for the coming year from the chamber board's fall retreat.

"When discussing our strategic plan, I mentioned to the board a need I felt to cultivate joy and meaningful connections," Steury said. "I feel like a lot of people seem down, and less engaged, and less motivated. I shared my opinion freely, and did not think much more of it. However, Nick texted me a few days later to tell me that he wrote my thoughts down word-for-word, and that he thought those words would be a great focus for my chamber chair year ahead: Cultivate joy through meaningful connections.

"Now, before I get too excited, I do want to recognize and be rightfully sensitive to the years of highs and lows that a lot of us have experienced both personally and professionally," she added. "Realistically, it's probably a lot easier to think of times when anxiousness, isolation, unwanted change and exhaustion felt more cultivated in our lives. I'm not saying we should ignore those feelings, or pretend like life doesn't have hard chapters, but maybe for the next three minutes we can choose to be intentional about how we respond to this chamber event, and even shift our focus toward our new mission: Joy."

As part of that goal, Steury asked attendees to check under their chairs, with many finding small bags of popcorn taped to their seats. She then asked those who found the popcorn to get out a business card, turn around, and give the popcorn and business card to someone at a different table — a suggestion that earned both laughs and groans from the gathered crowd.

"It's the spirit of giving you guys!" she added with a grin.

Steury then got serious, asking attendees to learn from her little popcorn exercise and make an effort to connect with others in the community moving forward.

"As a chamber, we need to continue to listen and understand the needs of all the businesses in Goshen," Steury said. "We have to be intentional about taking one step forward without the two steps back; to focus on the greater goal as a community; and use our best tools to sharpen our chamber's initiative: advocate, connect, develop and inform.

"I look forward to serving as your 2023 chamber board chair, and I can't wait to engage with you and your organizations as we work together growing Goshen."

John Kline can be reached at john.kline@goshennews.com or 574-533-2151, ext. 240315. Follow John on Twitter @jkline_TGN.