2020 Chamber Awards
Pastor, Mark Gabbert
Members of Zion Lutheran. Church originally started the Wellington community food bank over 30+ years ago. We want to recognize Pastor Mark Gabbert and the many dedi- cated volunteers for helping to provide food assistance to our residents in need, especially during the COVID pandemic. The Wellington Chamber sincerely appreciates all you do and have done to eliminate hunger in our community.
Kaycee Headrick
Kaycee Headrick and staff have done an outstanding job providing safe and in-person summer programs for our Wellington youth, providing emergency child care during the outbreak of the virus as well as now providing full-day remote learning support during the COVID pandemic since schools have postponed in-person learning. Wellington is so fortunate to have the Sage Homes Boys & Girls Club in our community!
Serve 6.8
Serve 6.8 is a community service and non-profit organization that specializes in mobilizing, resourcing, and connecting more than thirty local churches to care for people in Northern Colorado. Mike Walker, Executive Director of Serve 6.8 provided the non-profit avenue we needed to raise $15,000 for the Wellington businesses during the early stages of the COVID pandemic. The funding directly assisted eleven local
Wellington businesses that applied for relief funds. In addition, the fund donated $4,000 directly back into our local restaurants.
Kacy Lobato
Kacy Lobato served the Wellington Chamber for over eleven years as the Executive Administrator and certainly deserves special recognition for her dedication and contributions to the advancement of the Wellington Chamber. Kacy always extended herself with grace to the many demands and challenges of an active Chamber and used her talents as a graphic artist to make sure the Chamber publications were always accurate and professional. Thanks to Kacy for her leadership and professionalism – she made a significant difference!
Jon and Donita Comes
Jon & Donita Comes, owners of The Wellington Grill, have become a mainstay of the Wellington community! They are highly respected in the community and have built their restaurant to become one of the most popular restaurants in Northern Colorado. They have been supportive members of the Wellington Chamber since the first year of opening 9 years ago, have hosted generous Business After Hours gatherings, and are always the first to donate to every fundraising event that occurs in the community.
This restaurant is truly considered a “Gem” in Wellington. They serve great food and have a nice patio set with local music in the summer months. The décor is eclectic and just fun! They are quoted as “They are in the business of creating memories, American food, and smiles”.
Mary Council
Mary Council is an attorney and an active member of the Board of Directors for our Chamber. She is always available to help wherever needed and does her part and even more to support the Chamber. Her business, Council Law Office, has been a local business member of the Wellington Chamber for more than seven years. Mary has been practicing law in Larimer County since 1998, joining the Wellington Chamber when she moved her office to Wellington in 2013.
With a keen interest to see the Chamber grow and become stronger on behalf of local businesses, Mary has served on the Board of Directors since 2016 and is actively involved with the Annual Meeting Committee and the Membership Committee. She also Chairs the Bylaws Committee. Her professional legal expertise has contributed greatly to the Board of Directors and the Chamber. Mary was recently re-elected to the Chamber Board for another term.
Mary McCaffrey
It is expected that the recipient of this award will be someone that has done an exceptional job representing and working for our Chamber and community. As you may well imagine, this year there has been no shortage of people that are eligible for this recognition.
There is no doubt that Mary McCaffrey has emerged as the go-to person for our chamber. She started her job as our Executive Administrator at the end of March just when the initial round of Covid Protocols was released. Her training had not really begun, and she had to learn much on her own as the pandemic monopolized her time. And, if that was not enough, during her first six months, she has moved our office, twice! We are, with Mary’s recent experiences and her leadership, continuing to define the work of this position and how we do it. Mary and others are really redefining how we as a chamber do our work. As you might guess, these first few months have been exhaustive, but Mary has risen to the occasion and put in the extra time learning her still-new job while leading our Covid Taskforce. We are an organization run by volunteers and one person paid to keep us organized and efficient. We are lucky to have Mary McCaffrey as that person and we are proud to give her this year’s Chairman’s Award.
Kallie Cooper
Since this is such an unprecedented time, we decided to give this award to a second person.
Kallie Cooper is the Executive Director of the Wellington Main Streets Program. In normal times she would serve and focus on businesses in the Main Streets’ Service area and not the entire Wellington Area as our Chamber does. But in these special times, she has partnered with the Chamber and specifically Mary McCaffery to serve all the people and businesses in the Greater Wellington Area. She and Mary have become the go-to people to find information about Covid Resources made available by our town, county, state, and country. These programs have changed almost daily at times, and you can find the most current information available on the Wellington Main Streets Program website. Kallie is passionate about helping people and businesses, and she has an incredible set of skills and truly works for the best outcome for a given person or situation. Our Chamber is fortunate to have Kallie and the Wellington Main Streets Program as our partners. She is so worthy of this recognition.
These are exceptional times, and these are two exceptional women. We were so lucky to have them guide us through a year like no other. Thank you both, Mary and Kallie, for the gift of your energy, skills, and leadership. 2021 will be so much better and easier because of you and the work you do.
