Crystal Lake Chamber Foundation honors GEM Award winners

The Crystal Lake Chamber of Commerce Foundation celebrated community leaders and the next generation of leaders Thursday at the 11th annual GEM Leadership Celebration.

The GEM awards – its name stands for “generous, enthusiastic and motivated” – honor local individuals and organizations for their “exceptional contributions and leadership,” according to a Crystal Lake Chamber news release. This year’s recipients were honored at the GEM Leadership Celebration Thursday at the Boulder Ridge Country Club in Lake in the Hills.

This year’s honorees are Elizabeth Wakeman of Wakeman Law Group, PC., General Kinematics Corporation Vice President Randy Smith and the Northwest Herald/SHAW Media News.

Family law attorney Wakeman received the Shaw Media Woman of Distinction award in 2018. She compares her life to the children’s book “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” for her continuous community and charitable efforts, from her involvement in establishing the People for Parks Foundation of Lake in the Hills to sponsoring numerous McHenry County nonprofit organizations.

“I feel like the cookies are my community connections and my different projects and events,” she said. “I know I’m motivated to get to the next one.”

Smith has been with General Kinematics for over 40 years, a Crystal Lake business that engineers machinery to help other companies retrieve raw mining products like gold, aluminum and lithium for batteries around the world. Smith was awarded for his commitment to mentoring younger generations through the chamber’s Leaders in Action program and District 155′s Made in Your Own Backyard events that explore manufacturing careers with students.

“It instills confidence in the community and in our customers that allows companies to get active in their own communities,” he said. “Rewards are handsome for all involved.”

Shaw Media/The Northwest Herald was honored for its “strong leadership reputation” and for supporting “thousands of small businesses, community nonprofits, municipalities, community outreach initiatives and the Crystal Lake Chamber over many, many years,” the chamber foundation wrote.

More than $23,000 in scholarships were also given out this year by the foundation to high school seniors or college students attending District 155 schools, Marian Central Catholic High School in Woodstock and McHenry County College. That amount is more than double the $11,000 in scholarships awarded last year, Crystal Lake Chamber of Commerce Foundation Vice Chair Michelle Kidd said.

Four more scholarships were added to the list this year including a $1,000 scholarship from the Quarry Cable Park and a $2,500 scholarship from Exemplar Financial Network.

Winner of the $1,000 Bob Blazier Scholarship and Crystal Lake Central High School senior Kelvis Ordonez spoke at the celebration about his journey into community involvement. The support he received from the community inspired him to plan to go to college and study to be a school social worker, he said.

“We all need support at some time,” Ordonez said. “We cannot do anything or everything by ourselves.”

The average costs of attending college is about $50,000 a year, Crystal Lake Chamber of Commerce Foundation Chair Michael Winnecke said. He hopes to double the scholarship amounts again for next year and help more students.

Last year’s winners were Sue Dobbe-Leahy of Dobbe Marketing & PR; Ryan Farrell of Zukowski, Rogers, Flood & McArdle law firm; and the Friends of McHenry County College Foundation.

The Crystal Lake Chamber of Commerce Foundation started in 2006 as an organization that aims to foster the growth and development of future and present business leaders by providing financial and educational resources.