Coconino County, Xanterra and retired Assistant City Manager Jim Wine were among the honorees at the inaugural Community IMPACT Awards Luncheon held by Goodwill Industries of Northern Arizona (GINA) to celebrate its partners and team members who forward the group’s workforce development mission.
Each of the seven recipients were congratulated by Jim Gibbons, President & CEO of Goodwill Industries International, who came to Flagstaff from Goodwill’s headquarters in Maryland to kick off this new annual event.
“This is a world model across the Goodwill network,” Gibbons said, praising GINA President & CEO David Hirsch and his team of 255 employees. “Often when I speak to Goodwill groups, my challenge to them is to ‘think differently’ so they can advance in their mission. When you think about your work in terms of impact, you are leading the charge.
You should be extraordinarily proud.”
Among this year’s recipients was Coconino County, which was given the Collective Community Impact Award for the vital role it plays in both economic and workforce development; and Xanterra Parks & Resorts, which has partnered with Goodwill on several job hiring events.
Jim Wine, named Ambassador of the Year, was celebrated for his volunteer work both as a Board member (he has been chair twice in the past 20 years) and a teacher of workforce readiness and financial literacy at the Arizona@Work career center located in the Flagstaff Goodwill.
Wine called on others to also be Ambassadors for Goodwill and all of the 200-plus attendees at the event received a Goodwill Ambassador sticker at the end of the event to help spread the word about the good work Goodwill does in Northern Arizona.
Also receiving awards at the event were the following Goodwill team members or graduates: Alan Reed (Achiever of the Year); Tyler Lovejoy (Team Member of the Year); Tamara Byington (Graduate Team Member Award) and Alain Carerra (Graduate of the Year).
For details and videos on each of the recipients and photos from the event, please go to goodwillna.org.
Goodwill thanks Title Sponsor Findlay Toyota, Event Partners Northern Arizona Healthcare and CS&L; and the numerous supporting sponsors who made this event possible.