Downtown Boulder's annual awards focus on recognizing the champions, collaborators and innovators helping to support local businesses.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
[Boulder, CO. February 1, 2021] - The Downtown Boulder Partnership (DBP) today announced recipients of their Annual Awards, honoring extraordinary contributions and accomplishments of businesses and individuals in the community.
Rising Star Award - Trident Booksellers and Cafe
An award that has historically gone to a new venture that has added value to downtown and shows great potential, DBP recognizes that 2020 saw almost every business functioning with many of the same challenges as a new business. Trident Booksellers and Cafe exemplified the innovative and thoughtful adaptations that so many of downtown businesses employed in 2020. Programs like their Mystery Book Deliveries and ultimately changing their very business structure and creating an employee owned co-op made them the perfect recipient of the Rising Star Award.
Community of the Year - The Boulder Community
DBP traditionally recognizes an individual business for Business of the Year, but extraordinary times call for extraordinary awards. This year DBP is moved to recognize the entire Boulder community for the support, sacrifice and perseverance of so many. “All of the members of our community who went out of their way to offer support to local businesses, made contributions to the DBP employee assistance fund, and bought a few extra gift cards - your contributions were noticed and appreciated,” said Chip, CEO of the Downtown Boulder Partnership. “We still have a ways to go, but the Boulder Community has shown that we will get through this, together.”
Nonprofit Organization of the Year - The Boulder Community Health Foundation
The downtown Boulder community recognizes the Boulder Community Health Foundation for its extraordinary efforts early in the pandemic last spring spearheading the Feed The Frontlines campaign, supporting our healthcare and other frontline workers, while driving funds to local restaurants when they needed it most, and providing an opportunity for the whole community to engage in the effort of mutual support.
George Karakehian Community Service Award - Boulder Business Response & Recovery Alliance (BBRRA)
2020 was a year of strengthening partnerships and collaborating in new and creative ways. The BBRRA has been the gold standard of effective partnerships and will be receiving the George Karakehian Community Service Award. Organizations in the BBRRA include DBP, the Boulder Chamber, Boulder Convention & Visitors Bureau, Small Business Development Center, the Community Foundation, Boulder County, the Latino Chamber of Commerce and the City of Boulder. The award will be presented to Yvette Bowden for her leadership in assembling and guiding this remarkable alliance. Notably, both DBP and the Boulder Chamber are recognizing their partners in the BBRRA with annual awards this year in acknowledgment of the spirit of collaboration that characterized the coalition’s work throughout 2020.
Ron Porter Special Achievement Award - Bobby Stuckey
There won’t be a conversation about the impacts of 2020 that does not include the widespread devastation to the restaurant industry and in particular local and independent restaurants. Bobby Stuckey’s leadership in the Independent Restaurant Coalition on behalf of independent restaurants everywhere has kept the conversation in front of policymakers locally and in D.C. raising awareness of the important and diverse roles independent restaurants play in our communities.
The Annual Awards event to honor recipients has been delayed until the Fall, anticipating the opportunity to gather safely in person to celebrate the efforts of the award recipients and all the downtown community.
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About the Downtown Boulder Partnership
Downtown Boulder Partnership (DBP) is a non-profit organization, originally founded in 1984 as Downtown Boulder Incorporated, dedicated to continued preservation, promotion and enhancement of Downtown Boulder as the heart of the greater Boulder community. With a mission to maintain Downtown as the center of commerce, government, culture, and leisure, DBP’s membership supports the overall vitality of Downtown through public advocacy, political involvement, and by producing year-round community events that enhance the Boulder experience for residents and visitors.
Contact:
Media Contact: Terri Takata-Smith,VP of Marketing & Communications, 303-449-3774
DBP Contact: Chip, CEO, 303-449-3774
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