The Greater Spokane Valley Chamber of Commerce held its Business Awards on Friday, April 22nd, 2022. This celebration honored the outstanding achievements made by Valley Chamber members in 2021 in three categories: Business Innovation, Inspiring Workplace, and Community Stewardship. We honored two organizations from each category; one large organization and one small.
The Community Stewardship award recipients have demonstrated a significant impact on our community through established volunteerism and philanthropic practices, ideally, those that involve the organization as a whole.
HUB Sports Center
Our small business awardee was HUB Sports Center. HUB Sports Center’s purpose is to provide events that have a positive impact on youth and the community. They actively seek out partnerships with organizations of faith, sports, education, business, and government to discover and create opportunities for youth and families to thrive. A place of emphasis pointed out by our judges is HUB Sports Center’s partnership with Rise Above. Rise Above is a native organization that uses sports as an opportunity to break down barriers and open doors for teaching and learning life skills. HUB hosted 200 native youth for a basketball clinic with former Seattle Supersonics and Olympic Gold Medalists to provide them encouragement and access to resources to help them succeed. HUB was also able to restart many of its outreach programs, as well as start some new opportunities in 2021. They hosted drive-in movies, partnered with Mobius and STCU to provide hands-on STEM learning opportunities for students, and hosted ‘Teach a Teacher’ nights. As Covid restrictions relaxed in the late spring and early summer, HUB was able to bring back their HUB 360 after-school program, Dad & Dudes Night, and Police Activity League. These programs provide a safe and positive outlet for students and offered a bit of normalcy during the latter part of the pandemic.
Horizon Credit Union
Horizon Credit Union was our large business award recipient. Horizon’s three corporate pillars of community outreach are Health, Hunger, and Education. In 2021, a large percentage of their corporate giving and volunteerism centered on food and housing insecurity. Horizon’s Go Give Grow Day, a company-wide day of service, focused on housing and food insecurity. All 29 of its branches closed at noon to allow employees to volunteer in food banks and low-income housing projects. In total, 360 employees volunteered 1280 hours for 29 organizations across its footprint. A unique highlight as pointed out by our judges, Horizon Credit Union’s board of directors authorized a sizeable budget variance in 2020 and 2021 in order for them to increase donations to multiple community partners who were working on the front lines of the pandemic. Horizon Credit Union believes it is its privilege and responsibility to serve its communities and markets. Their goal of being a community leader and continuing their tradition of helping their stakeholders achieve their goals is central to Horizon’s mission and promise.
Original source can be found here.
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