Celebrating Excellence – Enterprise Bank Seeks Nominees for 2018 Awards

Enterprise Bank is seeking nominees for the 2018 Celebration of Excellence awards and they’re looking for you to help them.

For the past decade, the Celebration of Excellence awards have recognized people and organizations who care about giving back to the community. Categories include business, education, entrepreneurship, community service and corporate philanthropy.

As Enterprise Bank prepares to celebrate its 29th anniversary this January, I spoke with CEO Jack Clancy about what the awards mean to him and the community.

“It’s amazing when you go back to the previous award recipients.” Clancy says. “They were doing great things at that time and to see what some of them have done today, it’s absolutely amazing.” There are many examples. At the first ceremony in 2008, the winners of the entrepreneurship award were Salvatore Lupoli and Michael Kuenzler, both of whom went on to become major Merrimack Valley leaders.

I asked Clancy why the awards were so important to Enterprise Bank and its mission. He responds, “It’s just a way for the bank to give back to the community and to recognize everyone who has made a difference. At our last event, we had more than 2000 people. A lot of people walked out of the auditorium that night wanting to do more and wanting to give back.”

Last year’s keynote speaker was Travis Roy, who, in 1995, injured his spine while playing his first game for the Boston University hockey team. Roy went on to get a degree in public relations, write an autobiography and start the Travis Roy Foundation, which supports research on spinal cord injuries and helps provide adaptive equipment to paraplegics and quadriplegics.

When asked if any of the winners have inspired him personally, Clancy says, “Oh yes. Every single one of them. I think of Nancy Donahue,” he says, referring to the 2016 community service award winner who has been involved in philanthropic work in the Merrimack Valley for six decades. “She walks the walk and it comes from the heart.”

He also cites 2013 community service award winners Barbara and Ira Smith. The couple founded Acton’s Household Goods Recycling of Massachusetts in response to a local crisis involving civil war refugees.

Since winning the 2013 Celebration of Excellence community service award, Household Goods has grown into a large nonprofit organization, staffed by hundreds of volunteers, and provided over 35,000 individuals with donated furniture and household items. These individuals include children, those with disabilities, veterans and victims of fire. “[The Smiths] are in their 80s, making a meaningful contribution to society,” Clancy notes. The couple continue to volunteer at HGRM six days a week.

Household Goods Executive Director Sharon Martens speaks warmly of how much the 2013 award meant to their organization. “It was wonderful,” Martens says. “It brought so much publicity to us and introduced us to many people who hadn’t heard of us before.”

When asked why it was important to celebrate excellence, Clancy notes, “There’s so much bad in the news today — I don’t think we hear enough of the good. It’s important to tell the good stories. I wish we did more of that.”

The deadline for nominations is January 11 and all application materials must be received by February 16. Applicants may nominate themselves and are judged by an independent committee of community and business leaders on their contributions to community and industry, the innovativeness of their business practices, and their track record of leadership. The ceremony will be held on May 1, 2018 at Lowell Memorial Auditorium.

For more information, visit Enterprise Bank’s Celebration of Excellence website at EBCOE.com.