Soon after we launched three years ago, I wondered in a blog post if it was just a crazy idea to have an award just for Good People. Fast forward a couple of years and through countless other crazy ideas, to our Good Life Awards party, which honored five individuals who have made such a positive impact on the world around them and on the LIFE mission. The net proceeds from the night will go to the Valparaiso Schools Foundation and the Porter County Career and Technical Center.
I was proud to see Ideas in Motion Media host the event and happy to present each recipient with their award, a hand crafted steel piece made by Industrial Revolution owner Mike Leeson, who is also President of Synergy Steel Structures.
"We started something a couple of years ago and I literally didn't know if anybody would show up," I commented as we began the evening. "And this room is filled with people that showed up."
We took time to recognize the five recipients of the awards for all the effort they put in to helping not only to lead in positive ways within their community, but also for their belief in the purpose behind ValpoLife.com, PortageLife.com and LaPorteCountyLife.com.
"It all started, funny enough, when I met a Valpo girl, I fell in love with her, I fell in love with her family and ultimately I fell in love with her town. And in that process, we started a whole new life in Valpo.
"It struck me that we could create a place for all that good news. We weren't supposed to be here three years later, but you all showed up."
"It was really just another goofy idea. There are awards for everything imaginable out there. Can't you just give awards out to good people, people that do good stuff? Maybe they wouldn't be the most famous people, maybe they wouldn't be the most important people. They would just be good people."
Jon Groth, Porter County Career Center Principal
"Jon loves, needs and inspires kids. I have never seen this guy fail when it means working on behalf of kids. It's not just what he is doing in the school every single day, it's what he is doing when he is he is watching his video student who is a discus thrower from Hebron at a meet in Valpo. He is all the way behind the high school just to watch this one kid throw discus. He probably spent two hours just to get there to see one kid just throw one throw. I see him having breakfast with a past student to see how the student is doing in his career path. He is there not just on behalf of his students, but on behalf of every single thing his students do. You see him involved with Kiwanis, he is obviously involved in school, he is an incredible father, husband, and an incredible leader."
"Jon got us instantly. As soon as we engaged with him, he understood 'Hey, I get what you are doing.' He has continually been a cheerleader wherever we go. He cares about Valpo, Portage and everyone of the ten high schools throughout the county and he makes an impact on these kids. His life truly matters."
Olga Velazquez, Former Mayor of Portage
"We were probably about a month into launching ValpoLife and someone on the team came to me and said, 'Hey, listen, you won't believe who signed up for the ValpoLife newsletter.'
And I said, 'Who?'
And he said, 'Mayor Velazquez from Portage.'
"We knew we were planning to be launching in a bunch of other cities, but we had just had a baby and we were trying to get Valpo to sustain itself. A couple of months later I got a call from the Mayor and she said that she wanted Portage to be number two. All I said was, 'I'm just hoping there is a number two.' She got what we were doing, she invited us to come to Portage, she supported us from the very beginning and she never wavered on what we could potentially do for the community she loved."
"Olga, for anyone who doesn't know, believes passionately in everything she does. She is as tough as hell. That is what I respect most about her. She believes in what she believes in and she said, 'I think you guys are doing a great job and I want you guys to come to Portage and I will do whatever it takes to help you guys be successful.'"
"PortageLife wouldn't exist if Olga hadn't made that call or hadn't signed up for that newsletter."
Jonathan Nalli, CEO of Porter Health
"Sometimes people get it quicker than others. I don't know if he really got it, or if he really just wanted me to stop talking. But 15 minutes into my presentation, Jonathan Nalli said, 'Dude, I get it.'
"Jonathan Nalli has got it in every way that I could possibly appreciate. It is not just getting it as a big regional company that can support what we are doing that has been critical to our success. But it is someone who really gets the premise of what we are trying to do and how we could potentially be different, before we were different."
"There are two examples that I would like to give of that rockstar supporter. One was at the Portage Chamber, Jonathan got up there in front of the Chamber with his PortageLife shirt on and he said, "I like good news, and I am in favor of good news." As much as that might seem small to someone here, that was massive to us, that somebody from a major organization would say I endorse good news and that your premise is good."
"The second example is when the Central Park Amphitheater was being launched and Porter Health was going to be the title sponsor. I got a call at about noon that this was going to happen at 4 o'clock and it was Jonathan saying, 'I need a shirt.' The most awesome part about that was he had a PortageLife shirt on and he knew ge couldn't introduce the Valpo/Porter Amphitheater with a PortageLife shirt on. So, I ran it over to him and I think it is emblematic of the kind of support we received, not just from the hospital and all of their great marketing and leadership, but from Johnathan personally. He and Cathleen are involved in a gazillion different boards all while bringing us one of best economic developement activities that this region will see in a decade. He is extremely gracious with his time."
Ivan Bodensteiner, IIMM Landlord and Valparaiso University Law Professor
"There are not a lot of other words I can say other than Good Man when I think of Ivan. Everyone in the community knows him to be fair, incredibly honest, very caring, has stacks of integrity, very strong. Ivan has two qualities that I have personally never embodied, which are calm and rational. Having us next door and having him as an integral partner and what we have done is a little like having the circus in town, forever."
"Ivan not only has been a partner to what we are doing, he has been our landlord for the past two years. He not only believed in me, he has believed in our mission, my family, and our people, beyond what any normal, calm and rational person would have done."
"One of my best memories of Ivan was when Don Evans, Ivan and I were sweating our butts off, scraping the padding from the floor to put in new carpeting and outside with a weed-whacker and a chainsaw whacking away at the bushes, laying a pathway so our employees had a path to get to the front door. It wasn't just an emotional or business or a relationship connection, he has been out there doing what it takes to help us do what we do."
Cathy Brown Brown, Owner of Valpo Velvet
"'Positive Karma' - I don't know if there is a word or a phrase you could say that would better replicate what to say about what she means to me."
"Cathy makes people around her happy. That's it. Period. The End."
"She is awesome. If you ever hear her describe something in life it is awesome. It's not good, ok, generally nice, it is awesome. We came into Valpo and nobody had a clue who we were. We started making corny videos outside of Valpo Velvet asking, "What do you love about Valpo?" Cathy single handedly made it cool to like ValpoLife and for that I will be forever grateful. She put up signs, she held an ice cream party for us, she made it cool to like good stuff. She invited us into her town, she invited us into her family, she invited us into her shop and she ultimately invited us into her life."
"The best way I can probably say it, people like Cathy Brown feed my soul. She represents everything that is good and loveable about Valpo and we wouldn't be here without her."
Natalie Mahlmann, IIMM Accounts Manager and Powerhouse behind the idea
"There is no one in this room that I could possibly thank enough than the woman who is standing beside me. I said a couple years ago, I have this whacky idea and there is no risk to it at all, I am certain it will work. There is a person unequivocally in favor of Life who made it look like it was really easy to do. None of us would be here tonight if it wasn't for the person who is my rock, who believed in me when no one should, and that believed in us when no one else should. That person who said, "You know that thing you said had no risk, it will certainly work." That person who said tomorrow will be the day, tomorrow will definitely be the day."