2023 Annual Meeting & Chamber Awards

We hope you will join us in celebrating Charlevoix, its Chamber businesses, organizations, clubs, and individuals at the Chamber Annual Meeting and Awards Dinner at Castle Farms on Thursday, February 23, 2023. 

The night of celebration will include dinner and a cash bar. Please join us in our Charlevoix Celebration! 

                        2022 Award Winners
 Citizen of the Year                                     Business of the Year
        Bo Boss                                                       The Clothing Company
Award Sponsored by City of Charlevoix                     Award Sponsored by Charlevoix State Bank
New Business of the Year                            Young Professional of the Year
      Black Market Foods                                                Lindsey Dotson
                                                                                     Charlevoix DDA
Customer Service Award                            Ambassador of the Year            
        Tom Jillson                                                         Chuck Hayes
  Charlevoix Cinema III                                            Bergmann Center 
                                                                                       Award Sponsored by Blue Cross Blue Shield
                                    Tourism Excellence Award
                               Charlevoix Recreation Department
                                               ​Award Sponsored by Visit Charlevoix


If you are interested in sponsoring an award winner, please contact Caitlin at 231-547-2101 or cole@charlevoix.org.  

FEATURED SPEAKER: Lou Kasischke
Climber, 1996 Mount Everest Expedition
Author, After The Wind: Tragedy on Everest, One Survivor's Story
Near the top of Mount Everest, on 10 May 1996, eight climbers died. It was the worst tragedy in the mountain's history. Lou Kasischke was there. 
Lou wrote about his experience in the award-winning After The Wind: Tragedy on Everest, One Survivor's Story. He also consulted on the 2015 Universal Pictures film that retold the story, Everest. 
Lou continues to use his experience to teach, inspire, and motivate audiences in topics ranging from athleticism and endurance to the importance of decision-making and risk-management. 
Lou Kasischke has lived his entire life in Michigan, but his enduring love of the mountains and alpine endurance sports have taken him to many remote parts of the world, on all seven continents. He is a former chief executive officer, and a director and advisor to several corporations on business and legal matters. Lou’s education includes a Bachelor of Arts degree in business and a Juris doctor degree in law from Michigan State University. Risk management was the major focus of his business degree from MSU. His professional career, especially as a lawyer and a venture capital advisor, often focused on taking high-stakes business risks, managing risk, and making decisions with far-reaching consequences. This part of Lou’s life made his several decades as a serious mountain climber a natural extension. And it also explains his perspective and the important purpose that led him to closely examine, analyze, and explain what went wrong on Everest and his experience of being there, based on the facts that matter and not on the sensational and irrelevant.