Northbrook Chamber Awards Trudy Welker Posthumous Volunteer of the Year

The Northbrook Chamber of Commerce announced their annual Business Award winners this week. The late Trudy Welker was named Volunteer of the Year, the North Suburban YMCA earned Small Business of the Year and the Renaissance Chicago North Shore Hotel was Corporatae Citizen of the Year.

Welker joined the chamber in 2002 and volunteered fundraising support over the past decade, the chamber's website reads. The longtime Northbrook resident also worked at Glenbrook North for 23 years until launching an aromatherapy career, in which the National Association for Holistic Aromatherapy named her an aromatherapy pioneer for her research on the use of oil for long term patient care. 

She passed away on Nov. 8, 2012, according to the Chicago Tribune. She was 79.

The YMCA earned the Small Business of the Year award for its impressive revitalization campaign that rebuilt the struggling community center over six years, the chamber's website explains. 

“What happened with the Y these last few years is nothing short of miraculous,” Ron Bernardi, Sunset Foods' community representative told the chamber, referring to the Y's ability to emerge out of $2.3M debt, attract new members after a period of decline and renovate its facilities without compromising its commitment to the Northbrook community. 

The Renaissance Chicago North Shore Hotel earned the chamber's Corporate Citizen of the Year award for its ongoing support of the surrounding community by donating space for use by local groups, the Chamber announced.

“The Renaissance always goes above and beyond the call of duty to support Chamber events and the community,” chamber board member Steven Lewis explained in the announcement. “People probably don’t realize it, but without the help of the Renaissance, executing something as massive as the Meal Packing event or the Chamber’s Auction and Taste would be extremely difficult. Having the event at the Renaissance made it possible for 260 volunteers to package over 42,000 meals for area food pantries.”

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