Ponitz, the volunteer executive director for Leadership West Michigan, received the 2003 Louis Hallacy II Distinguished Service Award last week during the Holland Area Chamber’s monthly Early Bird Breakfast.
A Holland-area resident and senior vice president at the Grand Rapids architectural and engineering firm Progressive AE, Ponitz served on the executive committee that formed Leadership West Michigan and then volunteered to lead the organization during the inaugural year. She was responsible for overseeing every aspect of the program, which ended its first year in December with 26 graduates in the inaugural class.
“I’m a little bit humbled to receive an award for something I had such a blast doing,” Ponitz said in accepting the award.
“It was a labor of love,” she said. “We really are on the path of setting a regional mindset. I loved every minute of it.”
Past Winners
Past recipients of the Holland
Area Chamber of Commerce’s
annual Louis Hallacy II
Distinguished Service Award
are:
2002: David Myers
2001: Judith A. Zylman
2000: Rob Zaagman
1999: Jim Brooks
1998: Emilie Wierda
1997: Ken Peirce and Grace
Piersma
1996: Robert De Young
1995: Marjorie Hoeksema
1994: Tom Carey
1993: Calvin Langejans
1992: Jim De Graaf
1991: Donald Stoltz
1990: Cora Visscher
1989: Jack Marquis
1988: Deanna DePree
1987: Jerrald Redeker
1986: Dale Van Lente
1985: Edgar Prince
1984: Harvey Buter
1983: Gordon Van Wylen
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An offshoot of the West Michigan Strategic Alliance, a consortium of business and community leaders that promotes regionalism, Leadership West Michigan provides leadership training for business and community leaders who have graduated from local leadership academies organized by chambers of commerce in Holland, Muskegon and Grand Rapids.
Leadership West Michigan is designed to foster greater regional collaboration in the Grand Rapids-Muskegon-Holland area.
Ponitz “has done more for the greater Holland community in the last 12 months than anyone else,” said Holland attorney Nathan Bock, who nominated her for the award.
The Louis Hallacy II Distinguished Service Award, renamed two years ago in honor of the Holland Area Chamber’s long-time former president, was started in 1983 to recognize individuals “whose endeavors and contributions have provided cultural, economic and social betterment for the greater Holland area.”