Chamber of Commerce recognizes local businesses during Star Awards

The Dripping Springs Chamber of Commerce held its Star Awards event, recognizing local achievement, at Dreamland on May 13. The event, which usually takes place every February, almost didn’t happen. In fact, it was canceled until members of the Chamber rallied together to put on the event for the community.

“We were so happy to be able to celebrate the businesses and people in our community after the challenges we’ve all faced over the last year,” Susan Kimball, President of the Chamber of Commerce said. “The perseverance and resilience of our business community really is something special and the Star Awards is a great event to highlight those who thrive, especially when faced with adversity and Dreamland was the perfect venue.”

The event recognized achievement in six categories ranging from Non-Profit of the Year to Business of the Year. After such a rough 2020, the Chamber decided to add a new award category to the line up this year. The Above and Beyond award had three recipients and was presented to Chick-fil-A, H-E-B and Desert Door Distillery for their community service during the COVID-19 pandemic. H-E-B played a crucial role last year by keeping their doors open to supply the community with essentials, even when demand was high and supply was low. Chick-fil-a made sure essential workers were fed and that those struggling had a meal; and Desert Door Distillery was the first to pivot from bottling liquor to bottling hand sanitizer, eventually giving away 9,300 gallons for free.

The other 2020 winners were: Helping Hands of Dripping Springs for Non-Profit of the Year; Martin Garza for Hometown Hero; Springs Veterinary Clinic for Outstanding Customer Service; Grawlix Lounge and Dripping Springs Country Club tied for Up & Coming Business; Chris Pesek and Ashley Tullis for Business Person of the Year; and Wild Birds Unlimited for Business of the Year.

When accepting the award for Non-Profit of the Year, Lindy Orr thanked all the volunteers and those who donated saying, “We are honored to be in this category with so many other wonderful organizations. This past year has brought many challenges both fresh and new. One of the greatest challenges most of us faced was isolation, and in this time of isolation Helping Hands was able to offer relief from the fear that there was nowhere to turn. We were able to give our community help and hope and show them they were not alone. But the simple and profound reason we could do this is because we at Helping Hands were not alone.”

Relieving feelings of isolation during the pandemic was a driving force for another winner. Business of the Year Wild Birds Unlimited survived the year by educating the community on the joys of bird watching and healing power of nature. “13 months ago on the day the world shut down, we had to rethink the way we were going to run business completely,” Owner Amanda Bustillos said. “We were on our way to the hospital to have our baby boy and totally unsure of what life would look like a year from then, so this award would mean the world to us any year, but especially this year. It means a million times more because we’re still here and it’s because we have the world’s greatest customers.”

The complete list of awards nominees was:

BUSINESS OF THE YEAR

Acopon Brewing Co.

Lone Star Capital Bank Mazama Coffee Co.

Rolling in Thyme & Dough

Wild Birds Unlimited (Winner)

NON-PROFIT OF THE YEAR

Dripping Springs

Community Library

Dripping Springs Cookoff Club

Dripping Springs Education Foundation

Helping Hands of Dripping Springs (Winner)

Wimberley Adoption Group & Rescue

OUTSTANDING CUSTOMER SERVICE

Emily K Brandenberger – The Wood Group of Fairway

Evolve Chiropractic Mazama Coffee Co.

Springs Veterinary Care (Winner)

Swift Sessions

UP & COMING BUSINESS

Dripping Springs Country Club (Winner)

Fitzhugh Brewing

Grawlix Lounge (Winner)

Indigo Healing Acupuncture Style & Beauty By Priscilla

BUSINESS PERSON OF THE YEAR

Fabienne Bollom, Rolling in Thyme & Dough

Caroline & Stephen

Bradford, Dripping Springs Country Club

Ed Mena, Allstate Insurance & T-Werx Coworking Too

Chris Pesek, Dripping

Springs Home Team & Ashley Tullis, Realtor - Keller

Williams Realty (Winners)

Michelle Wendt, Indigo

Healing Acupuncture

HOMETOWN HERO

Dave Edwards

Martin Garza (Winner)

Edwin Reyes

Chrystal Smith

Carl Waits

ABOVE & BEYOND

Chick fil A

Desert Door Distilling

H-E-B