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Whitefish Chamber Hands Out Annual Community Awards

Lin Akey was given the Great Whitefish Award for a lifetime of service to the Whitefish community

By Beacon Staff

The Whitefish Chamber of Commerce handed out its annual awards at its community banquet last week.

Lin Akey was given the Great Whitefish Award for a lifetime of service to the Whitefish community. Akey has served on a variety of community boards, including the Whitefish Legacy Partners and Whitefish Community Foundation. A longtime branch president of Glacier Bank in Whitefish, Akey also helped organize the Whitefish Winter Carnival and was named King Ullr LVI.

Greg Shaffer and the Lions Club of Whitefish was given the Citizen of the Year Award for their development of the Farms-to-Schools Project and community garden.

Sportsman & Ski Haus was named the Business of the Year for its community involvement and reinvestment into the site in Whitefish.

The Whitefish Winter Carnival was named the Tourism Business of the Year.

Jim and Karen Morrell were named the Volunteers of the Year for their years of dedicated service to the Whitefish Chamber and other local nonprofit organizations. The Morrells were part of the original Oktoberfest Organizing Committee, and have organized, supervised and staffed the event’s Souvenir Sales operation for the last six years, working nearly every hour of every day during the two-weekend event.

Kathy Juno was named the Ambassador of the Year for more than 20 years of volunteerism to the Whitefish Chamber of Commerce. Juno is one of the original Chamber Ambassadors, and was selected as this year’s award-winner by a vote of her fellow ambassadors.