Vliet Street Business Association
The Vliet Street Business Association recently recognized businesses in the West Vliet Street business district with its first annual Business Awards. A group of judges selected winners from 44 nominations that included both new business ventures and well-established operations.The award recipients are: Valentine Coffee Company, the Emerging Business Award; Urban Sense, the Property Investment Award; Pat Mueller of Heritage West Properties, the Community Hero Award; Roots Underground Outfitters, the Storyteller Award; and Rainbow Booksellers, Business of the Year.
Michael Best & Friedrich
The Legal Marketing Association Midwest Chapter has named Jennifer Rupkey the 2014 LMA Midwest Hall of Fame inductee. Rupkey, director of marketing and business development at Milwaukee-based Michael Best & Friedrich LLP, was recognized with other honorees at the Your Honor Awards on March 5 in Chicago. The Your Honor Awards salute excellence in legal marketing, sales, business development and design. Awards were selected from a pool of entries submitted by legal marketing professionals, law firms and legal services providers in Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Missouri, Michigan and Kansas. Rupkey has served as director of marketing and business development at Michael Best for the past 15 years and has been a member of LMA for all 15 years. She was nominated for the Hall of Fame by her colleague, Lauren Falk, manager of marketing and business development at Michael Best.
The Blind Horse
The Blind Horse Restaurant and Winery, of Kohler, will open its winery doors to the public with a special celebration from April 25 to 27. The winery is housed in a new 3,500-square-foot building that was constructed where a barn once stood on the property of the former Dreps family farm site. The nearby restaurant opened in 2012 in a remodeled farmhouse from the late 1800s, at 6018 Superior Ave. The new winery includes a tasting room and an outdoor patio and bar and aims to produce 20,000 bottles of wine in its first year. It is importing grapes from California and Washington and will have 17 different wines available for tasting and purchase. The winery is exploring the idea of growing its own grapes in the future. The venue will also serve as a destination for corporate events and team building activities.
Professional Dimensions
Professional Dimensions, a Milwaukee membership organization that drives professional and personal growth of women, recently honored Wendy Baumann and Carmen Pitre with the 2014 Professional Dimensions Sacagawea Awards. The annual awards are named after Sacagawea, the Native American woman who travelled with Lewis and Clark on their expedition to the Pacific Coast, and recognize two area women who have made notable achievements in their professions as well as demonstrated significant commitment to the community. Baumann is president and chief visionary officer of the Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corp. Under her direction, the statewide agency has financed more than 1,800 businesses, lent more than $29 million to small business owners and created more than 6,000 jobs. In total, WWBIC serves more than 50,000 people. Pitre is executive director of the Sojourner Family Peace Center, a nonprofit organization that provides resources and support to victims of domestic abuse as well as services related to prevention and intervention of domestic abuse. With Pitre at the helm, Sojourner Family Peace Center has established partnerships with Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office, and the Milwaukee Police Department, among other stakeholders, to create a Family Justice Center that will address family violence through a holistic approach. Both Baumann and Pitre were recognized with the Sacagawea Awards at a March 18 awards dinner.
