United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County
United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County in August named its 2015 Philanthropic 5 Award winners. The awards program, crafted by the organization’s Emerging Leaders Council, highlights five area community leaders in their 20s, 30s and 40s who are active throughout the region’s nonprofit sector. Winners each received $500 to donate to the organization of their choice. This year’s winners are: Rachael Hughes of Milwaukee-based Northwestern Mutual, who is involved in WGIRLS Milwaukee, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Milwaukee, and United Way LINC, among other organizations; Leah Jepson of SET Ministry, involved in Health Watch Milwaukee, Project LAUNCH, and Milwaukee Succeeds, among others; Jasmine Johnson, involved in the YMCA’s Black Achievers program, ONE MKE, and 29Eleven, among others; Deanna Singh of the Burke Foundation, involved with Meta House, the Milwaukee Art Museum and others; and Neil Kiekhofer of Front Room Photography, through which he assists nonprofits with his photography. Additionally, United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County for the first time gave a Philanthropic Youth Award to honor a young individual committed to serving nonprofits. The inaugural winner is Gopika SenthilKumar, a recent graduate of Brookfield Central High School and advocate for United Way and Froedtert Hospital, among other community organizations. SenthilKumar was awarded $500 toward her education, which she will continue this fall at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
VISIT Milwaukee
VISIT Milwaukee won second place for “Best in Show In-Line Booth” design during the 2015 American Society of Association Executives Annual Meeting & Exposition in Detroit. The booth exuded a Bloody Mary theme with Milwaukee products, drink garnishes and hand-drawn illustrations, VISIT Milwaukee also served Bloody Marys at the booth with local Jimmy Luv’s Bloody Mary mix, Milwaukee sausage, pickles, cheese olives, pearl onions and other toppings. The booth was designed by Hayley Gallagher, creative services manager for VISIT Milwaukee. The tourism bureau also launched its redesigned Meetings and Conventions website during ASEA’s Annual Meeting & Exposition. The site offers improved navigation and new features that ease meeting planning in Milwaukee. New features include downloadable floor plans for the convention campus.
FASTSIGNS of Milwaukee – Glendale
Two outside sales professionals from FASTSIGNS of Milwaukee – Glendale were honored for top sales achievements at the 2015 FASTSIGNS Outside Sales Summit, held in Charlotte, N.C. in August. Mark Van Ermen took home two awards, including the National Sales Achievement Award. The award, which is the most significant of the summit’s awards, recognizes the salesperson with the highest total sales in the company’s network from July 1, 2014 to June 30, 2015. Van Ermen also won the Platinum Sales Award, which highlights outside sales professionals who surpassed $1 million in sales during the award year. He was one of 10 outside sales professionals to receive the award. Additionally, Stephanie Pike earned the Bronze Sales Award, which is given to outside sales professionals whose sales totals hit between $300,000 and $499,999 from July 1, 2014 to June 30, 2015.
