By Jake SpringThe Daily Northwestern
In a combination awards ceremony and business meeting, the Evanston Chamber of Commerce drew on their members’ “Goldfingers” on Thursday night in hopes of raising $15,000 in their largest fundraiser of the year.
Chamber members attending the James Bond-themed 87th Annual Gala honored outstanding community members and elected a new set of officers to their executive committee. In keeping with the theme, the gala included casino games and clips from Bond movies in addition to a formal dinner.
The attendees accepted the slate for the new executive committee in a brief oral vote. The chamber named its new president, Don Huff, a financial advisor at Merrill Lynch in Northbrook, along with a new treasurer.
Huff praised the chamber’s past president and its staff in his acceptance speech.
“It’s like if Daniel Craig were replaced by that guy from American Idol,” said Huff, in a speech filled with Bond jokes.
Following the election, the chamber gave awards for Community Leadership and Small-Business Person of the Year, which were granted for the 15th consecutive year.
The chamber also gave a new award, Public Service/Nonprofit Person of the Year, to Don Baker of Youth Organization Umbrella, Inc.
Through his organization, Baker has provided services to Evanston youth for more than 30 years.
“I did get seduced by Evanston,” said Baker, who had planned to return to Wood River, Ill. after attending Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in the late ’60s. “I fell in love with street kids.”
The dinner and awards program was a brief interlude in the four-hour event. The “meeting-turned-benefit” charged each of the 240 attendees a minimum of $95 to attend the event, which included dinner, an open bar and the Bond-themed activities.
The chamber also held a raffle and silent auction to raise money, said Lisa McGowan, an event planner hired by the chamber. Local businesses donated the auction and raffle items, and the menu was made up of dishes from local restaurants.
“You go to these events and they’re (very) dry,” said Scot McKay, owner of the Clean Plate Club restaurant group, which includes Pete Miller’s Seafood and Prime Steak, 1557 Sherman Ave., and Davis Street Fishmarket, 501 Davis St. “But this is fun. It brings people together.”
This is the first year the gala was held at the Unitarian Church of Evanston, McGowan said.
Several attendees, such as Jeremy Kudan, owner of the Kudan Group Inc., a real estate and business brokerage, emphasized the event’s role in providing an opportunity to network.
“It provides a forum for meeting the local business people, opportunities to give back to the community and helps members with their business (connections),” Kudan said.
Reach Jake Spring at [email protected].
