The West Coast Chamber has been connected and partnering with DISHER since the start of our business. We lean on each other for help, guidance and connection in our community. Chamber President Jane Clark shares her story and our history together in West Michigan.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
I’m Jane Clark, and I’m president of the West Coast Chamber of Commerce, where the Chamber of Commerce serves Holland and Zeeland in these great communities we all call home. We have about 1,250 companies that are chamber members. We say we do three Cs for the catalyst, the convener and champion. So we’re the catalyst for business growth, with a convener of influencers in our community, and we’re a champion to make this a thriving place to live.
I think the very first check Jeff wrote might well have been his Chamber of Commerce membership back in December of 1999. Right out of the gate, Jeff, engaged in the chamber, and he’s been involved ever since in a variety of ways. Everything from winning our awards to different awards, speaking in our events, encouraging employees from DISHER to get involved right from day one, he’s been an active chamber member. We’ve had a lot of fun with DISHER over the 20 years that Jeff has been in business. And a neat story, was the last time we had the Winter Olympics, we were celebrating Chamber Olympics. And so we looked at our core values and we awarded a recipient for each of our core values in the community. And so one of our core values is learn, innovate, and share. So when it came time to think who in our business membership really exemplifies that core value, DISHER just immediately came to the top of the list. So we had fun. We came out to DISHER, we brought some Olympic medals, we ran in carrying the torch, and we presented this Chamber Olympic award to DISHER, and we had a lot of fun doing it.
I think one of the things I admire the most is how Jeff knows deep down what the company is all about and how he leads by the core values of this company. We’ve come on culture tours here. We’ve brought our whole staff to just really learn from DISHER. There’s nobody that does it better. I think Jeff Disher and the DISHER story, is one of the great entrepreneurial treasures in this community.
The Holland/Zeeland region is built full of great leaders who took risks, put everything on the line and now are fantastic employers. And Jeff just exemplifies one of those companies in this community. So we’re just so proud of his work and congratulate him on his coming years.