The Pella Area Community & Economic Alliance honored three Pella Impact Award recipients and recognized Pella Corporation for their 100-year anniversary at their Annual Membership Breakfast on Friday.

This year’s recipients were:

Community Impact Award: Little Dutch Academy (Pella Community Schools) 

Business Impact Award: Mark Van Roekel – Garden Chapel Funeral Home 

Rising Star Award: Main Street Markt

Mary Mansfield with the PACE Alliance says that the Rising Star Award was new this year, and was presented as a way to honor newer businesses in Pella that are making a difference.

“This is a community that really supports business and an entrepreneurial environment, and we really wanted to encourage and highlight the development of that small business. And many of them, although here only a short time, have become an integral part of our community and we just said they deserve some spotlight too. Sometimes you think about the businesses that I’ve been here a long time, and are established, and we thought that there’s some younger businesses that are really doing great work as well and so we just wanted to make a point to be able to highlight them.”

The Pella Wellness Consortium also gave an award for Lifetime Servant Leadership to Elaine Jaarsma at the breakfast. Hear more about the Pella Impact Awards from Karen Eischen and Mary Mansfield on Monday’s Let’s Talk Pella.