Two hard-working and selfless volunteers were honoured at last week’s Cayman Islands Chamber of Commerce AGM. Immediate Past President Woody Foster said that contributions made to the Chamber by Volunteers of the Year 2020 Roz Griffiths and Jan Gupta were “priceless”.

 Roz Griffiths is the Director/Senior Speech and Language Therapist with Chatterbox and she previously served on the Chamber Council for several years.  Last year accepted the role as volunteer Chair of the Chamber’s Leadership Cayman programme.

Mr Foster said that Ms Griffiths did not let the pandemic and the lockdown dampen the spirits of the Planning Committee or the class members.

“In the end, the 2020 Leadership Cayman class may have graduated several months later than usual but their experience was excellent, and Roz should be commended for her guidance and leadership,” he confirmed.

 Jan Gupta, a local developer, has been the organiser of Resilience Cayman, an entity established to address the immediate and long-term issue of food insecurity for many residents who have been hard hit though job loss and business closures.

Mr Foster outlined that in the first six months of the programme, more than 3,000 individuals and families received food vouchers and daily meals. Ms Gupta also worked to create summer internship opportunities and grants for 35 young Caymanian college students to ensure they could continue their education and develop workplace skills for their future careers.

“Resilience Cayman is now a registered independent non-profit organisation and this was only achieved through Jan’s hard work, vision and perseverance,” Mr Foster stated. “It is my pleasure to present Jan with the Chamber’s Volunteer of the Year Award for her outstanding service to the Chamber and the community.”

 Three Chamber Councillors honoured

Three Chamber Councillors were concluding their two-year term on the Council: Tim Bradley, Amanda Brown and Simon Watson and were presented with gifts of thanks for their tireless contribution to the Chamber.

Secretary and former Councillor Steve McIntosh was also honoured, having been instrumental in providing insight, research and data to help the Executive Committee to make important decisions during the pandemic and for assisting the Executive Committee to develop a plan to respond to the crisis.

Hailing Chamber Champions

Chamber Champions, i.e. those businesses which had donated funds or investment to the Chamber, were also recognised and included:

Chamber Stewards, which contributed between $5,000 and $7,499 to the Chamber of Commerce during 2020:

• Flow|C&W Business|IT Outsource Business Solutions
• Cayman Turtle Conservation and Education Centre Ltd.
• Cox Lumber
• Davenport Development Ltd.
• Health City Cayman Islands
• Knighthead Annuity & Life Assurance Company
• KPMG
• Provenance Properties Cayman Islands
• RBC Royal Bank (Cayman) Limited
• Walkers
• Water Authority – Cayman
• Wheaton Precious Metals

Chamber Advisors, which contributed between $7,500 and $9,999 to the Chamber of Commerce last year:

• CG BritCay
• Dart
• Island Taste Group Ltd.
• Kensington Management Group Ltd.

And Chamber Advocates, which contributed or invested more than $10,000 with the Chamber during the year:

• Caribbean Utilities Company, Ltd.
• EisnerAmper
• Foster’s
• HSM