It’s hard to believe that summer is officially here. I’m excited to kick off this season on the heels of celebrating one of the Chamber’s most successful Galas to date. Over 700 members of the community came out to honor astounding pillars of the community. Presented by City National Bank, the Chamber honored five pillars of the business and philanthropic community. We shined a spotlight on our Chamber’s Education Foundation and all the amazing work that we do to enrich the public school system. The mission of the Miami Beach Chamber Education Foundation is to identify and support the needs of public education in Miami Beach and its feeder pattern schools. We provide grants to teachers in our community, as well as licensed clinical social workers for at risk youth, among other services and resources. This wonderful work couldn’t be done without the amazing work of the Pillar Board Co-Chairs Seth Feuer and Aaron Tandy and I want to acknowledge them for their service.
I wanted to thank our celebrated honorees, which were: Jorge Gonzalez from City National Bank who received the Corporate Citizen Of The Year Award; The Little Lighthouse Foundation who was the recipient of the Jan Pfeiffer Distinguished Service Award; Lisa Lutoff-Perlo from Celebrity Cruises who was honored with the Excellence in Tourism Award; Congresswomen Ileana Ros-Lehtinen who was who received the Leonard A. “Doc” Baker Lifetime Achievement Award and our Immediate Past Chair of the Chamber Michael S. Goldberg with IBERIABANK who received the City National Bank Beach High Alumni Outstanding Achievement Award. This year, It was an honor to recognize Michael who has done so much for our Chamber, Education Foundation and our community.
I also want to recognize my Co-Chair of the Board Wayne Pathman and co-emcee of the night Johanna Gomez from NBC 6 In The Mix and acknowledge our amazing sponsors the Loews Miami Beach, Tropic Survival, 84 West Events, Breakthru Beverage Florida, PSAV, Warren Henry Auto Group and Jack Daniels. This event takes a village to organize and couldn’t have been done without the leadership of our Event Co-Chairs Jordan Kramer and Andrea Tovar, the planning committee and our Vice Chairs Madeleine Romanello, Dan Odess and Alfredo Gonzalez. Finally, I want to thank our amazing performers from the Nautilus Middle School band, students of Treasure Island Elementary School and North Bay Village Commissioner Julianna Strout who sang beautifully. Thank you to those who attended; We can’t wait for next year!
Best,
Robin Jacobs
