Selected through online public voting, Golden Openings was recognized with the Community Excellence Award. The special events business received significant support for its outstanding commitment to community engagement and public leadership. The Community Excellence Award honors an organization that positively impacts the quality of life in its community and serves the needs of its customers, employees, and neighbors.
“Golden Openings is a model of how small businesses strengthen their communities and local economies,” said Thomas J. Donohue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “In business for the past twenty years, Golden Openings has helped thousands of businesses decide how to open their own doors and make a continued impact in their communities. The Chamber is proud to honor Golden Openings as both the 2017 Dream Big Small Business of the Year and as the recipient of the Community Excellence Award.”
The Business Achievement Award winners are:
Community Excellence Award: Golden Openings (Urbandale, Iowa)
Emerging Business Achievement Award: 3 Daughters Brewery (Tampa, Florida)
Green/Sustainable Business Achievement Award: TerraCycle, Inc. (Trenton, New Jersey)
Minority-Owned Business Achievement Award: Nightlight Pediatric Urgent Care (Sugar Land, Texas)
Veteran-Owned Business Achievement Award: Tar Heel Basements (Winston-Salem, North Carolina)
Woman-Owned Business Achievement Award: ProjectXYZ, Inc. (Huntsville, Alabama)
“All of us at MetLife want to congratulate Golden Openings as the Small Business of the Year and Community Excellence Award winner,” said James Reid, executive vice president for Regional & Small Business Solutions at MetLife. “Our heartfelt congratulations also go to the Business Achievement Awards winners, all of whom display some of the best in American entrepreneurship. We wish them all much future success.”
Award winners were announced at the Dream Big Awards Celebration as part of the 2017 Small Business Summit, which took place September 10-13, 2017 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC.