CHAMBER CELEBRATES CAPE ANN SMALL BUSINESS WEEK JUNE 1 – 5

 

The Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce salutes Cape Ann’s 2015 Small Business Persons of the Year at a series of events this week. Monday night, Manchester will honor Mike Storella of Central Street Gallery at 7 Central from 5 to 7 p.m., while on Tuesday friends and fans will celebrate Joey Ciaramitaro of Good Morning Gloucester from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Studio as Gloucester’s choice for Small Business Person of the Year. On Wednesday, June 3 Karin and Ken Porter of Roy Moore Lobster Company and Roy Moore’s Fish Shack, Rockport Small Business Persons of the Year, will in turn be recognized at the Emerson Inn by the Sea from 5 to 7 p.m. Tim and Vicky Kennefick of the Windward Grille, Essex Small Business Persons of the Year, will be feted at their own restaurant on Thursday, June 4 from 5 to 7 p.m. All will be honored together at the Chamber’s 35th Annual Small Business Week awards luncheon on Friday, June 5, beginning at 11:30 a.m., at the Sea Glass Restaurant at the Castle Manor Inn, 141 Essex Avenue, Gloucester. The keynote address at the luncheon will be delivered by former Gloucester Mayor and current Deputy Secretary for Housing and Economic Development Carolyn Kirk.

 

Cape Ann Small Business Week is designed to highlight the extraordinary contributions of Cape Ann’s small business community for exemplary entrepreneurial achievement as well as notable civic and community involvement. This year’s Small Business Week award winners are being honored individually at receptions in their respective communities during Cape Ann Small Business Week, thanks to the generous support of presenting sponsor Institution for Savings. Please visit capeannchamber.com for a complete schedule of these receptions.

 

Friends, family members, and colleagues of all small business honorees are invited and encouraged to attend the receptions and the luncheon. Each reception is complimentary, while tickets for the luncheon are available to all for $30. To register online, please visit capeannchamber.com.

For more information, please contact Kerry McKenna at kerry@capeannchamber.com or call the Chamber at 978-283-1601.

Meet the honorees (of course our Joey needs no introduction) ~

Manchester Small Business Person of the Year Mike Storella

Business career: High tech Operations, Sales and Business Development background for many years in Communications, internet and computer systems of various types. Past positions at IBM, Cisco, and a number of tech startups, presently COO at dog hunter LLC a maker of Iot devices( internet of things). Board member of Rockport Art Association and Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce. Artistic career, plein air painter: One of the Founders of the Central Street Gallery in Manchester by the Sea, MA, it is a co-operative gallery consisting of 14 working artists with 6 shows per year of new works and approaching our 7th year.

Gloucester Small Business Person of the Year Joey Ciaramitaro

Joey Ciaramitaro is co-owner of Captain Joe and Sons Lobster Company and creator of GoodMorningGloucester. He graduated from Bishop Fenwick High School in 1985 and Bentley College in 1989, with a BA in Economics. Joey is the father of two beautiful daughters- Madeline and Eloise Ciaramitaro, ages 8 and 9. He is one of the original founders of The Downtown Gloucester Block Parties.  Joey credits his success to the support that his mom Pat, and father Libby gave him growing up, the fantastic people he gets to work with every day, the men and women who lobster for Captain Joe and Sons, his business partner Frankie, and the incredibly passionate Blog contributors who are part of the Good Morning Gloucester family.

Rockport Small Business Persons of the Year Karin and Ken Porter

Ken Porter began working at Roy Moore Lobster Company at 39 Bearskin Neck in 1979 while still in high school. He continued to work there on weekends for the next ten years, while also working as a lobsterman out of Rockport Harbor. The business was started in 1918 by Roy Moore and was later purchased by Dana Woods and operated by Dana and his son Charlie until the 1980s. In 1989, the year that Ken and Karin were married, Ken purchased Roy Moore Lobster Company. In 1998, Karin and Ken opened the Fish Shack restaurant upstairs from the Lobster Company, and operated there until moving the restaurant to its present location at 21 Dock Square in 2003.

While operating these two successful Rockport businesses together for more than 25 years, Karin and Ken Porter have also generously given back to the Rockport community for decades. For many years they have supported every high school class and the DECA program by hosting fund raising spaghetti suppers and pancake breakfasts at the Fish Shack. Every year they also provide the lobsters for and support the Rotary Club’s Lobster Fest and the Navy Committee’s lobster bake. They also support the Council on Aging with an annual dinner for seniors and the Rotary Club’s annual Valentine’s Day luncheon for seniors. Every Sunday in February, Ken runs a pool tournament at the Legion Hall to raise funds for Rockport’s Veterans Weekend, and every December since moving to Dock Square Karin has provided free hot chocolate following the Christmas in Rockport Tree Lighting ceremony.

Karin and Ken Porter live in Rockport and have two children, John and Charlene.

 

Essex Small Business Persons of the Year Tim and Vicky Kennefick

Vicky and Tim Kennefick opened the Windward Grille Restaurant in August 2005 after 6 months of renovations. The restaurant was formerly known as the Hearthside Restaurant, a well-known dining destination on the north shore. Our goal was to bring the restaurant back to the reputation it had once enjoyed in the 1970s and 1980s. We have 6 children ranging in age from 30 to 14, most of whom have worked at the restaurant throughout the years. Tim is a native of Gloucester and was familiar with the area and the restaurant location. As we close in on our 10th anniversary we hope that the people of Cape Ann have enjoyed our establishment as much as we have enjoyed meeting many new friends.

 

The keynote address at the luncheon will be delivered by former Gloucester Mayor and current Deputy Secretary for Housing and Economic Development Carolyn Kirk.

 

Carolyn A. Kirk, Deputy Secretary, Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development for the

Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Carolyn A. Kirk joined the Administration of Governor Charlie Baker and Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito in January of 2015 and serves as the Deputy Secretary of the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development.

In this position, Kirk leads operational management and shares policy responsibility for the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development, the Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation, the Department of Housing and Community Development, the Mass. Office of Business Development and its ancillary agencies of Mass. Travel and Tourism, the Mass. Marketing Partnership, and the Mass. Office of International Trade and Investment.

In addition, Kirk is responsible for economic planning and growth in the Maritime economic sector, oversees the MassWorks grant program, and provides direct support to the Lieutenant Governor’s office on a number of initiatives.

Prior to her appointment with the Baker/Polito administration, in 2007 Kirk was the first woman popularly elected as Mayor of the City of Gloucester. Kirk went on to win three subsequent general municipal elections and never lost a ward or a precinct in any of her contests and served as Mayor for seven years.   Kirk’s administration invested over $100million in infrastructure thus laying the groundwork for future economic growth.   The first-ever business class hotel is under construction in the city in a long sought after waterfront location adjacent to downtown. A new $40 million elementary school, the first one to be built since World War II and which Kirk led the effort on for seven years, is also under construction in the city.

 

Deputy Secretary Kirk’s professional career spans over 25 years.  She is a long-time management consultant and her clients have included many of the Top 20 banks in the US, along with Fortune 500 companies.  She and her husband Bill Kirk have two children, Sam, 17 and Baylee, 14.  Both are enrolled in Gloucester Public Schools.

A graduate of the Boston College class of 1984, Carolyn Kirk was born and raised in Clinton, NY and moved to Massachusetts to attend college.  She moved to Gloucester in 1988 where she still resides, and was drawn to the diversity and beauty of the city.