By Hub City Times

MARSHFIELD – Local businesses and altruists were honored by the Marshfield Area Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MACCI) at its annual meeting held Jan. 25 at the Marshfield Eagles’ Club.

Simplicity Credit Union was named as MACCI’s Firm of the Year for 2018. President Pat Wesenberg accepted the award.

“It’s a true honor to be so present in the community and it’s easy to give back to a community that gives us so much,” Wesenberg said.

Simplicity originally began in 1949, and saw 6 percent growth in 2017. The firm recently purchased the former Thomas House and will be relocating part of its team to the downtown area.

Meanwhile, the annual Small Business of the Year award went to Marshfield Insurance Agency. The family-owned company recently underwent a renovation which will allow for additional staff. The company will be honored during the annual Small Business Breakfast in May.

MACCI’s 23rd annual service award went to the late Dan Helwig. The 66-year-old architect died last August while working at his family’s lake home near Rice Lake. Dan’s wife, Sharon accepted the award on behalf of her late husband.

“Dan would be truly humbled and honored to accept this award,” she said. “In a community filled with so very many caring and giving individuals, he loved and appreciated the opportunity to work on many of your projects. When asked to be a part of a board or a committee, he didn’t hesitate to give back what he could to a community that had given him so much.”

Dan served on the “MACCI” Board of Directors, serving as its president in 2004. His business, Design Unlimited, was the Marshfield Chamber’s 2009 Small Business of the Year. Dan contributed his talents as an architect to many community projects and businesses, including the Wildwood Station pavilion, Jack Hackman field, Prevention Genetics, the Dental Clinic of Marshfield, and First Presbyterian and Christ Lutheran churches.

Cathy Lotzer of Marshfield Utilities was named as the 2018 Leadership Marshfield Alumnus of the Year. Lotzer was part of a team that instituted the Groundwater Guardian project in the city, a project that has continued to expand and serve the community.

“It’s been almost 21 years since the Leadership Marshfield project and it’s been great, and it wasn’t just me, our Groundwater Guardian project is a result of so many people, not only from the Utility, but from the community that have come forward,” said Lotzer,” and our biggest project is the take-back program, the pharmaceutical take-back program… We are close to 12,000 pounds of pharmaceuticals that we’ve collected that are out of our environment now.”

Lotzer is a 1997 graduate of the program, now in its 26th year.