Yakima County Development Association and Kittitas County Chamber of Commerce Announce Enterprise Challenge Winners
ELLENSBURG, WA – June 18, 2020 - The 2020 Enterprise Challenge Winners are Jacob Castillo with Junk-Bros, a junk removal business with the first-place prize of $10,000, Wendy King with The Little Hopper, a Yakima beer tour-bus with the second-place prize of $5,000, and Charles Johnson with Elite Tours, a business offering luxury transportation for beer and wine tours with the third-place prize of $2,500.
The Kittitas County Chamber of Commerce is proud of those businesses in both Yakima and Kittitas County that participated in the 2020 Enterprise Challenge. Before presenting to judges at a tradeshow, each business received professional development skills through marketing, finance, and one-on-one counseling from business industry experts. Because of COVID-19, the final trade show was postponed. For the final round of judging, each contestant submitted a video presentation of their business and had a virtual Q&A with the judges. The businesses that participated from Kittitas County included Cascade Custom Apparel, Cascade Cleaning Services, River + Roots, Hotel Roslyn, The Early Bird, Clean Cut The Men’s Shop, and Ano Delivery.
Kittitas County Chamber of Commerce CEO Amy McGuffin states, “We are proud of these Kittitas County businesses taking this step toward making their dreams a reality. All of these businesses have been great additions to our county and we cannot wait to continue this partnership program for years to come. As our mission states we work toward building businesses and building community and that is what this program helps accomplish.”
The Enterprise Challenge is an annual business plan contest for new and emerging companies in Yakima and Kittitas Counties. It is a great way for both organizations to celebrate small business and support promising ventures in Central Washington. Over 185 entrepreneurs have competed in the contest since its inception and many of them have gone on to start businesses in our communities.
For more information, please contact our Membership Director Gemma Hollingsworth at gemma@kittitascountychamber.com or our CEO Amy McGuffin at amy@kittitascountychamber.com.
About the Kittitas County Chamber of Commerce: The Kittitas County Chamber of Commerce is the largest business support and development organization in Kittitas County, and one of the largest in Central Washington. With just over 500 members representing every business sector, the Chamber and its committees oversee county-wide tourism promotion and economic development initiatives and a range of business support tools including publications, web services, seminars and even leadership development for a new generation.
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