Growth Dimensons 2014 Annual Event: Developing A Champion

Growth Dimensons 2014 Annual Event: Developing A Champion Main Photo

24 Apr 2014


PRESS RELEASE
Thursday, April 24, 2014

More than 200 business and community leaders celebrated Growth Dimensions’ 35th Anniversary by reflecting on the history of the organization, celebrating the present projects and collaborative efforts as well as taking a look forward to the future of economic development in Belvidere-Boone County.

Rod Carey, Head Football Coach of Northern Illinois University, provided the event’s keynote address at Belvidere North High School. He drew parallels of leadership on the field to leadership in business. The room filled with business and community leaders was challenged to develop champions and Coach Carey laid out the game plan used by Northern Illinois Huskie coaches and student athletes to accomplish success in leadership.

The Growth Dimensions team rolled out a video highlighting business owners from the Belvidere-Boone County area. Stories and experiences of living and doing business in Boone County were shared by Blake Thomas from Poplar Grove Airmotive, Tom Carlton from Corrguated Metals/Infrastructure Defense Technologies, Jere Eyer from Northern Precisions Plastics, Heather Steines from Locust Street Press and George Mutert of Franklin Display Group. The video produced by local production company Frank & Harvey encapsulated why Belvidere-Boone County is a great place to live, work and play.

Click here to view video: Doing Business in Belvidere-Boone County

Executive Director Kelly Galluzzo expressed her appreciation to the private and public partners for their time, energy and dedication that has been the fuel to keeping Growth Dimensions going. Galluzzo continued, “I’ve been around for roughly 10 of the 35 years and over the last decade, I’ve seen businesses expand, locate here and thrive in Boone County. I’ve also witnessed hard economic times hit our community. I’ve seen our community leaders, business leaders, elected officials bravely weather the storm and stay committed to the task of building an even stronger Belvidere-Boone County”.

Over the past 9 months, Growth Dimensions in conjunction with our community’s economic development professionals and elected officials, have worked with expansion projects that involve over $4 million dollars in capital investment and the creation of approximately 40 new jobs including companies such as Franklin Display Group, Corrugated Metals, Northern Precision Plastics, just to name a few.

“I see our community and the communities that surround us work closer together to take strides in achieving common goals in an effort to build a stronger and true regional picture. With the Rockford Region Economic Development District leading the way, Boone, Winnebago, McHenry and Stephenson counties recently submitted an application for a federal grant, “Investing in Manufacturing Communities Program. If chosen, our counties will receive elevated consideration for federal dollars and assistance to support the implementation of strategies we’re all working on related to advance manufacturing. The financial incentive is the obvious benefit, however we believe our application is an illustration of these 4 counties coming together, identifying assets, common programs underway and the willingness to join hands to leverage resources that would benefit a true collaborative effort”, concluded Galluzzo.

GROWTH DIMENSIONS ANNUAL EVENT SPONSORS
Legacy Event Sponsor: General Mills
Development Event Sponsors: ComEd, Paul Anthony Arco, Petry Design
Growth and Goodwill Event Sponsors: Castle Bank, Country Financial, Hanson Professional, Nicor Gas, Williams Manny

GROWTH DIMENSIONS PLATINUM INVESTORS
Alpine Bank, OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center, Rockford Health System, Swedish American Health System

ABOUT GROWTH DIMENSIONS
Established in 1979, Growth Dimensions provides a progressive and cooperative environment which improves the quality of life by fostering economic opportunity and personal growth. With economic development partners throughout Belvidere-Boone County, Growth Dimensions is advancing a coordinated economic development strategy to create jobs, promote community assets and stimulate capital investment through business retention and attraction efforts.

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Kelly Galluzzo, Executive Director
815-547-4252
kgalluzzo@growthdimensions.org