Join Us as We Celebrate the Difference Makers Virtually on April 1

SPRINGFIELD — Since 2009, BusinessWest, HCN’s sister publication, has been recognizing the work of individuals, groups, businesses, and institutions through a program called Difference Makers.

The 2021 Difference Makers include Kristin Carlson, president of Peerless Precision; EforAll Holyoke; Janine Fondon, founder of UnityFirst.com and professor at Bay Path University; Harold Grinspoon, philanthropist and founder of Aspen Square Management; Chad Moir, founder and owner of DopaFit Parkinson’s Movement Center; Bill Parks, CEO of the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Westfield; and Pete Westover, founder and partner at Conservation Works, LLC.

The 13th annual Difference Makers celebration will be a virtual event taking place on Thursday, April 1 from 6 to 8 p.m. This event, like our hugely successful Women of Impact celebration in January, be presented using the REMO platform, and will feature networking, videos of the event sponsors, introductions of the honorees, and comments from the Difference Makers themselves.

RSVP before March 30 by clicking here. For a helpful tutorial on working with REMO, click here. For more information and links to the stories about our honorees, click here.

This year’s event includes a new, exciting, interactive wrinkle. Since the inception of this program, one of the goals in selecting our honorees has been to show the many ways one can make a difference within their community. The 2021 Difference Makers stories are all different, but the common thread is a passion exhibited by each honoree to improve the quality of life for those in this region and make it a better place to live, work, and conduct business. As we move toward celebrating our seven amazing honorees, we encourage you to submit a 20- to 30-second video of yourself, your organization, or others in our community that are making a difference.

Submit the video by posting it on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, tagging BusinessWest (@BusinessWest413 on Facebook and Twitter or @BusinessWest_HCNews413 on Instagram), and using the hashtag #EverydayDifferenceMakers. Upon submitting your video on social media, e-mail the video to godaire@businesswest.com. Your video will be reviewed by the associate publishers of BusinessWest and the Healthcare News, and could be one of five videos chosen by them to be aired during the Difference Makers virtual event. All videos must be submitted by Sunday, March 21 at 5 p.m. Tune in on April 1 to see if your video is featured.

The sponsors for this year’s program are Burkhart Pizzanelli, the Royal Law Firm, TommyCar Auto Group, and United Way of Pioneer Valley. The Tom Cosenzi Driving for the Cure Charity Golf Tournament is a nonprofit partner.