Photo courtesy of KT Creative Winners of the 2025 Keweenaw Community Spark Plug Awards, back row from left Todd Gast, Mathew Monte, Adam Loukas, Mike Stebe and Rick Simpson. Front row from left, Mallory Sporalski, Carolyn Yarina,, Denise Hanson and Curt Webb.

Organizations and individuals from throughout the Western Upper Peninsula were honored Thursday night at the Keweenaw Community Sparkplug Awards. Sponsored by the Keweenaw Chamber of Commerce, Keweenaw Economic Development Authority (KEDA), Copper Shores Community Health Foundation, Keweenaw Young Professionals and the MTEC Smart Zone, the ceremony took place at the Memorial Union Ballroom on the Michigan Technological University campus.

The Sparkplug Awards are an annual community celebration that recognizes local businesses, organizations, community projects and individual for their efforts over the past year. On of the emotional highlights was a photographic tribute to the late David Crowley.The late author, actor and longtime BridgeFest advocate from Laurium passed away in January. Crowley was nominated for the Community Contributor of the Year Award. And while he did not win the honor, which went to Todd Gast of the City of Hancock, the large crowd honored Crowley with cheers and tears.

Loukas Technologies of Calumet was the winner of the Growth Award. Through a short video highlighting the finalists, CEO Adam Loukas traced the companies growth over the past few years.

Monte Consulting of Houghton took home the award for Customer Service. Mathew Monte acknowledged all the nominees in the category and thanked his firms customers. “There are so many people whose missions we are fortunate to support,” Monte said in accepting the award.

Other Sparkplug Award winners included Mallory Sporalski, Youth Contributor of the Year, Copper Shores Bridges Program in the Innovation/Transformation category and Carolyn Yarina was honored as the Young Professional of the year.

The Keweenaw Co-op took home the award for the Project of the year. General Manager Curt Webb described the markets move from its long time Ethel Street location to a much more visible downtown location. “It was a long haul,” Webb said while thanking the Co-op’s board, owners and customers.

Webb returned to the podium a bit later as a presenter in what turned out to be the most poignant moment of the evening. Webb presented the award for Hometown Hero to Keweenaw Co-op Assistant Manager Denise Hanson. Webb told the story of how, just prior to opening the Co-op’s new location, he suffered cardiac arrest while at the store. He related how Hanson found him on floor, instructed staff to call 911 and began life-saving efforts. “She saved my life,” Webb said.

Katie Schlief of the Keweenaw Chamber of Commerce was happy with how the event turned out. “Thank you to everyone who came out to make the Keweenaw Community Sparkplug Awards an empowering success,” She said. “We had the honor of celebrating eight incredible individuals and organizations who accomplished truly inspiring things in 2024. With over 120 nominations, it’s clear our community has so much to be proud of.”

Schlief said there were many people responsible for the success of the evening, “We would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to Devin Leonarduzzi of Paint River Creative Productions for taking the time to meet with several of our nominees and creating wonderful videos. A big thank you to Bob Hiltunen for providing the beautiful music. We also appreciate KT Creative Photography for the amazing captures, Calumet Floral & Gifts for the stunning floral arrangements, and Michigan Technological University Catering and Staff, especially Matt, Chris, and Katie, for their exceptional service.”

She also offered thanks on behalf of the hosting organizations. “We hope you are as motivated and inspired as we are by the successes of our community’s growth, services, innovation, projects, and leading contributors.”

Entertainment for the evening was provided by local musician Bob Hiltunen. A complete list of all nominees and winners can be seen at keweenaw.org