12 Baltimore businesses receive Mayor’s Business Recognition Awards

GBC President and CEO Donald Fry called the awardees “exemplary corporate and business citizens.”

Twelve Baltimore companies and organizations were honored with the Mayor’s Business Recognition Awards on Thursday for their contributions to the Baltimore community. The awards, sponsored by the Mayor’s Office, the Greater Baltimore Committee and the Baltimore Development Corporation, were presented in a virtual awards ceremony on Thursday.

“The Mayor’s Business Recognition Award honors companies for their civic leadership and for recognizing that it is equally important for businesses to leverage their financial and human resources to positively impact the challenges facing many of the citizens of Baltimore city,” said Donald Fry, president and CEO of the GBC. “Those before you today, and the companies and organizations they represent, are exemplary corporate and business citizens. They have made community service and civic commitment part of the fabric of their mission.”

The companies who received the award are:

• Ascension Saint Agnes, for working to get first responders vaccinated, standing up mobile vaccination clinics to make it easier for seniors and other vulnerable populations to get vaccinated and continuing to provide education, testing and vaccines through Baltimore.
• B&O Railroad Museum, for launching initiatives to support local communities including a farmers’ market, a workforce development program, and a diversion program, called B360, for young adults caught riding dirt bikes in Baltimore.
• BGE, for starting the Energizing Small Business Grants program to uplift small businesses across the utility company’s service areas during the pandemic. One-third of the program’s grant funding went to small businesses in Baltimore.
• BTST Services, a mental health agency, for partnering with local artists to create a Black Lives Matter mural on East Fayette Street, next to City Hall.
• Chase Street Accessories & Engraving, for donating $10,000 in customized products to community events, helping to manufacture and donate face masks and sponsoring a number of events in the city.
• Civic Innovators, a collaborative program launched by the Mayor’s Office, Baltimore Corps and the T. Rowe Price Foundation, for creating a data dashboard for the city’s Department of Public Works, with the goal of increasing data integrity, improving transparency, and informing strategic decision making.
• Intreegue Design, a boutique landscape architecture firm, for providing an internship and mentorship program for young people in Baltimore.
• LifeBridge Health, for launching the West Baltimore Renaissance Foundation. The foundation works to invest in west Baltimore in hopes of improving social determinants of health, such as employment and food access, and has awarded over $4 million to date.
• M4 Security, a security company, for working with Center for Urban Families and Mayor’s Office of Employment Development to provide job opportunities to unemployed Baltimoreans and for offering mentorship to Morgan State University student athletes.
• Pigtown Main Street for uplifting the Washington Boulevard commercial corridor through events, community outreach, and grants and technical assistance for local businesses.
• University of Maryland Medical System for leading the effort to create a mass vaccination site at M&T Bank Stadium, which administered 250,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine over approximately four months.
• Whiting Turner Contracting Company, for its contributions to Food With a Focus, a campaign to safely provide families shelf-stable and fresh groceries at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott thanked the 12 winning organizations for their work.

“Thank you for the work that you do every day to support Baltimoreans, add value to our business community and our wonderful city as a whole,” he said. “Thank you for demonstrating your civic pride and contributing to the welfare and betterment of our city and residents.”