March 19, 2024

Making an impact

Newton Daily News honors 20 Under 40 recipients at luncheon

Image 1 of 6

If you look around, you’ll see that people of all ages give much of their time to help make their community a great place to live.

Twenty individuals from Jasper County were awarded the 2016 Newton Daily News 20 Under 40 recognition, and award recipients celebrated at a special luncheon Thursday at Newton DMACC with keynote speaker “Iowa Nice Guy” Scott Siepker.

Recipients are Rob Burdess, Rob Kahn, Chad Klein, Miranda Kulis, Brendan Lamont, Nicole Lindstrom, Jessica Lowe, Chantelle Lundberg, Brad Magg, Jeff Maki, Sveta Miller, Adam Otto, Abigail Pelzer, Jessica Petersen, Jeff Price, Danielle Rogers, Graham Sullivan, Natalie Umsted, Nathan Unsworth and Taylor Van De Krol.

Family, friends and colleagues of recipients gathered for the luncheon to celebrate their achievements.

The luncheon started with a welcome from Newton Daily News Publisher Dan Goetz and special remarks from Newton Development Corporation Executive Director Frank Liebl followed by the awards presentation by Goetz.

“It’s humbling to be included in the inaugural 20 Under 40. The luncheon was an amazing showing of support. It was great to see so many people in that room recognizing the great things that are being done in our community by the 20 Under 40 group,” Rogers said.

A selection team was composed of Young Professionals of Jasper County members and Newton Daily News staff who sought out Jasper County residents with proven leadership skills, dedication and vision.

“As our local young professionals continue to demonstrate their leadership and dedication to serving our communities, we felt a strong need to honor their service,” Goetz said.

The luncheon concluded with a half-hour presentation from Iowa Filmmakers “Iowa Nice Guy” producer, actor, instructor and comedian Scott Siepker whose work has been featured on networks such as CNN and two seasons of ESPN College Football Daily.

“It was a great event and I’m very honored to be among such a great group of people. It’s always good to see the excitement and level of commitment that people have to their community. I always get so much from being around a group of people that are all active,” Lundberg said. “And the Iowa Nice Guy — he hit it out of the park. He was absolutely wonderful and made me proud of be from Iowa.”

Siepker had everyone in the room laughing as he spoke about Iowa and opportunity to make an impact in our communities, while making jokes about Nebraska, among other things.

“It’s really great to see a community give out awards and recognize young professionals in their community. It’s so important we really do embrace our young professionals because for far too long Iowa has been exporting its greatest resources — which is its people. It’s great to see that young people and even older people are staying or not leaving at all, and that just speaks to the health and viability of our state moving forward,” Siepker said.

A 20 Under 40 magazine publication was inserted in Monday’s edition and is available at the Newton Daily News.

Contact Kate Malott at 641-792-3121 ext. 6533 or kmalott@newtondailynew.com