Local First has announced its first-ever LocalMotion Awards to recognize outstanding contributions to the West Michigan economy by local businesses and organizations. According to Executive Director Elissa S. Hillary, these awards will recognize "the great strides many businesses have made to the local first mission." Hillary identifies practices such as localizing supply chains and working towards accountability with the triple bottom line as examples of actions used to evaluate the nominations. Although there are several programs that recognize local businesses, Hillary says no existing program focused on the sustainability efforts of small and medium-sized businesses. The 2011 Local First LocalMotion Awards will include: The Local Legacy Award: Recognizing lifetime achievement, this award honors an individual or business dedicated to promoting locally owned businesses and sustainable business practices in West Michigan. The TBL Award: This award is presented to a  business that has demonstrated a strong commitment to the Triple Bottom Line. The Mover & Shaker Award: This award recognizes a locally owned business that has accomplished a significant shift toward local supply chains in the past year. The Local Hero Award: This award is presented to an individual or family that has demonstrated a significant shift toward local purchasing and sustainable living. The Change Agent Award: This award recognizes a locally owned business or organization that is growing successfully and has made a significant contribution toward the revitalization of a neighborhood or business corridor. Nominations will be accepted until Dec. 17. Details of the nomination procedure can be found on the Local First website. Source Ellissa S. Hillary, executive director, Local First Writer: John Rumery, Innovation and Jobs Editor

Fourteen-year-old Champlin McCahill lost his father, Grand Rapids Catholic Central coach Ray McCahill, to colon cancer three years ago. Now Champlin's determination to beat his own brain cancer has inspired his family's fitness company to team up with Matrix Fitness and the Lance Armstrong Foundation's LIVESTRONG in the fight against cancer. Grand Rapids-based McCahill Group, a corporate wellness company owned by Champlin's mother, Peaches McCahill, manages the Bridgewater Fitness Center at Bridgewater Place (333 Bridge St. NW). The recent renovation of the 4,100-square-foot facility features the addition of state-of-the-art LIVESTRONG fitness equipment created by Matrix Fitness. Bridgewater is the first facility in Michigan to feature the new equipment, says the McCahill Group's Katelin McCahill in a recent email. The fitness center now offers members an opportunity to work out on LIVESTRONG equipment including three treadmills, two elliptical machines and two stationary bikes, plus several strength-training pieces. The facility overlooks the Grand River and features a one-on-one personal training studio. "Our company is founded on health and wellness and we understand the implications of being healthy," says Andy Bix, director of health and wellness. "We want to create awareness on how to take care of yourself and to help prevent cancer in any way you can."Matrix Fitness will donate a minimum of $4 million to LIVESTRONG over the next three years, based on sales of the equipment, says Bix. The McCahill Group's purchase helps ensure that funding. Bridgewater Fitness Facility is open to the public. Monthly memberships are $35 for building tenants, $45 for non-tenants, plus a $50 signup fee. Members receive free parking in the Bridgewater Place parking ramp and 24-hour access to the fitness center. "This is a good location for a lot of the downtown residents and not far from downtown for downtown workers," Bix says. "And we offer a smaller facility with easy access."Source: Andy Bix, Katelin McCahill, The McCahill GroupWriter: Deborah Johnson Wood, Development News EditorRelated ArticlesVirtual personal trainer looking to energize corporate wellness

Progressing from only 78 miles in rail trails sixteen years ago, Michigan is now home to almost 2500 mlles. According to excerpts from The Grand Rapids Press: Michigan recently became No. 1 in the nation with 2,478 miles on the ground and open. Those are the figures shown by the national Rails to Trails Conservancy. Minnesota is a close second with 2,309 open miles of trail. Wisconsin is third with 1,788 miles. Wyoming and Utah are at the bottom of the list. Each has 1 mile. You can read the entire story here.

The Muskegon Chronicle reports that excavation of decades-worth of contaminated soil has begun at the site of the former Whitehall Leather Tannery. Could the promised multi-million-dollar lakeside residential development actually be on its way?According to excerpts from the story:Heavy-duty excavating equipment is digging up contaminated soils at the site of the former Whitehall Leather Co. tannery — raising hopes a long-awaited redevelopment is finally near. The ongoing transformation of the tannery site — now clear of the buildings that used to house a high-employment industry and community gathering place — is in the environmental cleanup stage. The next step, likely 2012 at the earliest, would be construction of a residential development. Cleanup activities started in October, and Whitehall City Manager Scott Huebler said the plan is to have as much as possible of the contaminated soils removed from the site this year.Read the complete story here.

A team of student entrepreneurs from local colleges continues to impress with their business plan for REthink Water. &nbsp;<br><br><a target="_blank" href="http://www.facebook.com/#%21/REthinkWater">REthink Water </a>seeks to eliminate the use of plastic water bottles by creating a free refill station providing not only water, but also campus information and a rewards plan. This plan aims to foster sustainability and the increase of environmental awareness, one campus at a time.<br><br>THe business plan, drawn up by Zach Fortney, Christina Takens and Joshua Smith from GRCC and Hardip Singh from GVSU, was one of 28 out of 300 businesses recently selected to compete in the student semi-finals of the state's largest business plan competition, the<a target="_blank" href="http://www.acceleratemichigan.org/main.cfm?cid=2235"> Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition. </a><br><br>Although they did not advance beyond the semi-finals last weekend, Singh says the experience at the event was priceless. <br><br>"All of the ideas were very good and the presentations were well done," he says. "Most of the students that presented were graduate students from University of Michigan or surrounding schools. We were the only ones from the west side of the state."<br><br>Singh adds, "Most of the feedback was that we have a really good idea and we should definitely make it happen." Singh says one piece of important feedback was to not let a lack of money stop the group from developing their idea into a reality. <br><br>Next steps include developing a prototype and competing in the<a target="_blank" href="http://www.grcc.edu/departments/service/innovationchallenge/innovationchallenge.html"> GRCC "Armen Awards" Innovation Challenge,</a> in which they have already become one of the top 10 finalists.&nbsp; &nbsp;<br><br>For more information on REthink Water, you can visit their<a target="_blank" href="http://www.facebook.com/#%21/REthinkWater"> Facebook page.</a><br><br><br><br>Source: Hardip Singh, REthink Water<br>Writer: John Rumery, Innovation and Jobs Editor. <br><br><object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/21sScZx9Xmc?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/21sScZx9Xmc?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>

Nathan Bashaw, 21, of East Lansing found his inspiration for Thoughtback from an old practice of writers and artists who kept a "commonplace book," a place where they could capture all their ideas and then return to for inspiration. As a participant in Startup Weekend Lansing, Bashaw and his team pitched the idea of a modern commonplace book in the form of a mobile application. His pitch was compelling enough to be chosen as one of the businesses to be developed in the 54-hour Startup Weekend. According to Bashaw, Thoughtback is a very easy way for individuals to capture their ideas digitally. He says his application is "more suitable" than other similar applications, such as Evernote, because of Thoughtback's simplicity. Since the Lansing weekend, Bashaw won a Grand Rapids pitch competition at The Factory in mid-November and is continuing to add more features to Thoughtback, such as a weekly "email update of ideas." Bashaw says he does not know if his application will make money yet, but "it's been fun to develop," and he is confident that as he presses on, something positive will come out of his efforts. Bashaw is one of thousands of entrepreneurs who have participated in one of the Seattle-based Startup Weekend events, a Kauffman Foundation-funded organization that seeks to catalyze startups and provide entrepreneurship education throughout the world. Grand Rapids will be hosting its Startup weekend Jan. 14-16. For more information on that event, you can visit their site here. Source: Nathan Bashaw, Thoughtback Writer: John Rumery, Innovation and Jobs Editor.

Sue Drolema says she didn't intend to be part of the family restaurant business. Now, she's the owner of the largest leg of the family-owned Taco Boy enterprise, with plans to fulfill downtown Grand Rapids customers' yen for traditional Mexican food, fast. For Drolema, 27, the new 1,100-square-foot downtown eatery at 180 Monroe NW between Mojo's Piano Bar and Bull's Head Tavern will be her fourth Taco Boy location; the other three, 6539 28th St. SE, 2529 Alpine Ave. NW, and 509 44th St. SE, Drolema opened over the past six years, starting when she was just 21. Drolema's mom, Anita, owns the original Taco Boy at 3475 Plainfield, founded by Drolema's grandfather Robert Baltierrez in 1967. Uncle Bob Baltierrez, Jr. owns the Mount Pleasant store. All of them use traditional family recipes from Mexico and prepare everything fresh onsite. "There's so much excitement with ArtPrize and downtown Grand Rapids seems like the exciting place to be in the heart of the city," Drolema says about her reason for looking outside the suburbs for a new location. "We wanted to get into new areas as we expand and grow, and hit places where our customers are. A customer survey says many of our customers live or work downtown and they want Mexican food that's affordable and fast. We listened to them on that and thought, yes, we need to be downtown."The restaurant will stay open until 2:30 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays to catch the crowds after the bars let out. Sunday through Thursday hours are 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. A ribbon-cutting ceremony, Drolema's first, will take place on opening day, Dec. 13, at noon, with Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell. Source: Sue Drolema, Taco Boy; Anne Marie Bessette, Grand Rapids Downtown Development AuthorityWriter: Deborah Johnson Wood, Development News Editor

The Muskegon Sports Council has received $18,000 in new equipment from the DNR to help prepare the popular winter sports complex. According to excerpts from the story in MLive: Jim Rudicil, executive director of the Muskegon Sports Council, which runs the winter sports complex, said it has new trail-grooming equipment. Uneven surfaces that sometimes resulted from using the old equipment will no longer be a problem, he said. Skiers "will see the trails groomed much quicker after a snowfall," he said. "We'll be much more consistent in our trail conditions." You can read the complete article here.