The 19th Annual GWATA Innovator Awards Luncheon had a packed house full of movers and shakers from the community that were there to support the business and education innovator finalists. The ceremony ended Wednesday afternoon with $3,690 in STEM Scholarships for the education awards recipients.

People's Bank presented the Entrepreneur of the Year award to Jeff Soehren with Blue Spirits Distilling.

"It's a great honor to have won this," said Soehren. "Primarily because it represents a lot of hard work from the time you want to be an entrepreneur to here."

The Apple STEM Network presented the award to Amanda Jeffries from Wenatchee Valley College for STEM College Student Innovator of the Year.

"I'm very excited for this opportunity. It's awesome the event that GWATA put on today," said Jeffries. "This has just been kind of a roller coaster ride. I just wanted to go to school to create a better life for my son and here I am."

Other award winners were: Bob Bauer and Debbie Gallaher from Rocky Reach Discovery Center with Chelan PUD for the STEM Champion of the Year, Galactic Farmers; Kayleigh Elder, Christine Keeley, Nathan Hinkle, Beth Okamoto for Future Technology Leader of the Year and FocusGeo won for Use of Tech.

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