May 4, 2018
Palm Beach Daily News
Lori Bernstein, founder of Lori Jayne Monogramming & More, was awarded business of the year during the Palm Beach Chamber of Commerce’s final breakfast meeting of the season Thursday at The Breakers.
Other award winners included best new business winner Celis Produce; young professional of the year, Ryan Burke; and non-profit of the year, Blankets of Love.
In her speech, Bernstein told the crowd about how her business began as an idea in 2004 and eventually became a store on South County Road.
“It’s been a long journey,” Bernstein said.
Bernstein urged the crowd of business owners to do what is best for their customers and not for themselves, and said all Palm Beach businesses should work as a team.
“We don’t need to compete with each other,” she said. “We need to work together.”
Other highlights from the meeting included the presentation to Blankets of Love, an organization started by middle school students Lily Guari and Mercedes and Johnny Cassidy, which provides blankets to cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. The students began the organization after some of their family members were affected by cancer; they have distributed about 250 blankets. Guari and Mercedes Cassidy attend Rosarian Academy. Johnny Cassidy attends The Greene School.
“It was not easy to be a child and watch cancer cause such pain to our parents, family and friends,” Johnny Cassidy told the crowd. “We witnessed how providing a blanket could help bring a little warmth, comfort and love during such a difficult time.”
The group distributed blankets to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society last week, and have one more distribution this season to the Kids Cancer Foundation in Royal Palm Beach next week, Guari said.
“After witnessing the joy a blanket can bring, we decided that we wanted to bring this joy to not only people close to us,” Guari said, “but to as many brave cancer patients as we could.”
