GREENFIELD — Small business owners gathered at Four Phantoms Brewing Co. last week to pause and celebrate each other with the inaugural “Buzz Awards.”
“For a couple years, we’ve been talking about wanting to do some sort of annual meetup,” said Greenfield Business Association Director Hannah Rechtschaffen, recalling how longtime GBA board member and “the ideas guy” Isaac Mass of the Garden Cinemas would say, “It has to have something fun.”
“Who doesn’t love an award?” Rechtschaffen asked with a grin.
While Mass came up with the idea for the awards night, Rechtschaffen came up with the name for the Buzz Awards, following the same thread as the city’s bee sculptures and annual Bee Fest. She hopes to bring the event back as an annual celebration.
“It’s to take a moment and make sure that the business community knows that they’re being seen in the effort they’re putting in,” she said as about 50 residents and business owners sipped drinks and chatted. “Sometimes you’ve got to pause and celebrate the good stuff.”
Business owners mingle at the Greenfield Business Association’s inaugural Buzz Awards ceremony, held at Four Phantoms Brewing Co. Credit: AALIANNA MARIETTA / Staff Photo 
Lisa Granger of Greenfield Cooperative Bank hugs Greenfield Business Association Director Hannah Rechtschaffen after accepting the Cross-Pollinator Award. Credit: AALIANNA MARIETTA / Staff Photo
Hope & Olive earned the first award of the night, the “Hive Award,” or the “very classic People’s Choice — that Greenfield business that you just love,” as Rechtschaffen explained.
While the crowd clapped and cheered, Rechtschaffen and Dan Piasecki, co-president of the GBA’s board of directors, presented each recipient with a trophy featuring a familiar bee. Artist and Greenfield Gallery owner Rachael Katz 3D-printed the trophies as miniature replicas of the bee sculptures around the city.
Freedom Cafe earned the “Positive Buzz Award” for “bringing some positivity to Greenfield,” Rechtschaffen said, before Angela Mass accepted the “Bee Innovative Award” for the Garden Cinemas.
From themed movie nights centering on particular decades to talks with the creative minds behind the films, Angela Mass said she and her husband enjoy expanding the offerings on the movie theater’s marquee to programs beyond just the newest films.
“We try to have fun,” Isaac Mass said. “If the community’s having fun, we’re having fun.”
The last award voted on by the public, the “Cross-Pollinator Award,” went to Greenfield Cooperative Bank.
“It feels amazing,” said Lisa Granger, vice president and branch manager with Greenfield Cooperative Bank, trophy in hand.
“We love supporting the community together,” added Jane Wolfe, executive vice president of residential lending.
Robert and Mary Cohn earned the final award for running Cohn & Company, a real estate agency, for decades and supporting the Greenfield community outside its doors. Although the GBA accepted nominations from the public, GBA board members ultimately picked the award recipient. Under the 3D-printed bee, the trophy read “The Lorenzo Langstroth Legacy Award,” in honor of the sixth minister of the Second Congregational Church who is known as the father of modern beekeeping.
“Robbie and Mary devoted most of their life to Greenfield,” said Timothy Grader, who now serves as president of Cohn & Company. Grader accepted the award on the couple’s behalf. “I have been very fortunate to have become part of that story of carrying it forward. I know everyone at Cohn & Company feels a responsibility … not just [for] continuing the business, but continuing to be part of the community.”
According to Rechtschaffen, 40 people involved in the city’s business community sent in nominations for the awards and more than 60 people voted. She believes the “crazy” participation came from the strong sense of community that connects Greenfield business owners.
“In Greenfield, people really want to celebrate and uplift each other,” she said. “A lot of it is about being in it together. … When you’re a business owner, it’s because you have a passion for something, you’re driven by something and you’re an entrepreneur in your own right, and people like that recognize each other. … You look around you and you see who you’re shoulder to shoulder with, and you build a relationship with them, and then together you keep working to encourage people to come and be part of what you’re building.”
Rechtschaffen said the “ball is very much in the court of the people who live in and around Greenfield” to sustain these small businesses.
“At some point, people have to accept that Greenfield is vibrant in its own way and get behind it so that that vibrancy can grow,” she said. “Vibrancy doesn’t just grow because businesses are there; it grows because people are going to those businesses.”
