2025 Community Award Winners

Germantown Chamber Announces Community Award Recipients
2025 Business, Citizen of the Year, and Leadership Germantown Award

Germantown, WI: The Germantown Area Chamber of Commerce is pleased to announce the Business of the Year, Citizen of the Year, and Leadership Germantown awards for 2025.  The Community Awards Celebration is Wednesday, April 22 at the Germantown American Legion Post 1 and this year the Theme is “Party like it’s 1776” in honor of our country’s 250^th anniversary. There will be Tailgate fare for dinner by Bubs Irish Pub, networking, activities, bingo and we encourage all who attend to have fun with the theme.  Family and friends of our award recipients, Chamber members and the public are invited to attend.  Please join us to congratulate our 2025 recipients!

Business of the Year – Bubs Irish Pub
Since opening in 2003, Bubs Irish Pub has been proud to serve the Germantown community as a welcoming gathering place rooted in tradition and connection.
What began as a vision to create a traditional Irish pub in a “German town” has grown into a true home away from home—where neighbors connect, friends gather for live music, and families celebrate life’s milestones.
Housed in a building that has served as a community meeting place since the 1890s, Bubs carries forward a long-standing tradition of bringing people together. The pub is honored to support local initiatives and events, including fundraisers for the Germantown K9 Unit, the 25 Sportsmen Club through its annual Wild Game Feed, local youth basketball and baseball fundraisers, and community celebrations such as MaiFest and Oktoberfest.
Bubs also proudly shares its Irish heritage with the community through performances by the Bellator Irish Dancers, Trinity Irish Dancers, and by hosting the area’s largest St. Patrick’s Day celebration each year.
Bubs’ success is made possible by its dedicated team, many of whom have been with the organization for more than 20 years, including a growing number of second-generation staff members.
Bubs considers this recognition as Community Business of the Year like their "lifetime achievement award" and this reflects upon the incredible partnerships between Bubs Irish Pub, the staff, local organizations, and the loyal patrons who have supported them over the years.
 
Citizen of the Year – Sandy Dobrogowski
Sandy was born and raised in Milwaukee and attended UW Milwaukee which along with her studies included playing four years of collegiate volleyball. She graduated from UW Milwaukee earning a Baccalaureate degree in education and also earned an Associate degree in Radiography from Milwaukee Area Technical College.
During her career she worked as a Radiographer and Manager of Radiology at St. Joseph's Hospital in Milwaukee for 21 years and then spent 19 years at the Froedtert and Medical College of Wisconsin system where she worked as a Radiology Manager responsible for 7 clinics. Sandy has served on MATC's Radiography Advisory Board for 29 years with 25 years as the Chair for the Board.
Sandy coached High School volleyball, basketball, and track at Messmer High School and then coached volleyball and track at Milwaukee John Marshall High School all while being a Master Level WIAA volleyball official. 
Her family includes husband Bob, son Joseph, daughter Rose, and they moved to Germantown from Wauwatosa in 1999. Joseph and Rose both attended the Germantown Public Schools of MacArthur Grade School, Kennedy Middle School, and graduated from Germantown High School.
When they moved to Germantown, her children immediately got involved in Park and Rec Activities, which included Sandy becoming involved through that and coaching Girls’ Volleyball at St. Boniface.  As her daughter began her softball career going through Germantown High School, Sandy coached in the Germantown Warhawks Club Softball Program for 5 years, “Pride of the Midwest” Girls U8-U18 Softball Club and coached UW-Milwaukee’s Women’s Club Softball Team.  She also became the Germantown Girls’ Softball Public Address Announcer and is still performing those duties 13 years later.  Continuing her giveback to High School sports she now helps at the Germantown High School with athletic events either collecting admission fees or providing crowd control.
In 2015 Sandy became a participant of Leadership Germantown, which included a project establishing the Germantown Police Honor Guard. She served as President of Leadership Germantown from 2017-2019 and is still involved with the Leadership Germantown class and committee and acts as a project mentor and session facilitator for the class members.
Through Froedtert’s Germantown Chamber membership, Sandy was a Chamber ambassador and since her retirement has been involved with all the Chamber events including the Candy Cane 5K Run/Walk, Jingle Bell Dash, Christmas in the Park, Chamber Golf Outing, Music at the Pavilion nights, Manufacturing & Trade Career Expo and the Friends of Leadership Germantown Scrap Metal Drive.   Sandy enjoys being involved in Germantown events and says, “it helps me realize how fortunate and blessed we are to live in such a wonderful community.”
You will also see her volunteering for the Police Department and Fire Department with NAC Night and Fire Safety events, serving with Kiwanis at Maifest and Music at the Pavilion, supporting the Germantown Community Scholarship by volunteering at the Scholarship Auction Dinner and working the polls for the Village of Germantown assisting in the democratic process.
 
Leadership Germantown Award – Lynn Grgich
Lynn was born and raised in West Bend, Washington County, graduated from West Bend East High School and attended University of Wisconsin-Washington County. 
When located in West Bend, she worked at Schloemer Law office through a co-op in high school and moved on to Heritage Bank West Bend which changed to M&I Bank.  She had many different roles ranging from teller, customer service rep to secretary to the branch president, consumer loan officer, and mortgage loan officer.
Her family moved to Germantown in late 1993 and she then undertook the most important job of being a stay-at-home mom until October 2000 when she started working at the Germantown Area Chamber of Commerce first part time and then in November 2005 full time as Executive Director.  Lynn successfully steered the Chamber through big events like a recession, booming growth of Germantown and a pandemic which showed the value of the Chamber to members as a key spot for resources.  As a 2007 graduate of Leadership Germantown, she was instrumental in the move of Leadership Germantown to under Chamber management in 2023 and the Chamber’s move to the current location on Mequon Road in 2024.  As Executive Director Lynn served on the Village Tourism Commission and Economic Development Commission and through the County served on the Next Generation Housing Committee and two Harley-Davidson Anniversary Planning Committees.
Along with all the activities as a Chamber Executive Director, Lynn has made a point to volunteer, help out, and give back to the community. Through the American Legion Post 1 in 2016, she served on The Moving Wall Planning Committee, she was the Kiwanis Club 4^th of July Parade Coordinator 2012-2021 and volunteered at local events including MaiFest with Kiwanis Club and Oktoberfest on behalf of the Chamber.  Through her church, St Boniface Parish she has served the food pantry, baptismal ministry, several auctions, newsletter and logo redesign committees, positions at the annual Fall Festival and as a Eucharistic Minister.
In July of 2023, she began part-time work at the Germantown Chamber of Commerce and is enjoying the extra free time.  She loves being outside, taking walks, patio gardening with flowers, spending time with family, meeting friends for coffee, baking and helping out whenever she can.
 
Our Chamber community and the public are welcome to come join us celebrating our 2025 Community Awards Winners!  Registration is now open for the Wednesday, April 22 Community Awards on germantownchamber.org, deadline is Wednesday, April 15 at Noon.  Questions can be directed to the Germantown Area Chamber of Commerce at 262-255-1812 or executivedirector@germantownchamber.org or visit us in person at N112W16760 Mequon Rd, Germantown.  To learn more about the Germantown Area Chamber of Commerce, please visit our website at germantownchamber.org

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