{"id":3157,"date":"2021-09-22T22:36:11","date_gmt":"2021-09-22T22:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/?p=3157"},"modified":"2021-11-23T20:51:23","modified_gmt":"2021-11-23T20:51:23","slug":"2022-rich-smith-distinguished-service-award-nominations-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/2021\/09\/22\/2022-rich-smith-distinguished-service-award-nominations-open\/","title":{"rendered":"2022 Rich Smith Distinguished Service Award Nominations Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"2022 Nominations Accepted through October 29, 2021<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Richard (Rich) Smith, founder of Valley Farm Management,<\/a>\u00a0Paraiso Vineyards and Smith Family Wines in California’s Santa Lucia Highlands wine region, was first and foremost a family man, and also a successful grape grower and winery owner, and a respected colleague.\u00a0Through his significant and selfless contributions of time, energy and funds to organizations that advance the American grape and wine industry, he came to be known as a highly effective, collegial and tireless leader. He passed away in December 2015.<\/p>\n

Three of the organizations Rich helped to shape\u2014the National Grape Research Alliance<\/a> (NGRA), WineAmerica<\/a> and Winegrape Growers of America<\/a> (WGA)\u2014collaborated to create the Rich Smith Distinguished Service Award to honor his spirit and legacy. It annually recognizes people who demonstrate similar qualities and make a similarly positive impact on the industry, and gives us an opportunity to remember this remarkable man.<\/p>\n

You may complete and submit your nomination online<\/strong><\/a> OR download a nomination form to complete offline<\/a><\/strong> and email to us. Nominations are due by October 29, 2021<\/u>.<\/strong> The recipient will be named at the WGA Leadership Luncheon<\/a><\/strong> on Wednesday, January 26, 2022, in Sacramento.<\/p>\n

Past Winners<\/strong>
\n2017 – John Martini, Anthony Road Wine Company<\/a>
\n2018 – Pete Downs, Family Winemakers of California<\/a>
\n2019 – Jerry Lohr, J. Lohr Vineyards & Wines<\/a>
\n2020 – Jim Trezise, WineAmerica<\/a>
\n2021 – Donniella Winchell, Ohio Wine Producers Association<\/a><\/p>\n

Eligibility<\/strong>
\nTo be eligible, nominees must satisfy the following criteria:
\n\u2013 Geography: This award may be presented to any person (including foreign nationals) living and working in the U.S. whose contributions have benefited the American grape and grape products industries.
\n\u2013 Membership Status: The recipient may be, but need not be, a current or former member of any of the three sponsoring organizations: WineAmerica, WGA or NGRA.<\/p>\n

Criteria<\/strong>
\nNominees for the Rich Smith Distinguished Service Award must exemplify leadership qualities on par with those that set Rich apart, such as:
\n\u2013 Fostering an atmosphere of collaboration
\n\u2013 Nurturing a community of grape and wine industry\u00a0experts
\n\u2013 Addressing widespread issues or problems
\n\u2013 Working in harmony, addressing issues\u00a0that\u00a0unite us
\n\u2013 Working as a change agent: creating systematic, positive change through research, public policy, consumer awareness and\/or volunteerism
\n\u2013 Displaying leadership in the grape and\u00a0wine\u00a0industry
\n\u2013 Demonstrating support for diversity and community<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2022 Nominations Accepted through October 29, 2021 Richard (Rich) Smith, founder of Valley Farm Management,\u00a0Paraiso Vineyards and Smith Family Wines in California’s Santa Lucia Highlands wine region, was first and foremost a family man, and also a successful grape grower and winery owner, and a respected colleague.\u00a0Through his significant and selfless contributions of time, energy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ngwi-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3157"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3257,"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3157\/revisions\/3257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graperesearch.org\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}