For three years, Nancy Simpson attended the Greater Portage Chamber of Commerce’s annual Administrative Assistant Appreciation luncheon as one of dozens of honored guests.
This year, her first as executive director of the Chamber, Simpson hosted the lunch for the assistants and other administrative professionals.
“Usually, as an assistant, you’re the one eating lunch at your desk, working, answering the phones and doing what your supervisor needs you to do,” she said. “This (luncheon) is a way to honor administrative assistants, to get them away from the office, away from the phones, away from thinking about work.”
“Now, I brought my staff.”
While forks clinked against plates and bosses mingled with assistants, the Portage High School jazz band filled the room at Woodland Park with swinging sounds and the Portage High School Thespians performed selections from their musical, “Into the Woods.”
The honored guests saw their name flashed on a screen behind the podium.
There were no speakers or lectures, just entertainment and time away, said Cindy Laingren, executive assistant to Portage Township Schools Superintendent Richard Weigel.
“It feels good to be appreciated for what we do for the school corporation,” Laingren said. “We’re all here to work for the kids and it’s just nice to be appreciated for all the hard work we do. The best part spending time with the people we work with, not in a business capacity, just getting to know each other, talk about our families.”
After working together for nearly 13 years, Jamie Lewis, a financial adviser with the Edward Jones firm in Portage, and Tina Smith, his longtime administrative assistant, practically finished each other’s sentences.
“Our company’s pretty good about team-building opportunities and things and meetings we can go to together,” Lewis said, clutching yoga mats he won in a drawing at the luncheon. “We’re pretty much into teamwork and partnership.”
Michael Gonzalez is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.