Linda Siete gets Elgin chamber award

Linda Siete is no stranger to awards for her work in connecting people and businesses, and helping build relationships across the Fox Valley and beyond.

Siete will be recognized with the community partner award Thursday, Jan. 25, by the Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce, where she has served on the board of directors for about a year. Siete is the manager of sales and operations for Reflejos Publications LCC, part of Paddock Publications, which also owns the Daily Herald.

"I was very honored (to find out about the award)," Siete said. "I told Carol (Gieske, president of the chamber) that, because it's not something that I was expecting by any means."

"Awards are greatly appreciated even if they embarrass me," she added. "I do what I do because it is what I feel is the right thing to do."

Siete is being recognized "for constantly looking to connect the chamber to new businesses, her service on the Elgin Area Chamber's board of directors and for her continued support of the annual Hablamos Español Expo, including securing tickets to an Enrique Iglesias and Pitbull concert for the event's grand prize raffle," Jason Pawlowski, director of marketing and special events for the chamber, said in a news release.

Siete was a recipient of the community service award from Centro de Informacion in Elgin in 2014, and of a lasting impact award from the Elgin Community College Foundation in 2015.

Siete said she loves her job and loves working with the chamber.

"I love the fact that both through Reflejos and the Daily Herald and the chamber, I get the ability to connect people, to connect businesses with businesses and people with businesses."

Siete, who's lived in Elgin for about 32 years, said she learned the importance of relationships when she started working for her family business at age 14. She has worked at Reflejos since 2000.

"I like building relationships," she said. "Regardless of whether people are advertising (in the newspaper), when I help them, down the road they'll connect me with somebody because I was beneficial in some way."

Reflejos has been a longtime sponsor of the Hablamos Español Expo, which held its 13th annual edition last year. Siete praised the chamber for recognizing early on the importance of catering to Latinos in the Elgin area.

"We are a very diverse community and that's just a way to bring so many people together."