ATLANTA — May 5, 2022 — In 2017, the Americas Apparel Producers’ Network (AAPN) created the AAPN Industry Achievement Award. At this year’s 2022 AAPN pro:Americas Annual Conference, held recently in Miami, the organization renamed the award the AAPN Walter T. Wilhelm Industry Achievement Award.
The name change acknowledges the literal decades of leadership and wisdom from Wilhelm’s commitment to AAPN. In fact, in 2009, when AAPN’s meetings lost direction, Wilhelm convened a high level member conference to discuss the issue. The outcome was a decision to make the 2010 conference on sustainability. That meeting more than doubled the 2009 attendance, and every meeting since has grown or been near record setting.
On Monday, May 2, AAPN presented the achievement award to Ed Gribbin. He was president of AAPN when COVID-19 hit. As a consultant, Gribbin’s work came to a dead stop and when many AAPN members began making masks and gowns, Gribbin took charge.
The citation reads: In March 2020, when the virus hit, Ed created a database of over 1,000 producers and literally ran production of billions of masks and millions of gowns across the U.S. Ed was alone in this brilliant initiative and kept many thousands of people working.
On Tuesday, May 3, at the 2022 AAPN pro:Americas Annual Conference AAPN also presented the newly-named AAPN Walter T. Wilhelm Industry Achievement Award to Dr. Lynne Sprugel.
Her citation reads: In 2020, with all AAPN events canceled, Lynne organized a survey that created the AAPN Future Forums, generating 28 sessions with over 50 people creating over 7 hours of original content. These future-looking insights were an industry exclusive.
The award comes with a puzzle globe that was renamed “The Walter.”
Posted May 10, 2022
Source: AAPN
