Tammie Helmuth is the President and Chief Executive Officer Conejo Awards, located in Thousand Oaks, a position she has held since she and her husband purchased the business in 2005. Conejo Awards is a full service awards and engraving business specializing in higher end custom pieces and corporate awards, they are also a notable promotional and advertising specialty company. Their business recently became the first business to be certified as a Thousand Oaks Green Business. Conejo Awards goes beyond recycling by purchasing environmentally preferable products and offering reusable and recycled content products.
Tammie spends a great deal of time working and volunteering in the non-profit sector; currently she is the Chair of the Board of Girl Scouts of the Central Coast which is who she is dancing for. Vote4Tammie.com
Because of the wonderful work Tammie does, she has received several awards including Rotarian of the Year by the Rotary Clubs of Downtown Ventura & TO Woman of the Year by the TO/Westlake Chamber of Commerce. She also won the Spirit of Small Business Award presented by the Pacific Coast Business Times just to name a few awards that this amazing woman has been awarded.
Tammie and her husband have 5 children and 2 Grandchildren.
S805 - How excited were you to be asked as one of the competitors for Dancing with our Community Stars Dance Contest & Fundraiser? Do you have any dance experience?
Tammie- I was very excited and nervous to be asked to be one of the competitors.. They actually asked me the very same day I was accepting the Board Chair position, so I was already in over my head... But for those who know me, I’m pretty adventurous and it sounded like a lot of fun. I did disclose to them that the only dance moves I knew were the chicken dance, grocery shopping cart, the sprinkler and the Macarena and still they kept me! Go figure.
S805 - What was your first impression meeting your dance partner Jesse "Chuy" Rodriguez? Were you excited to find out that he was the 1st place winner of this very competition in 2012 or does that add more pressure to you?
Tammie - “Chuy” is amazing and inspiring. Not only was he the 1st place winner in 2012, but he has won more times than any other coach in the competition. Pressure or joy, not sure which one I felt.. BUT I will tell you, he makes it a lot of fun and what a workout. My first night I burnt over 2,700 calories in the training (says my polar wristband)... It’s a great workout. His dance team 805 Rumba Caliente encourages me. He has a great team that again is so supportive and of course, he is a champion - both in skill and passion for the art of dance.
S805 - How many times a week are you able to practice with him?Tammie - My travel schedule is extremely hectic from June to July so we are practicing only once a week in person. But we are using our smart phones to tape him in 30 second portions of the routine that he sends to me and I practice it This way, I know the patterns of the different moves and then when we get together, we fine tune them and hopefully it decreases the amount of times I step on his feet. I think it’s working, but the true judging comes at the competition.
S805 - When I was doing my research on you, I was really impressed with the amount of work you do in the non-profit sector. Where does that desire to "give back" come from?
Tammie - I came from a low income background and at times an abusive home environment. I succeeded in overcoming those obstacles and through that journey have acquired leadership, governance and fundraising skills. Funny these skills are highly sought after from non-profit organizations. If the organization has an proven impact into building strong leadership that helps communities, AND they have fun, then I’m all in. It’s really that simple...
S805 - How long have you been a part of The Girl Scout of the Central Coast? Can you tell us about some of the fundraising events that GSCC have?
Tammie - I was a leader for five years with an amazing troop of Girls. At that time the local council was undergoing a merger with a northern council. It was a pretty hectic and difficult time for Girl Scouts and I thought I could lend some of my skill sets to the board, so I was asked to join. I have been a board member for four years with the merged council (GSCCC), and as stated previously, took office as Board Chair this April.
Girl Scouts of California Central Coast is a new at fundraising events. We have had a few events, but nothing of major significance. Our plan is to educate our board to philanthropy, create a strategic plan for fund development and then launch into a spring 2015 event – TO GET HER THERE....
So stay tuned everyone, you will be hearing from us really soon!
S805 - What's next in the horizon for you?
Tammie - When you look at this world, we don’t need more leaders here, we need more gender equality with females in leadership roles, in politics, board rooms and of course, owning their own businesses. Girl Scouts has a proven model of doing just that, with over 102 years of program delivery. The need for funding to help build girls of courage, confidence and character is now. As Board Chair for Girl Scouts of California Central Coast, it will be my two year goal to build a board of philanthropy. My number one philanthropic goal is to put girls at the top of the list for funders, not at the bottom where we currently reside. We must invest in our future, and the future is our girls!!!
We look forward to cheering Tammie and the other contestants on Sunday July 27th at the Oxnard Salsa Festival.
