GNBank wins 2026 Corporate Cup

Winners of the 2026 Corporate Cup – GNBank

The City’s annual Corporate Cup was back for 2026 with the GNBank team, captained by Erin Schwartz, winning the trophy. The six events were held at various locations throughout Lamar July 29- August 1.  Brenda Brown, Community Programs Manager for the City, along with the Main Street Lamar Board put hundreds of hours into the planning process and the results were clearly evident, as it was a big success.  Brown started her new position with the City of Lamar on January 5 and by January 6 was already deep into the planning process for this year’s Corporate Cup.  She said not a single day passed without her doing something towards that goal.  She was determined to make this year’s event “A Corporate Cup like no other with so many things that hadn’t been done before” she told me, and indeed it was!  Offering wisdom to Brown throughout the process was Kendra Buchanan who has years of experience from organizing Corporate Cup when she worked for the City and who volunteered her help not only this year, but also going forward. “I wouldn’t have survived without Kendra” Brown said. “If you quote me on anything, it needs to be kudos to my board (Main Street Lamar Board). They are the best board anywhere and dealt not only with my shenanigans and new ideas, but also the non-stop emails from me asking questions about what they thought about my ideas.  She then laughed, saying “They just said ‘Go Brenda, Go’ – we know you never sleep”.  Main Street Lamar Board members are: Cindy Hasty, Anthony Cruz, Rosie Gomez, Deborah Davis, Abigail Lino Castro, Paul Westhoff, Elijah Adkins, Ty Harmon (who is also a liaison for the County Commissioners), Tally Harmon (also a liaison for Prowers Economic Prosperity), and Mark Headlee (also a liaison for the City as a council member).  “The board members were there every day for every event” said Brown.  She also wanted to thank the city crews for their great job keeping the playing areas in good shape, including dealing with fields flooded from a sudden storm, which necessitated the Kickball tournament final being moved to Saturday.

Brenda Brown, Community Programs Manager for the City of Lamar (third from right) poses with some of the Main Street Lamar board at one of the 2026 Corporate Cup events

New to the event this year were more sponsorships, lots of gift certificates and prizes for participants.  This year’s Platinum Sponsors were GNBank, Walmart, and the City of Lamar.  Gold Sponsors were Colorado Mills and Golden Plains Insurance Agency, Inc.  Silver Sponsors were Core Civic-Bent County Correctional Facility, Electra Pro, Denning Farms, Prowers Medical Center, and Shrubb Hub.  The captains of each of the 12 participating teams received gift certificates for all their work in leading the teams. The gift certificates were donated by Quiznos, Scooters Coffee, BJ’s and Daylight Donuts.  In-kind donations were received from G5 Imprints (supplied the sponsor banner), Community State Bank (supplied cooling neck towels), Crop Risk Insurance agent Shannon Hicks, Buzzard’s Nest, Frontier Bank, Advantage Treatment Center, Paraclete Wealth and Carrigan Excavating. The prizes donated were: Massillon Walmart – kayak.  Main Street Lamar -4 Adirondack chairs with Brian Herrera with Home Store donating a matching table.  Golden Plains Insurance – American flag beach towels.  A&B Liquor – a pair of Rockies tickets.  DND RV Services – a patio firepit.  Deloach’s Water – water for participants.  Tractor Supply Company – a red YETI cooler.  Home and Seasons – gift basket. Melissa Bower with Edward Jones – standing patio cooler with American flag emblem.  J&N Shoes/Mr. D’s – duffle bag with t-shirts and a basketball.  Community Resource Center – a woman’s and a man’s bike.  Main Street Shoppe – candy for the Spirit Award cups. Thoughts in Bloom did a makeover of the Corporate Cup trophy with beautiful flowers filled with scratch-off lottery tickets which were donated by Brenda Brown.

The Krazy Kickball tournament was won by GN Bank, who also won the beach volleyball event, and the fishing tournament.. Taking second place overall was Lamar RE-2 and the City of Lamar’s “Responders with Attitude” team came in third overall.  “Health Hounds” won the predicted 5k walk/run event, PMC #1 were the cornhole champs, and winning the men’s division of kayaking was Brandan Stornetta with SDS #1 while the women’s winner was Mackenzie Forman with “Health Hounds”.

The Lamar Walmart team, winners of the first-ever “Spirit Award”.  At far left is Rosie Gomez, MSL board member

There were two other new additions to this year’s event.  The first was the “Spirit Award”.  The MSL board members watched participants at all the events and selected the team that most represented the purpose of the Corporate Cup – teamwork and sportsmanship.  Winning the Spirit Award was the Walmart team, who were “so fun to watch” per Brown.  Team members were presented with cups filled with candy donated by Main Street Shoppe. Also new this year were “Gotcha” prizes which were awarded to those participants caught in random acts of positivity and sportsmanship as well as for their great cheering on of teams.  Brown said that the MSL board purchased the prizes from the same businesses who donated the gift certificates for the team captains.  The members of the winning GNBank team will be treated to a pizza party donated by Little Caesar’s Pizza.  As a way of thanking the persons who volunteered to help with the event, Mark Carrigan with Carrigan Excavating is paying for them to meet at Las Brisas for a buffet meal, with The Tilted Tee waiving the fee for use of their back room and golf simulator to add to the fun.

The annual event is limited to the first 12 teams who submit applications – teams must have a minimum of 15 participants and a maximum of 20.  Brown told me that by the Monday following the event, she had received 3 calls from companies already asking about entering next year’s competition.  “We can’t make it bigger, but we can sure make it better”! she said.  She already has big plans in the works for next year’s Corporate Cup, having already secured a sponsor for a BBQ to kick off the first event of the competition which is the cornhole tournament and is thinking of “a really big ending” to the event’s last day.  No doubt with her energy, creativity and networking skills, she will pull off something magical.

By: Barbara Crimond