Sgt. 1st Class Adam Lund, who works as the executive chef at Brookridge Heights in Marquette, pins a medal on Brookridge Heights Executive Director Jennifer Huetter's collar after she received the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve Patriot Award during a ceremony at Brookridge Heights on Friday. Huetter was nominated by Lund for the award in recognition of her "exemplary efforts to support citizen warriors through a wide range of measures," organizers said. (Journal photo by Katie Segula)

MARQUETTE — Jennifer Huetter, executive director of Brookridge Heights Assisted Living and Memory Care, received the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve Patriot Award on Friday afternoon in recognition of her “exemplary efforts to support citizen warriors through a wide range of measures,” organizers said in an announcement.

This award recognizes supervisors nominated by a Guardsman or Reservist employee for support provided directly to the nominator.

Huetter was nominated by Sgt. 1st Class Adam Lund, who works as the executive chef at the Marquette-based Brookridge Heights. He has served for more than 17 years in the National Guard and Army Reserve, with two tours in the Middle East. He has worked for Huetter at Brookridge Heights for three years. 

“Jenn truly values the role of our military service members, especially our National Guard and Reserve members,” Lund said in the announcement. “She’s allowed flexibility in scheduling without complaint of military obligations, has supported me while I was deployed to Kuwait through care packages and has checked in with my wife, delivering holiday gifts and bonuses to her while I was deployed. She has also kept me in the know of what was going on in my department while I was away. She has and continues to allow extended absences while I am training and preparing for deployment.”

Brookridge Heights staff put a ceremony together for Friday afternoon to surprise Huetter. After Lund presented Huetter with the award, Huetter’s family came in to show their support for the award.

“I am a little bit speechless … but (it’s) certainly a very big honor,” Huetter said. “We are very proud of Adam’s deployments overseas and it meant a lot for us to be a support in that way and to be able to support his family. It seemed like the right thing to do, and at the end of the day, it was. And we couldn’t wait for him to get home safely.”

Huetter has supported Lund through numerous deployments across the nation and world over the past three years, Lund said in the announcement, noting that he felt “valued and appreciated for what I was doing.”

At the ceremony, Lund said: “She has just been supportive throughout the whole thing. I could not have asked for more support.”

The Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve is a program in the Department of Defense that began in 1972 to promote the understanding of Reserve Component Service members and their civilian employers.

It “seeks to foster a culture in which all employers support and value the employment and military service of members of the National Guard and Reserve in the United States,” officials said in the announcement.

Katie Segula can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 242. Her email address is ksegula@miningjournal.net.