OC Creative President Brian Oster Recognized as Emerging Leader
The Kishwaukee Family YMCA has named Brian Oster, President of OC Creative, as their Emerging Leader for the 2018 Y Community Awards. Every year the YMCA takes the opportunity to honor local individuals in the community who are making great impacts toward improving life in DeKalb County. The honor was presented at the Y Community Awards Dinner on May 17, 2018.
Oster was nominated by City of DeKalb Mayor, Jerry Smith. He told the committee that “Brian has been rising as one of DeKalb County’s go-to volunteers over the past several years. He is a DeKalb Chamber Leadership Academy graduate who now invests in his own staff at OC Creative. He is the current Chair of the DeKalb Chamber of Commerce Board, as well as the Family Service Agency Board Chair, and previously served on the board for Adventure Works and on the Proudly DeKalb Committee. Through OC Creative he has helped many non-profits with video needs at either no cost or a deep discount. These agencies include Safe Passage, The DeKalb County Community Foundation, DeKalb County Non-Profit Partnership, the YMCA, Family Service Agency, and TAILS Humane Society. He is active in his church as a Sunday school teacher and volunteers his time to be a guest presenter and lecturer for classes at NIU. He is certainly deserving of the Emerging Leader Awards for his tremendous work in DeKalb County."
The Emerging Leader Award honors a newer community leader who has provided significant, ongoing volunteer contributions to DeKalb County through leadership, involvement, and community service in at least one of the following areas: youth development, healthy living, or social responsibility.
Oster is honored and humbled by the unexpected recognition. “I’m truly surprised by the nomination from our mayor and by being awarded this honor. One of the reasons I decided to stay at and purchase OC Creative after being here 5 years was because I wanted to continue building up the community. I wouldn’t have decided to invest in and commit to growing a company here if it weren’t for the people inside and outside my organization. For me, I want to continue growing up young leaders in the community so they, too, want to stay and work together to expand what DeKalb County has to offer."
The annual Y Community Awards Dinner is the Y’s signature fundraiser. Proceeds from ticket sales support financial assistance scholarships for membership, youth programs like summer day camp, preschool & after-school programs, swim lessons, youth sports, arthritis aquatics, and other chronic health classes. They will further support LIVESTRONG at the YMCA, Pedaling for Parkinson’s, and the Y open food and program sites.
From their flexible studio where they’ve filmed everything from award-winning commercials to potato-salad-stuffed cannons (seriously—ask them about it), to their brand new office where they’ll walk with you through every step of the process, OC Creative tackles any marketing and branding need. They've managed successful campaigns for national companies like Fellowes and Proven Winners, for educational institutions such as Northern Illinois University and Kishwaukee College, and for nonprofits including Feed My Starving Children and Big Brothers Big Sisters. They serve many industries from health care to small businesses to self-improvement. You bring the challenge, they bring the creativity.
