Grand Island Chamber of Commerce: Konopski, McMahon named to posts

Carolyn Konopski was recently named the new administrative director for the Grand Island Chamber of Commerce and Kim McMahon has been name the chamber's new benefits administrator.

Konopski will have the responsibility of all operational duties of the chamber, as well as working on and assisting the chamber directors with all of the chamber's events and projects.   McMahon's job will be administrating the chamber members' health insurance and assisting the administrator with accounting and office tasks. 

Konopski grew up in western Pennsylvania and graduated from Clarion University with a bachelor's degree in communications.  She has several years experience working in college admissions and most recently worked as the academic assistant for the Department of Nursing at Niagara University.  She is a member of the Kaegebein Community Playground Committee and also works with the Cub and Boy Scout troops of St. Stephen R.C. Church as a parent volunteer. She and her husband Michael and their three boys, Daniel, Derek and Jake, have lived on Grand Island for the past 11 years.

McMahon is a 30-year resident of Grand Island.  She attended Bryant & Stratton and obtained an associate degree in business and is currently perusing her bachelor's degree in accounting at Hilbert College. She completed a challenging internship at ABC Hardware in their accounting department. She has experience as the administrative assistant for two years at Hearts For The Homeless, a mobile soup kitchen traveling the streets of the City of Buffalo five nights a week. Hearts for the Homeless also runs a thrift shop to finance work with the underserved.  McMahon ran an after-school program for the children ranging from 5 to 12 years of age.  In 2004, McMahon joined her family business, McMahon's Restaurant on Grand Island Boulevard. She does a little of everything there, specializing in bookkeeping and financial reporting for the Internal Revenue Service.

Some of McMahon's interests include missionary work for two summers in Romania and serving as a youth leader for Harbor Lights Fellowship. She is currently treasurer of The Miracle League organization, a not-for-profit organization that is raising $250,000 to build a baseball field for the handicapped to play on in Veterans Park. She has a personal interest in the completion of the field and its operation, because she has siblings with disabilities and they would love to be able to play baseball.