Chamber honours local businesses

Times Reporter

 

The Strathmore and District Chamber of Commerce held their annual Business Awards Gala on Oct. 25. Since being reintroduced to the community in 2010 the awards gala has grown substantially. This year 167 people attended the evening at the Travelodge.  More and more businesses and community members are getting on board to nominate and attend the awards. 

“I was thrilled this year with the number of nominations that we received and then the number of people that made the effort to come out to the night of,” said Lin Walker, secretary for the Chamber. 

“Great businesses just don’t get recognized enough. Whenever there’s somebody that does something wrong we hear about it, if somebody gets bad service or whatever we hear about it, but there’s more great businesses in Strathmore and area.”

Among the nominations, several were from Standard, Gleichen and Carseland. The emphasis is on the fact the awards, and the Chamber itself, are for Strathmore and area and this year it seems people have begun to embrace that.  

Walker thinks people have jumped back on the bandwagon of recognizing great businesses, good service, and people who give back to the community, whether as a business or an organization.

Next year Walker hopes to see the awards night take place on the Saturday night of Small Business Week, which will be Oct. 20, 2013. 

“The reason for that change up is sometimes it’s hard for businesses to get there on a weeknight and also if we have it on a Saturday we could, once the awards were finished, we could then have a dance or some entertainment,” said Walker. 

Out of the 72 nominations, eight winners were picked. The Community Spirit business award went to All Genres DJ Services; the Community Spirit organization award went to the Celebration of Lights Christmas Tree Park. The emerging entrepreneur was awarded to the Quality Canine Center. Business of the Year for small businesses went to Daisy Recycling, the medium business award went to Joey’s Only and the large business of the year award went to Days Inn & Suites. The Employer of Choice is the Roadhouse and the Chamber Member of the Year is Chinook Credit Union.