It was an evening full of excitement and emotion as the local business community gathered to celebrate this year's Lakeland Business of the Year Award winners.
On Friday, Oct. 14, the nominees for the 2016 awards waited with anticipation to see who would be walking away with the trophy.
One local organization who took home the honour is the Bonnyville Community Learning Council, who won for Outstanding Not-for-Profit.
“It was a pretty emotional evening. It was so exciting to be nominated we were just going with that, and to win it was really the icing on the cake,” said Nicole Ferbey, learning council program director.
In the community for over 40 years, the learning council offers a wide range of adult learning opportunities from language courses to teaching technology. With one full-time staff member and one part-time, the organization frequently collaborates with other groups around the area.
“I just think that somebody really recognizes the value of lifelong learning,” Ferbey said of why she believes they were nominated.
She added, “It's very empowering because any day that you can help someone, you know that you're making a difference in their life or the lives of their family.”
This is the third year that the Bonnyville District Chamber of Commerce has partnered with the Cold Lake Regional Chamber of Commerce to host the event, which was held in the Centennial Centre. The awards are divided into five categories with a separate winner being chosen from Bonnyville and Cold Lake, as well as one joint award.
Any business was eligible to be nominated for an award, regardless of whether they are a chamber member or not, and anyone could submit a nomination.
Taking home the Business of the Year Award for Outstanding Large Business from the Bonnyville area was Krazee Klean.
The locally-owned business of 14 years employs 10 full-time staff and two part-time, but can jump up to 18-20 staff over the summer months. They provide industrial dry cleaning to businesses in the oil and gas industry, as well as contracts with 4 Wing Cold Lake and CFB Wainwright.
“I was surprised. I didn't expect it because, from the list, there were a lot of other great businesses in my category,” said owner Wanda Ackert. “It means a lot. The total kudos goes to my staff because I can't run my business without them, and they are the best.”
For Thinkwerx owner Kelsey Brennan, he may not have been there to celebrate winning the Outstanding Small Business award in person, but he was just as excited to get the news.
“It was really an excellent feeling, of course, to know that we got recognized in our local community. We really appreciate that, especially at the local business awards, which so many of the people in the crowd are our customers. So many people we serve are small business and not-for-profits.”
Brennan and his wife, Ashley, bought the business and brought it to main street eight years ago. Since then, they have seen exceptional growth, selling $1 million in their first year of operation and not slowing down despite the drop in economy.
“What's interesting from then (in 2008) until now, right up until 2015, we've had double digit growth in our overall revenue. Even throughout the recession last year we were up 15 per cent in our overall sales, which isn't something that was common in our area,” said Brennan.
Other Business of the Year Award winners out of Bonnyville were Evelyn Huppie of Sonny's Liquor Store, who won for Exemplary Customer Service, and Lakeland Connect Media who took home Most Promising New Business.
The joint award for Community Involvement went to G&C DJ Service out of Cold Lake.
