INNISFAIL – There are many components that contribute to the success of a community.
For the past several years, the Town of Innisfail and the Innisfail & District Chamber of Commerce have recognized the people, organizations, sports teams and local businesses that make a difference in Innisfail.
The 2019 Community and Business Awards Gala is being held at the Innisfail Royal Canadian Legion on Oct. 18.
“It is a joint project. We’ve been doing it with the town since about 2014,” said Carla Gabert, manager of the chamber of commerce. “On the business side, we had some wonderful nominations for our business awards.”
There are four business award categories this year, including Business of the Year, Farm Family of the Year, Business Contribution Award and Customer Service of the Year.
“In addition, one of our local businesses (Primerica) donates for the Judy Davis Random Acts of Kindness Award,” said Gabert, noting the memorial award was first given out to a recipient last year.
“We have had a strong turnout for the gala (every year) and we greatly appreciate that everybody comes out to support their local businesses as well as the local volunteers throughout the community,” she added.
Most of the community awards go back to the 1990s, noted Janice Jones, marketing and administrative coordinator for the Town of Innisfail, with the first Citizen of the Year Award presented in 1978.
“We are celebrating excellence in our community,” said Jones. ”They’re our outstanding citizens, groups, organizations and sport teams.”
This year there are six categories for the community awards, including coach recognition, Athlete of the Year, Sports Team of the Year, Leaders of Tomorrow, Community Arts and Culture and Citizen of the Year.
Jones noted some changes in this year's community awards, including the removal of the Mayor’s Fitness Award and the Community Builder Award, as well as announcing the chosen recipient prior to the gala event.
“About three years ago we decided that we would do a top three (nominees) in both community and business awards, but it wasn’t working well for the community awards program,” said Jones. “So we decided to go back to our original format and that was, we would receive many nominations and we would pick the recipient.”
Jones said they appreciate the community support in putting forth nominations every year, and noted the awards gala is made possible thanks to several local sponsors.
All tickets for the 2019 Community and Business Awards Gala are being sold through the Innisfail & District Chamber of Commerce.
For more information, contact the chamber at 403-227-1177.
