Quesnel's business excellence awards are being held Oct. 26 where local businesses and organizations across Quesnel will be recognized for their contributions to the city.
The awards have 11 different categories to recognize businesses and local organizations. Two of them are new this year: community wellness and Indigenous social leadership.
"We have 86 nominations, so there were a lot of nominations this year, it was pretty incredible," said Kathy Somerville, executive director of the Quesnel and District Chamber of Commerce. "That just tells me that everybody's doing a good job and they need to be recognized for that."
The categories are:
- Home-based business
- Social leadership
- Greatest improvement
- Excellence in tourism
- Agriculture excellence
- Indigenous social leadership
- Business of the year over 10 employees
- Business of the year under 10 employees
- Community wellness
- New business of the year
- Businessperson of the year
Somerville said it's important to include Indigenous social leadership because there are people doing incredibly important work and they deserve to be recognized.
"There's a lot of anxiety and stress for some reason out there," Somerville said of the importance community wellness category, "A lot of mental health issues, vandalism, theft, crime. It's a continual hardship on these businesses, they're feeling the pinch. Community wellness brings out some ways of finding an escape route that is healthy."
Somerville said it is a passion for the chamber to recognize the good that businesses do each year. She said for some businesses nominations are due to the work they do with the community, for others it's about making Quesnel a more beautiful place and improving their interiors and exteriors.
"I think the basic part of it is get together, network, come together and appreciate what everybody's good work has been all year round," Somerville said. "I don't think they get enough recognition."
She said local businesses are the glue that holds communities together and they deserve to be recognized and celebrated. She added that even if they don't win, being able to applaud and appreciate all of the nominees is important to recognize their efforts and good work.
"Shop local. It goes back to almost the older days when you knew everybody, everybody got to know their customers and it becomes family," she said. "Going to one of the stores in our community that is owned by locals and knowing that those people there, they're hiring your children and they're hiring ourr friends, they're hiring our seniors. They are a piece of the community."
The awards are more casual this year than in past years, Somerville added, and hinted at some fun activities including a "monopoly jail" that was built as a prop for the evening.
