Deadlines are quickly approaching for community service awards and organizers are urging people interested to fill out nomination papers.
“…It’s about the community,” said Shelley Gagnon, community services director for the Town of Innisfail. “It’s celebrating our business, our volunteers and our citizens,” she said of the upcoming Gala Awards Evening in October, the first of its kind.
This is the first year the chamber of commerce and the town have decided to come together and host the community service awards night and business night together.
“We’ve been talking about it for a few years,” said Gagnon of the decision. “There’s a lot of similar people in the room so we’re having a lot of the same people come to two events. So we thought what might be great is to pool our resources and to take it a notch up and make it a really grand event thus the name, the gala evening.” The community service awards are still chosen separately from the business awards. Deadline for community service awards is September 9. The chamber is accepting business nominations until September 15.
Categories for community awards include male and female athlete of the year, coach recognition award, community cultural award, leaders of tomorrow, mayor’s recognition award and community builder. There will also be a citizen of the year chosen as well as a recipient for the wall of fame for someone who has received a prestigious award or recognition for achievement in his or her field.
The selection committee is responsible for selecting the winners except for the mayor’s recognition that will be approved by town council.
“We’re doing this so we can have a bigger and better event,” said Jane Duncalfe, executive director for the Innisfail and District Chamber of Commerce of the evening that will include a live band, dinner, dancing and the awards presentation.
She said the categories for the business awards are the same as last year and include the small business, farm family, customer service and business contribution awards. Non-chamber members are eligible for the awards. “It was just for chamber members but we decided to open it up to non-chamber members a few years ago as well … it opens things up and it’s a good way to get new members.”
Applications for chamber awards can be found on the chamber website and will be available in the chamber newsletter coming out this week.
Community service award nomination forms can be found on the Town of Innisfail website or at the office.
The Gala Awards Evening will be held October 14 at the Royal Canadian Legion. Tickets, $40, are available at the town and chamber offices starting in September.
