A well-regarded art teacher, two local hockey talents, a Cinderella baseball team and a dedicated volunteer are among those recognized by the Town of Innisfail with Community Service Awards this year.
The Community Service Awards winners and the nominees for the Innisfail Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business Awards were officially announced last week.
The recipients of the Community Service Awards are: male athlete of the year – Riley Simpson, who currently plays for the Ohio State Buckeyes hockey team; female athlete of the year – local hockey player Taryn Baumgardt, who is on the short list for Team Alberta’s under 18 hockey team; sports team of the year – Innisfail Junior Indians; coach recognition award – Wally Genz, head coach of the Pee Wee Cyclones; community cultural award – Ruth Handford; leaders of tomorrow award – Desirae Fedorchuk; mayor’s recognition award – Bill Hoppins; community builder award – Dorothy and David Munro; and citizen of the year – Brian Spiller.
The Small Business Awards are broken up into four categories: small business, business contribution award, farm family and customer service award.
The nominees for small business of the year are Best Bet Paint & Body Ltd., the Gift Loft, Curves, the Doggie Door, Innisfail Electric, Sundance Realty & Management, furniture and cabinet maker Jim Coffey, First Choice Towing, Central Alberta Co-op, and Bowden Physiotherapy & Gym.
The three nominees in the business contribution award category are Complete Catering & Party Rentals, Wild Tim’s Liquor Store and Central Alberta Co-op.
In the farm family category there are four nominees this year. They are Merna Gisler of Gisler Boer Goats, the Nixon family of Nixon’s Honey Farm, Geoff Hoar of San Emideo Ranch, and Carmen and Rene Vetterli.
There are only two nominees for the customer service award this year – Warren Bell of NAPA Auto Parts/The Source and Dana Melnyk of the Gift Loft.
The awards will be presented at the Gala Awards Evening, which will be held at the Royal Canadian Legion on Oct. 14 and feature a dinner, awards, and a dance.
