Ponoka businesswoman Inger Laing, owner of Don Laing Trailers, has been nominated for the Red Deer and District Community Foundation Women of Excellence awards.
Laing was nominated under the Business and the Professions category and she said she was surprised and honoured to be nominated.
“We’ve got a lot of great women in this province,” said Laing.
She feels there has always been a large number of women doing positive work in their professional lives but they are now being noticed more for their work. Laing has a long list of accomplishments including being a banker, flower shop owner in Rimbey, farmer and presently as the owner of Don Laing Trailers.
In 1983, Laing and her husband Don, who passed away in 2009, opened up a successful equipment parts business that was eventually sold in 2007. In 1994, they expanded the business to include trailer sales and rentals, which has become the main part of her business.
Eventually Laing expanded her business to include off-road vehicles, lawn mowers and accessories.
Laing’s community influence is quite large with work on the Economic Development Board, the Ponoka and District Chamber of Commerce and as a director of the Ponoka Agricultural Society. She is a big supporter of the Calnash Ag Event Centre with the Don Laing Trailer Series winter barrel racing event and is one of the founding members of the Ponoka Festival of Trees.
The awards gala is set for Tuesday, June 9 at the Sheraton Hotel in Red Deer.