The votes have been counted, the festivities are over and another batch of Ponoka’s best and brightest businesses have been celebrated at the Ponoka and District Chamber of Commerce 2014 Business Awards gala, held Friday Oct. 24.
“This is our way of celebrating the businesses that have succeeded in Ponoka,” said chamber president Jim Hamilton.
With the chamber members voting for most of the categories and more then 600 public votes for Customer Service Person of the Year, the event had a higher turnout than most governmental voting acts.
“Some of these races were really close. In fact two races had a one-vote difference, so that was really exciting for us,” said Hamilton.
Executive manager Les Jasper is also pleased with voting turnouts. “Public response was slightly better than last year, and last year was a big uptake from the year before.”
The Chamber of Commerce Business Awards night not only celebrates the crème of the crop in Ponoka, but also inspires the business to push themselves even harder for the community. “I think it will help the businesses decide if they want to go to the next level or not,” said Jasper.
“Everybody here is a winner, it’s a great, great evening,” he added.
The sell-out event pleased Hamilton, not only through the level of excellence of the winners but the support throughout Ponoka’s business community as a whole. “I think everybody had a fantastic time.”
Trevor Feragen was awarded the Customer Service Person of the Year award and while he has been nominated once before that, Friday was his night to shine.
Feragen has lived in Ponoka most of his life and been with Legacy Ford Ponoka for the last 10 years.
“It’s a great feeling to be appreciated by our town,” said Feragen. His adage is to keep his service with customers honest and made sure thanks was given to the voters.
Awards:
Large Business of the Year – ATB Financial
Medium Business of the Year – Battle River Insurance-The Cooperators
Small Business of the Year – Steel Magnolia
Agricultural Business of the Year – Cervus Equipment
Industrial Business of the Year – Phase 3 Electric
Non-Profit Business of the Year – Klaglahachie Fine Arts Society
Business Person of the Year – Andrew Middleton, The Brick
Customer Service Person of the Year – Trevor Feragen, Legacy Ford Ponoka
See more photos from the event in this week's paper.