– Jen Dart is Executive Director of the Tofino-Long Beach Chamber of Commerce. She can be reached at 250.725.3153. www.tofinochamber.org.
TOFINO – The Tofino-Long Beach Chamber of Commerce held a successful 2nd annual Business Excellence Awards gala evening on April 27th.
The event marked the first time the Chamber has hosted the awards as its own event (last year the awards were part of our AGM). Held at The Shore on Tofino’s waterfront with amazing views of Clayoquot Sound, the event welcome over 100 guests.
We owe a great debt to our judges, Tofino Mayor Josie Osborne, Clayoquot Biosphere Trust executive director Rebecca Hurwitz and Tourism Tofino executive director Kirsten Soder (Customer Service Excellence award). They did not have an easy task this year, but they chose extremely worthy candidates from nominees in each of the six categories.
And the 2017 winners are: Best Small Business – Sea Monster Noodle Bar; Non-Profit of the Year – Surfrider Pacific Rim; Customer Service Excellence – Robbie Elliott, Shelter Restaurant; Best Small Business – Rare Earth Weddings and Events; Business Leader – Lewis and Cathy George, House of Himwitsa and Businesses and Business of the Year – Long Beach Lodge Resort.
Congratulations to all our winners and to all the businesses, organizations and individuals that were nominated this year.
This event could not happen without our award sponsors, many of whom sponsored for the second year. Thanks to Ocean Village Beach Resort and Pacific Sands Resort for sponsoring the Best New Business award; Jamie’s Whaling Station and Jamie’s Rainforest Inn sponsored the Non-Profit of the Year award; and Tourism Tofino sponsored the Customer Service Excellence award.
Thanks as well to the Wickaninnish Inn for its sponsorship of the Small Business of the Year award, to Crystal Cove Beach Resort for sponsoring the Business of the Year award, and finally to the Westerly News for sponsoring the Business Leader award.
A big thanks to Shelter Restaurant for contributing to our wine wall auction.
Red Can Gourmet provided a wonderful catered dinner and generously donated their staff time to the event. Thanks to Smashing Glasses Event Rentals for the beautiful set up, and also to Paul Levy Photography for capturing the event and the red carpet so well.
We have heard great feedback from this year’s event – the bottom line is Tofino loves to have an excuse to dress up! We’re looking forward to continuing this event for many years to come.