Business award deadline nearing

With the 17th-annual Rainy River District Business Awards gala coming up Feb. 21 at La Place Rendez-Vous, organizers are looking for more people to submit nominations.
The nomination deadline is next Friday (Feb. 15), with forms available online at www.fortfranceschamber.com or from the Fort Frances Chamber of Commerce office (located upstairs of the Northern Lights Credit Union).

“We’ve been handing out more forms than we have been getting in, that’s for sure,” Chamber manager Annely Armstrong noted this morning.
“But they’re starting to come back in now,” she added. “Since Tuesday, I started getting calls from people asking can they just fax it in, can they drop it off, can I come pick it up?
“They’re coming. I am just waiting for them now,” Armstrong reiterated, noting the Chamber’s business awards committee told her it’s normal for nominations to come in at the last minute.
To clear up a misconception held by many, Armstrong clarified you do not have to be a Chamber member to nominate a business or individual, nor do the nominees have to be Chamber members.
“It’s for anybody, especially the Volunteer of the Year,” she stressed.
“That one, there’s lots of people asking about it, asking, ‘Does it have to be someone from a business?’
“No, it doesn’t. It can be anybody,” Armstrong said.
The award categories include:
•Business of the Year;
•Employee of the Year;
•Business Woman of the Year;
•Entrepreneur of the Year;
•Home-based Business;
•Customer Service Award (Business);
•Customer Service Award (Individual);
•Tony Beyak Memorial Volunteer of the Year; and
•Small Business Trainer of the Year.
Meanwhile, plans for the gala also are shaping up.
Cocktails are at 6 p.m., with dinner at 6:30. Entertainment featuring comedian Kenny Robinson will follow.
Tickets, which cost $45 each, are available at the Chamber office.
Armstrong said you do not have to be a Chamber member to attend the event, which should only run a couple of hours.
“We’ve had a couple people asking, ‘Well, I don’t own a business but I want to see Kenny,’” she noted.
“I explained to them there’s only nine awards, we cut them back this year, and we’re having the dinner right away,” she said.
“And then Kenny’s going to be a half-hour right at the end.
“So if people don’t want to stay for him, they don’t have to,” Armstrong noted. “But if people come to see him, they’re more than welcome.
“They don’t have to participate in the dinner if they don’t want to.”
In order to keep things simple, however, the Chamber is not selling separate, cheaper tickets for those just wanting to see the comedian.
Armstrong added that once Robinson’s performance is over, there still will be plenty of time for people to stay around and socialize, either at the gala or downstairs at the Rendez-Vous.