People’s Choice 2020 celebrates local business success

The readers have made their choices in this year’s People’s Choice Awards.

The contest appeared in July editions of the East Central Recorder and online at humboldtjournal.ca. People submitted their votes for the business they thought should win in the various categories.

Nearly 150 categories were included in this year’s competition.

If they submitted more than 25 votes, their name was entered to win $100. The winner will be announced in the coming weeks.

Devan Tasa, the publisher of the East Central Recorder, said hundreds of votes across all of the categories  were submitted for the contest.

So many people voted that it ended up requiring a few extra weeks longer than expected to tabulate all of the votes.

Tasa said the idea behind People’s Choice is to show the public how many businesses there are in the region, the diversity of many of those businesses and the variety of businesses as well.

“There’s a business providing a local solution for everything. You don’t have to go to the big cities to get what you need.”

While some businesses won more than once, many different businesses in the region captured an award.

“One of the things that I hope this contest does is get people to think about where they can go locally when they want something from one of the categories,” Tasa said. “I know there were a few businesses that weren’t on my radar before that I’ve discovered thanks to this contest.”

In turn, he hopes people will support businesses within the region.

“It’s been a hard year for them because of this pandemic. They need your support. After all, they are the ones that are supporting local organizations like minor sports, service groups, arts councils and others too numerous to list that we take for granted.”

The Humboldt Journal and the East Central Recorder want to help the local business community, he said, and the papers are always promoting the need for people to shop locally.

“That’s our goal, is to get you your local news and your local stories on what is happening in our communities,” Tasa said.