Another trio of winners as the Wallaceburg Business and Community Excellence Awards continue.
The Chamber of Commerce is announcing three winners a day live on-air on CKXS this week.
Andrew Bourdeau, owner of Toy Wars and Collectables has been named Young Professional of the year, and says launching a new business during a pandemic while still attending virtual courses at St Clair College has been an overwhelming experience.
“I do have a lot of very good customers that come to the store, and I attract new people to Chatham-Kent every day,” Bourdeau says.
The grand opening weekend at his Arnold Street business drew a crowd of over 850 people. “I kind of expected to have a decent response, but especially at the grand opening I was not expecting anywhere the numbers I had, it was mind blowing.”
Other winners today include Madison Hetherington as Volunteer of the Year for organizing Clean Helping Hands CK to deliver groceries and run other errands for those in need in the community during the start of the pandemic.
She was inspired by the Fred Rogers’ quote of looking for the helpers during hard times.
“I’m so very blessed to be from a community where there were so many people that were helpers,” Hetherington says. “There were so many businesses that were giving to the front line workers or donating what they could. I’m just really thankful that during a very difficult time I could be a light for some people.”
Select Finishing has been given the Community Inclusion award, sponsored by Community Living Wallaceburg. Sales Manager Brian Griffith says finding work for everyone is important for the custom coating company.
“We want to keep them involved as much as possible and bring a level of acceptance across the board and across the population.”
More awards will be handed out live on-air on 99.1 FM tomorrow morning starting at 8:35am.