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Smithers chamber of commerce of the year

Smithers District Chamber of Commerce wins B.C. Chamber of the Year.
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Brice Hutchinson (left) from the Smithers District Chamber of Commerce accepts the B.C. Chamber of the Year Award from Chris Browes of Kubera Payments. Contributed photo

The Smithers District Chamber of Commerce has been named B.C.’s 2017 Chamber of the Year by the BC Chamber of Commerce.

The Chamber of the Year Award, presented by Kubera Payments, is about encouraging and inspiring organizational excellence. This year’s criteria focused on “one” thing the winning chamber did that set it apart from the good work done by all chambers. The Smithers Chamber was recognized by introducing a new, niche program to encourage youth to dream big about becoming an entrepreneur. It was called “the Scoop” and included working with the schools to offer an online entrepreneur course with the chamber supplying business guest lecturers.

To encourage participation and attract youth to take the entrepreneurial journey the chamber manager and directors invested in the construction of a fully-equipped mobile ice cream parlour that would serve as the business the students could compete to manage, as their own, for the summer. They were selected by scoring the most points from a pitch they made to the Grizzly Den, modelled after CBC’s Dragons Den.

Northwest Community College lent the expertise of its Carpentry Foundations students, WorkBC and Community Futures Nadina provided business plan development and financial guidance and School District 54 managed the online course material.

In order to provide the Chamber with funding for the program, chocolate, strawberry and vanilla sponsors were obtained. The Chamber is proud of the level of engagement from the business community providing funds for building materials and equipment. Thanks to Smithers Lumber Yard, PIR, Creative Notions, Seabridge Gold, BV Home Center, Eecol Electric, Aqua North Plumbing, Driftwood Electric, All-West Glass, Total Floors and Subway.

“The Smithers Chamber team focuses on tailoring products and services that fit the needs of the community and serve our number one stakeholders, our members. This project was not achieved as a solo effort but by gathering groups together that could share resources and expertise. The spirit of collaboration is alive and well in our chamber and our community,” reflected Colin Bateman, president of the Smithers Chamber.

Heather Gallagher, manager of the Smithers Chamber, said she is constantly in awe of the incredible work that is done by chambers throughout the province and is always inspired by their success stories.

“We are absolutely thrilled to receive this award for our members whose investment in our Chamber allows us to take risks, like this project, to get the job done. I’m proud to work with directors who are imaginative, innovative and supportive of novel initiatives like the Scoop,” she said.

For the Smithers District Chamber of Commerce Community and Business Awards held in October, Bradley Wellington, the 2016 operator of the Ice Cream Parlour, was nominated and won the award for Young Entrepreneur of the Year. The parlour will be in operation again this summer by two new entrepreneurial-spirited youths.

The Smithers Chamber thanks Chris Browes of Kubera for sponsoring this prestigious award and directors and staff of the BC Chamber of Commerce for selecting us as the recipients.

Submitted by the Smithers District Chamber of Commerce.