Chamber hosts annual award ceremony
By Mark Squibb | Vol 8 No. 3 (Feb 13. , 2019)
The Mount Pearl Paradise Chamber of Commerce hosted their annual Best in Business awards this past Thursday, January 30.
It’s possible that Mother Nature took the chamber’s message of ambition and business excellency to heart, sending a record-breaking blizzard that postponed the original event, which was slated to be held on Jan. 23.
Though it was blustery and snowy outside during the awards ceremony, inside were warm spirits and cheer.
The chamber handed out 10 awards to eligible businesses, recognizing innovation, community impact, employment equity, customer service, and the overall most outstanding.
Of those awards, the majority went to Mount Pearl-based businesses, including Compusult Ltd., Admiralty House Communications Museum, MGM National Safety and Training, Young Drivers of Canada, Coffee Matters, Rogue Penguin Creative, and Ooh La La Pet Spa.
The first award of the night, the Innovation award, went to Compusult Ltd.
“You probably know Compusult by it’s building. Everybody can place the Compusult building, it’s right next t the City Hall in Mount Pearl. But a lot of you might now know Compusult the company,” said Michael Picard, Director of Marketing, who went on to explain that Compusult deals in geospatial interoperability, or, the ability to access and share geospatial data - data that is anchored to a geographic location.
“There’s a saying in our industry, that everything happens somewhere. Compusult is a software solutions company for organizations that have location-based data. So, a lot of our clients you’ve heard of, like NATO, the US government, Environment Canada, and, we’ve even done work with the International Space Station. So, that’s not bad for Bannister Street.”
Compusult deals in assistive technology, creating devices to aid those with unique challenges.
“We have a service where quadriplegic clients can operate a mouse with mouth,” he explained, by way of example.
They also make robots, which are used to explore harsh environments.
The business is headquartered In Mount Pearl, with offices throughout Canada, USA, and the Netherlands.
“If we don’t innovate, we die,” he said by way of summary.
The other nominees were Flowers with Special Touch, MGM National Safety and Training, Kids Help Phone, Saucy Mouth Food Truck, and Medavie Food Truck.
Admiralty House Communications Museum was the next winner of the night, beating out Rogue Penguin Creative for the Communications and Marketing award.
Museum Manager Sarah Ryan was on hand to accept the award.
“On behalf of Admiralty House staff and the board, we’re so incredibly proud to be here tonight, and to be situated in Mount Pearl … The museum was once a top-secret wireless station, and we work everyday to ensure that the museum is not a top-secret museum in the community.”
The museum hosted a special ‘Field to Flight’ exhibit to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the first nonstop flight across the Atlantic.
Next up was the award for Best New Business. That award went to MGM National Safety and Training, a recent start-up which offers safety and training courses.
Accepting the award were owners Colleen and Scott Glynn.
“Owning your own business is definitely not for the faint of heart. It takes guts, determination— and alcohol,” Colleen joked.
“It has its many challenges, ups-and-downs, but our determination to succeed allows us to sink our heels in during the tough time, and celebrate every accomplishment, big or small. Every day we get up, we put one foot in front of the other, and tackle what we can that day. Eventually, through it all, success will follow,” said Colleen.
Scott expanded a bit more on business, and how the Glynns do things differently.
“Most training places you go to have instructor-based training. What we try to do is have student-based training. So, we involve everyone in the program. What it does is bring everyone to the same comfort level.”
He said it boils down to three steps: tell them, show them, and let them do it.
Next up, was the Community Impact Awards, with one for Mount Pearl and one for Paradise. The Paradise award went to Paradise Physiotherapy, while Young Drivers took home the Mount Pearl Award.
“In this room, in the company of so many, it’s truly an honour just to be nominated. In this room, it this company, its an even bigger honour to win this award. It’s truly humbling,” said Steve Kent. “Community impact isn’t something that you decide to do to enhance your brand. Community impact is what happens when you have a genuine commitment to supporting that community. A commitment to truly being a part of that community. Anyone who knows Janet and I, knows that we have a lifelong commitment to our community. Always have, always will.
“We support causes in our community because it’s the right thing to do. We believe that supporting our community is key to living and working in your community. We can all do better when we support each other. We all benefit from helping each other,” he summarized.
Coffee Matters took home the award for Employment Equity, an award recognizing businesses that strive to employ those who may face barriers in their search for employment.
Owner Scott Hillyer was on hand to accept the award.
“One of the mantras of our company is that we should support our community, and more importantly, support those individuals who lack the ability to have employment,” said Hillyer.
The café partners with the Vera Perlin Society, among others, to help find work for those who need it.
“One thing about owning a restaurant or owning café is that there are a lot of jobs that people don’t want to do. A lot of the jobs aren’t glorious, there’s dishes to be done, cheese to be portioned, turkey to be portioned, so we always find ways to give people meaningful employment.”
He encouraged other businesses to consider hiring more inclusively.
“They become an independent person. And when they can earn their own pay, that’s huge for them. Because they don’t want to be on government assistance. They don’t want to be given money. They want to be able to go out, work, and earn their paycheck.”
Other nominees included Ches’s Fish and Chips, Inclusion NL, and Tim Hortons.
Hillyer was back on stage just a short moment later, when Coffee Matters employee Megan Hounsell was awarded employee of the year.
Hounsell is approaching her 10-year anniversary with Coffee Matters. She got her start as a bakery assistant and dishwasher, and now meal delivery, morning baking, and salad bar set up.
“Megan is my success story,” said Hillyer, his voice breaking. Housell, who chose not to address the crowd, leaned in and gave him an appreciative hug.
“Megan came to us, and she needed a job. She had done some work experience with Vera Perlin, and she had identified that it was a restaurant that she wanted to work in. When she came to us, she was very, very shy.
“She worked with our baker, and learned how to make jam-jams,”— here the audience chuckles—“amongst other things, and soon afterwards we realized that she had a great, great, personality— always a smile on her face, and a very hard worker.”
For three years, Housell worked at the Military Road location. When Hillyer opened a Mount Pearl location, she transferred there, so as to work closer to home.
“As a dad, I can’t be any prouder of an employee than I am of her,”
It was noted that Housell is also an athlete, has also won many gold medals in Special Olympics over the years.
Next up was the Customer Service Award, with Rouge Penguin Creative taking it home.
Alisha Morrissey, Copy Director, accepted the ward.
“This is an incredible honour for a small business trying to make its way. We really pride ourselves on customer service, and going above-and-beyond, which is why this means so much. It’s a compliment to be in the same category as these other nominees,” said Morrissey.
The last two awards of the night went to Outstanding Business of more than or less than 15 employees.
The award for Outstanding Business (More Than 15 Employees) went to Pennecon Ltd. in Paradise, but the award for Outstanding Business (Less Than 15 Employees) went to Ooh La La Pet Spa, competing against Jacobean Chocolate and Young Drivers.
“The only speech we had prepared was ‘congratulations to the winner,’” joked Melanie Collins of Ohh La La Pet Spa.
Ohh La La Pet Spa took home the award for Outstanding Business (Less than 15 Employees). Form left to right are Colleen Glynn (of MGM National Safety Training and Services), Melaine Collins and Tricia Stuckless of Ohh La La Pet Spa, chamber president Dave Halliday, and Scott Glynn (of MGM National Safety Training and Services).
“This really is a surprise for us. We’ve been in business now in Mount Pearl for five years, and working in that community has been an incredible, incredible experience. Mount Pearl has always been there for us, and the Chamber of Commerce has always been there for us, and has been supportive of us. It has been a struggle at times— the economy is not the best— but to be in a supportive environment has made this an incredible experience. I’m so happy to be with the team I’m with, and a part of the business that Tricia owns.”
The ceremony closed for the night following the presentation of all awards.
