News Release: 2022-06-14 COVID-19 warriors honoured By Airdrie Chamber of Commerce

On Thursday, March 31st, the Airdrie Chamber of Commerce celebrated 12 local businesses that exemplified outstanding acts of service, exceptional leadership, as well as helping ease the burden of the COVID-19 pandemic on the community. 

According to Marilyne Aalhus, the Executive Director Airdrie Chamber of Commerce, the conception of the awards was brought forward by a local business, JHH Transport Ltd. 

“They have done this in other communities and Airdrie is their home. They thought, ‘why not celebrate these amazing individuals and businesses who have done good over some challenging times?’,” Aalhus said. “When they came to us and said, ‘would you like to work together?’ Absolutely; let's champion this event and make it something special for our community.”  

Nominations were put forward to the Airdrie Chamber of Commerce members as well as the community at large. 

“[We were] just encouraging people to recognize individuals or businesses that did great work over the last two years and we had a nice variety of nominations submitted,” Aalhus said. “Of those, we had 12 recipients. It was just such a cool celebration.” 

There were 12 recipients of the COVID-19 warrior awards on Thursday: 

• Airdrie Food Bank 

• Airdrie Music Lessons 

• Airdrie Public Library 

• Ambition Performing Arts (APA) 

• Creekside Pharmacy 

• Keyra Hoffman volunteer at The Bethany of Care Centre 

• Marr & Company 

• The Hair Lounge 

• The Medicine Shoppe 

• The Pink Wand Cleaning Company 

• Venue Church 

• Your Local Ranch Ltd. 

When asked if this will be an annual event, Aalhus said that the chamber would prefer to put COVID-19 behind it. 

We were actually hoping we're unique to this year. Whether or not we consider offering a different type of event, we will always have Motivational March, we will always have a really a well-rounded presentation around perseverance and motivation,” she said.  

For Aalhus, the awards underlined the need to recognize businesses in Airdrie that embodied the spirit of togetherness and resilience. 

“[We had] people like the [Airdrie] food bank, who just went above and beyond; losing so many volunteers due to the pandemic, but yet never turning a family away. There was Jackie Jepsen of The Pink Wand Cleaning Company; her team came together during the most challenging times, and came together to help others.”  

Aalhus remarked that while it may be difficult to remain optimistic, especially after two long years of a global pandemic, these tumultuous times have made the community stronger. 

“I think we have come out stronger as humanitarians. I'm exceptionally proud of all of our members and our community for just making each other feel connected during a time that was very hard.”